Complimenting Fox’s “Our Little Genius”

So as readers know I have a fun habit of, well, talking crap on shows that look awful to no end.  And they usually end up being awful, but some don’t.  Unfortunately most of these shows tend to be on Fox which for some reason doesn’t have the best out-reach program unlike every other network, so I wasn’t exactly shocked to find out I wasn’t invited to the Our Little Genius teleconference recently held.  And in the holiday spirit I want to reach out and say, “Hey, you may not suck that bad,” by listing some positive things I’ve noticed from the show.  We’ve also got some set pictures which you can find throughout the article.

1: I do like the idea that the family member has control of the game, not the player.  Now I know this was probably for legal reasons because I’m not sure of the legality of a ten year old gambling $350,000, but I do like the mechanic.  Another show called Set For Life used it, but the show was so god awful I didn’t bother to recognize it.  I think it’s an interesting format twist and this show actually used it properly.  It puts the parents in the game because they aren’t sure of the faith of the child answering.  This idea would work for an adult game in reality in the same fashion.

2: I do like that it’s actually a hard quiz.  Fox and Mark Burnett actually scoured the country for very smart children, experts in some particular area, for a true test of their genius.  It’s not a multiple choice show where they have to guess to win.  It’s a show where all they have is a multi-part question and they have to reason their way out of it.  It’s definitely unique in this day and age and it’s something to look forward to.  Look, the genre has been missing a hard new quiz show for an extremely long time.  I bitch endlessly about Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader being Millionaire for dumbasses, so I’d be a hypocrite not to praise this show for actually attempting to make things challenging.

3: The show actually rewards intelligence.  I know this is going to sound lame, but there hasn’t been a show which has rewarded actual big intelligence in an extremely long time.  Furthermore it really places these smart kids in the forefront and shows how great they are.  I mean you aren’t going to be able to root against a child playing.  Most quiz shows that have come out this decade are tests of how amazing it is you don’t know something.  This show makes you sit back and think, “Wow, I’m amazed that kid knows that, congratulations.”

So it’s not a laundry list of stuff, but Our Little Genius has a few things going for it.  I still think it has massive issues and I think it’s a giant mistake to pick this instead of The Cube, but I could be really wrong.  I’d just like to see one remotely original format come out.  It’s possible.  This is just reverse Fifth Grader, and the kids weren’t what made Fifth Grader popular.  We’ll see January 13th at 9:00PM ET on Fox.