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Our Little Genius: Here's What Mark Burnett Tells Us
Report by Gayl Killough
December 22, 2009
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I got the opportunity to sit on a conference call with Executive Producer Mark Burnett, who has another reality contest show coming up called Our Little Genius that is set to premiere after American Idol on January 13 (9/10 ET/PT) and then make it regular time slot premiere the following Tuesday after American Idol on Tuesday, January 19 (9/10 ET/PT) on Fox. Mark Burnett is best known for being the executive producer of Survivor, Apprentice, and Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader. Burnett has produced over 1,100 hours of television all together.
Our Little Genius is a contest show that will highlight genius kids answering questions within each of their own special topics. So a genius kid in Greek mythology would answer questions in Greek mythology, a genius kid in aviation would answer questions in aviation, and a genius kid in computer programming would answer questions in computer programming, etc. The questions in each round have multiple parts and there is no multiple choice. The genius kids have to come up with the answers themselves, and they have to get all the parts entirely right in order to get credit for the round.
The game and the pressure is really focused on the parents who have to decide when to pull their kid from the game and run with the money, or risk losing a lot of money by continuing to play. The parents know that their kids know their subject very well, but are the parents willing to risk a lot of money. What if their kid missed just one little part, it is always possible, no matter how bright the kid is in the subject. Another set of adults come into play, experts in the fields that correspond with the specialized fields of the genius kids. The adult experts give advice and opinions to the parents and kids about how difficult they believe a question would be to answer.
I will summarize the questions asked by reporters and Mark Burnett's answers regarding Our Little Genius during the conference call first. I will save my personal comments and analysis of Our Little Genius till the end of this article, so as not to confuse my own opinions of Our Little Genius with those of Mark Burnett.
Burnett was first asked where he got the idea to focus the contest on the kids this time, since with the show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, the focus is really on the adults. Burnett replied that he could not copy his own show of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, so they had to find a way to turn it around. They decided to showcase really smart kids and their parents. Parents typically don't know the subjects that their kid is an expert in, but parents know the value of money, and how the money can benefit their lives.
Burnett was also asked if he thought this show would be more or less successful than Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. Burnett said he had no idea, but Burnett was really passionate about believing in Our Little Genius. The genius kids just amaze him and they know such an amazing amount of details that even adults experts in the same fields cannot remember. Burnett has a theory that kids have a lack of clutter in their brains that allow them to remember all these amazing details about their favorite subject. Combine this lack of clutter with intelligence, incredible memory, and intense passion for a subject by a kid, and these kids know very specific details about their favorite subject. Adults are like hard drives that are filled up, and even real adult experts get stumped.
The next reporter asked Burnett about the importance of casting, and whether it was getting easier or harder. Burnett said that Our Little Genius was basically no different. There is a certain amount of charisma and cuteness that translates through the television. Also, since the show highlights the genius kid in each of their areas of expertise, this allows the genius kids the ability to shine in what they know best. There is also a balance between being amazed by the kid's knowledge of a particular subject and the humor between the kids and Pollack, as well as the kids having no concept of how much money they are really playing for in the game.
There is a much smaller pool of genius kids available compared to the general public, and this show would have been impossible to cast 20 years ago. The Internet brings people with specialized interests together and there are Internet groups especially for parents dealing with genius kids. So the Internet is mostly how the genius kids are found to be on Our Little Genius.
Casting is still the most important element, but as with all his shows, he is looking for someone that will enjoy the experience and adventure. Burnett says that with Survivor for example, if he sees that someone has applied to 50 different shows, that he will reject that person, because he does not want it to be about someone only wanting to be on television.
A reporter from Florida asks Burnett why so many people from Florida seem to be on reality television shows and if there was anything special about Floridians. Burnett laughed and said that he had not noticed that, but could see why the reporter from Florida would know about that. Burnett has noticed a lot of Texans on Survivor, but Burnett tries to keep casting as open as possible in terms of race, income, demographics, and geography. If for anything else, if something happened, he would not want to wipe out a particular geographic area. Burnett does not want to cast like 90210.
The next reporter asked the maximum amount of money that can be won and why was Kevin Pollack chosen to be the host. Burnett says the maximum amount of money is $500,000 and the decision is completely left up to the parents. The parents have a concept of money, but the kids do not. He gives an example of where Pollack asks a kid what he is going to do with $10,000 and the kid says buy a wii. The audience laughs at this. Later on, the same kid is asked what he is going to do with $100,000 and he says that he would like to buy some games for his wii. Whereas, the parents very much understand the amount of money at risk and the parents are feeling the pressure.
As for Kevin Pollack being the host, Kevin Pollack agreed to come to a testing in a hotel ballroom for Our Little Genius. Burnett said it was like absolutely like lightening in a bottle and that Pollack was just wonderful as a host. Pollack said he had no idea what to expect, but he liked the idea, and that he had fun. Burnett says that Pollack has amazing chemistry with the kids and the audience.
Another reporter asked Burnett about the cliché of nerd kids being socially awkward. The kids on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader don't seem socially awkward for instance, so the reporter asker Burnett if the cliché is wrong. Burnett answers that he thinks that the kids on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader and Our Little Genius are probably more socially awkward, but that Burnett and the audience really never see the kids outside their field of expertise. We are seeing the kids where they are the most comfortable, most confident, are able to shine in their specialized fields. Burnett and the audience are not seeing these genius kids outside of their comfort zones or in ordinary settings such as football or playing wii games. The kids may appear to be very ordinary in ordinary settings, but Burnett and the audience are not seeing the kids in ordinary settings. He talks about the computer programming genius kid kept writing in chalk in the payment and his parents were annoyed until they realized that the kid was writing out computer programming in the chalk in the payment at the age of 5. How is this kid going to explain computer programming to a peer, another 5 year old? The parents have no idea where their kid picked up computer programming. There is another genius kid on the show that graduated from high school at the age of 3 and at the minimum age for the show of age 6, is in college level studies. Is this kid really like a college student? No. However, the kid is not quite like other 6 years old either. The genius kids tend to be more comfortable with older kids.
Burnett speaks about Mike Darnell.....
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