On Lifetime tonight Child Genius airs with an all new Tuesday January 6, season 1 premiere called “I Am Not a Tiger Mommy,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, twenty of America’s most gifted kids compete in an intelligence competition. In the opener, five contestants are eliminated.
For those of you who don’t know about the show, Lifetime’s all-new competition series “Child Genius” (#ChildGenius) centers on America’s most extraordinary and gifted children and their families as they prepare for a national intelligence competition. In cooperation with American Mensa, the competition takes place over eight weeks and tests the nation’s brightest young minds on their knowledge of Math, Spelling, Geography, Memory, the Human Body, U.S. Presidents, Vocabulary, Current Events, Zoology, Astronomy and Space, Inventions, Literature and the Arts, Earth Science and Logic.
On tonight’s episode as per the Lifetime synopsis, “Twenty, 8 to 12 year old child geniuses, with determined parents in tow, prepare to battle it out in week one of the “Child Genius” competition held in cooperation with American Mensa, hoping to win the $100,000 college fund prize and the title of Child Genius.”
Don’t forget to join us for our live recap tonight at 8:00pm when Child Genius airs on Lifetime. While you wait for the recap, let us know what you think of Child Genius!
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With one week before the competition, the 20 competitors prepare.
Izzy, 8, speaks English, Chinese and French. She also does jujitsu. She joined Mensa when she was 3, and has friends her age but finds her adult friends can talk about more things.
Graham, 10, wants to be a stormtracker when he grows up. He has vast knowledge of storms. He is also a Christian whose parents train him at home. Graham is studying math before the competition because he isn’t as good at math as some other things. His mom is unsure Graham is willing to put in the effort necessary to win the competition.
Ryan, 11, studied algebra in 6th grade (most people take it in 9th). He works extremely hard and has a full schedule because his parents want him to be well-rounded. His brother, Alan, is also smart but is not able to enter this competition because of the age restrictions; Ryan says this is the first thing Alan hasn’t been able to enter with him.
John, 9, is one of the youngest competitors here. He became a member of Mensa a couple of months ago, and is the youngest member in his region.
Vanya, 12, has competed in the Scripps National spelling bee for the last four years. The first year she competed, she was the youngest speller. In her latest year, she tied for 5th place. Her parents ensure that Vanya drinks enough water as it is important for her wellbeing.
Tanishq, 10, is a college freshman. He doesn’t feel the need to prove to himself or anyone else that he is a child genius. He started taking college courses when he was 7. He gave a TED talk on education at 9 years old. His goal is to get a PhD by the time he gets a driver’s license.
Over the 8 weeks of the competition, the kids will experience 16 intense rounds of questioning.
The competition begins with the math questions. A child can skip any question, but skipping has consequences. For the first round, they can use pencil and paper, but for the second, they have to do the questions in their heads.
Ryan answers 11 questions correctly. His parents say that although he did well on the first round, he still needs to prepare for the next as he may not do so well in the next round. He is currently 1st of 20 kids.
Izzy’s parents do not understand why she passed on many questions that they went over so many times while preparing for the competition.
The kids and their parents have just one hour to prepare for the next round, the geometry round. Graham gets 9 of 10 geometry questions correct.
John gets 4 correct. Tanishq gets 6 correct. Vanya gets 9 correct. Ryan gets 7 correct. His parents say he should study more, practice with his brother and sacrifice game time in order to improve.
Izzy answers 5 questions correctly, and her father is frustrated that she keeps missing questions he thinks she should know.
John and Izzy are eliminated.
THE END!