our little genius

FCC Investigating Our Little Genius for Feeding Answers to Contestants

We’ve been skeptical of Our Little Genius, Fox’s kid quiz show, since it was first announced. So maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised that the FCC has opened an investigation into whether producers of the show gave contestants answers to some questions before taping episodes last year. The investigation stems from a letter sent to the commission from a parent whose child was recruited for the show. The letter says in the days leading up to the taping, a producer reviewed a list of potential topics with the child and provided answers to several questions the child didn’t know.

The show’s first episode was pulled less than a week before it was supposed to premiere because creator Mark Burnett said there was “an issue with how some information was relayed to contestants.” That information seems to be the answers.

But with questions like these, you can’t blame them for giving kids the answers.

For example, the letter states that when the child said that he didn’t know the British system of naming musical notes, he was told by the production staff member the names of four specific notes that “he needed to know,” including semibreve for whole note, crotchet for quarter note and quaver for eighth note. “He told us that it was very important to know that the hemidemisemiquaver is the British name for the sixty-fourth note,” the letter says.


F.C.C. Opens an Inquiry for a Game Show on Fox
[NYT]

FCC Investigating Our Little Genius for Feeding Answers to Contestants