New Fox GS coming soon: "My Little Genius"..

[weaklink75]

Sounds like the Fox lawyers got a little too nervous about possible rigging questions...you hope Burnett does the right thing and pays off the players for the unaired shows..


\Now we can has The Cube?

[bwood]

[quote name=\'weaklink75\' post=\'233820\' date=\'Jan 7 2010, 08:42 PM\']you hope Burnett does the right thing and pays off the players for the unaired shows..[/quote]


Per the story:
".......While these episodes will not air, the families who participated in the show will receive their winnings, and we are grateful for their participation.”

[clemon79]

"...and we are grateful for their participation.”

Approves

[DrBear]

Great comment after the Entertainment Weekly story:

And when they make the movie, the little genius will be played by Ralph Fiennes…

[weaklink75]

Buzzerblog has an update...they might not have crossed the line to out-and-out rigging (they might try to jigger the game to the players strengths, but no evidence of giving answers), but it's really close to it...and I don't know if it's worse because the contestants are children or not..

[bandit_bobby]

Folks, that's the first game show scandal like this since the 1950s (most notably with "Twenty-One").

[tpirfan28]

Hmm.  Maybe they will go back to the Cube.  +1 to viewers of this weekend's football game who don't have to listen to that annoying kid on the promotional bit.

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'233843\' date=\'Jan 7 2010, 10:53 PM\']Approves[/quote]He needs to be back on national television.

[quote name=\'bandit_bobby\' post=\'233877\' date=\'Jan 8 2010, 12:57 PM\']Folks, that's the first game show scandal like this since the 1950s (most notably with "Twenty-One").[/quote]Maybe the first that has had "national" attention like this?  (And national is a stretch.  Helps the NBC clusterfrackus is going on, I guess.)

[chris319]

"OK son, I'm going to give you this handkerchief. Now when Mr. Pollak finishes reading the question, take the handkerchief out of your pocket and pat your forehead a couple of times. Don't wipe it, just pat it. Breathe heavily into your microphone, close your eyes and count to 10, then say the answer. Oh, and if Mr. Pollak asks you a question about the movies, answer "On the Waterfront" no matter what the question is. Can you do all that for me? Good. That's m'boy."

[Otm Shank]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'230432\' date=\'Nov 11 2009, 11:26 PM\']What is this "Standards and Practices" you speak of?[/quote]
Quite prophetic words from November at the top of this very thread!

(First-time poster, long-time lurker)

[tomobrien]

Man, "Giant Step" is looking better all the time...

[tvrandywest]

Uniformitarianism assumes that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. With that thought in mind, here'a look at the past from Johnny Olson: A Voice in Time (page 222):

Dotto's producer Edward Jurist explained that the world of information was so vast that “you cannot ask random questions of people and have a show. You simply have failure, failure, failure, and that does not make for entertainment."

Jurist testified about Dotto, “We took some people who were bright and amusing people and we put them on a television show that millions of people watched. We gave them the biggest experience of their lives. If they were lucky they won a lot of money; if they were not so lucky they won a little money. They were not injured or maimed. All they had was a lot of fun and additional reward. I don’t consider that immoral, particularly if you have grown up in the entertainment business as I have.”*

*Congress, House, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, “Investigation of
Television Quiz Shows,” 86th Cong., 1st Sess., October 1959, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1960

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'233883\' date=\'Jan 8 2010, 12:38 PM\']"OK son, I'm going to give you this handkerchief. Now when Mr. Pollak finishes reading the question, take the handkerchief out of your pocket and pat your forehead a couple of times. Don't wipe it, just pat it. Breathe heavily into your microphone, close your eyes and count to 10, then say the answer. Oh, and if Mr. Pollak asks you a question about the movies, answer "On the Waterfront" no matter what the question is. Can you do all that for me? Good. That's m'boy."[/quote]

And to make things even more odd, the kid's name was Marty!!!

[chris319]

47 U.S.C. § 509 : US Code - Section 509: Prohibited practices in contests of knowledge, skill, or chance

(a) Influencing, prearranging, or predetermining outcome
It shall be unlawful for any person, with intent to deceive the
listening or viewing public -

(1) To supply to any contestant in a purportedly bona fide
contest of intellectual knowledge or intellectual skill any
special and secret assistance whereby the outcome of such contest
will be in whole or in part prearranged or predetermined.

(2) By means of persuasion, bribery, intimidation, or
otherwise, to induce or cause any contestant in a purportedly
bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge or intellectual skill
to refrain in any manner from using or displaying his knowledge
or skill in such contest, whereby the outcome thereof will be in
whole or in part prearranged or predetermined.

(3) To engage in any artifice or scheme for the purpose of
prearranging or predetermining in whole or in part the outcome of
a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge,
intellectual skill, or chance.

(4) To produce or participate in the production for
broadcasting of, to broadcast or participate in the broadcasting
of, to offer to a licensee for broadcasting, or to sponsor, any
radio program, knowing or having reasonable ground for believing
that, in connection with a purportedly bona fide contest of
intellectual knowledge, intellectual skill, or chance
constituting any part of such program, any person has done or is
going to do any act or thing referred to in paragraph (1), (2),
or (3) of this subsection.

(5) To conspire with any other person or persons to do any act
or thing prohibited by paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4) of this
subsection, if one or more of such persons do any act to effect
the object of such conspiracy.

(b) "Contest" and "the listening or viewing public" defined
For the purposes of this section -

(1) The term "contest" means any contest broadcast by a radio
station in connection with which any money or any other thing of
value is offered as a prize or prizes to be paid or presented by
the program sponsor or by any other person or persons, as
announced in the course of the broadcast.

(2) The term "the listening or viewing public" means those
members of the public who, with the aid of radio receiving sets,
listen to or view programs broadcast by radio stations.

© Penalties
Whoever violates subsection (a) of this section shall be fined
not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or
both.

[Kevin Prather]

So Chris. By "purportedly bona-fide," does that mean it's not rigging if there's a disclaimer in the credits?

[chris319]

[quote name=\'Kevin Prather\' post=\'233903\' date=\'Jan 8 2010, 05:17 PM\']So Chris. By "purportedly bona-fide," does that mean it's not rigging if there's a disclaimer in the credits?[/quote]
I would think so, but the words that support your theory are "secret assistance". If they disclose on the air that the kids are given the categories or whatever in advance it might squeak by according to the letter of the law, but it might also have P.R. implications. "The kid geniuses are given the categories in advance so they can bone up on the subjects." How will that look in the headlines?

Mr. Standards, meet Mr. Practices.