Did they even tape a show of Genius before the plug was pulled?
They pretty much had to have, given that the decision to pull the show was made less than two weeks before its premiere. IIRC, Fox scrambled to fill the show's first time slot by extending the
American Idol episode mentioned in the promo by 30 minutes, and then repeating the 500th episode of
The Simpsons, which had aired three days earlier.
I also seem to remember that Mark Burnett, whose decision it was to pull the show (I think he said it was going to be "retooled" and put back on the schedule, but nothing ever became of that) pretty much personally promised that whatever money the kids did win would be paid, even if the episodes did not air. This is in contrast to Fox's
The Rich List, where the only episode aired was not the first one produced, as it had a returning champion at the start of the show, reportedly because other champions had won well over $100,000, but there was a clause in their contracts that said that if their episodes did not air, then they would not be paid anything.