Australia's Brainiest

Australia's Brainiest Kid is a television game show produced in Australia.

The first series was produced in May 2004 and was first broadcast by the Seven Network on Sundays, starting 28 November 2004. It was hosted by Anna Coren.

The second series was produced in 2005 and was first broadcast on the Ten Network at 6.30pm on Sundays, starting September 25th. It was hosted by newsreader Sandra Sully.

Each of the hosts works for the station that broadcasted that series, which is why the host changed.

The format was taken from the British series entitled Britain's Brainiest Kid.

The show was publicised through Australian primary schools, with children sitting an online test, some of these taking a supervised written test, and some of these appearing on the show.

Both series

The format of the show is the same in both series except for the numbers of shows and children - in the first, 4 heats and final, 12 children per show; in the second, 7 heats and final, 9 children per show.

First round

The first round contained twelve multiple choice general knowledge questions (four possibilities for each question). The children had five seconds to answer each question and earn one point for each correct answer.

In the first series, there were twelve children; in the second, nine.

The highest six went through to the next round.

In the first series final, five children went on to the second round after this. The remaining seven played three more questions before the tiebreaker (see below).

Second and third rounds

Order of play: Code breaker

In the second and third rounds, the order of play was important. This game decided that order. Each digit corresponds to two or three letters, just as on a telephone keypad. The children were given a number code and a word clue. The order of play was the order in which the children find the answer.

Second round

In the second round, the children had to choose two categories and had 45 seconds (60 seconds in the first series final) for each category to answer as many questions as possible, earning one point per correct answer.

There were twelve categories in all and each category could only be chosen once, making the order of play important.

The highest three went through to the next round.

Third round

In the third round, the children had to choose numbers from a 6x6 "memory board" (called that because the categories of questions behind the numbers are only revealed for 10 seconds). There were five (six in the first series final) questions in each child's special subject and 21 (18 in the first series final) general knowledge questions. The first child's special subject questions were highlighted in red, the second child's in gold, and the third child's in blue. The general knowledge questions were highlighted in silver.

Correct answers to general knowledge questions earned one point, questions from their special subject two, and questions from other the children's special subjects three. The children generally chose questions from their own special subject. In the first heat of the first series, one child consistently chose another questions from another's special subject.

Questions could only be attempted once.

The third round was sometimes stopped early because one child has such a large lead that they were guaranteed to win.

In the first series final, two (?) extra questions were answered by each child before a winner was found.

Tiebreaker game: Matching Pairs

Matching Pairs was the tiebreaker game. Two lists of four items were given. Each item in one list corresponded with exactly one item in the other list. The fastest children to match up the four pairs progressed to the next round.

Channel Seven series

Over 5000 children sat the online test, some of whom were selected to sit the supervised test. All of them won copies of the 2004 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.

Everybody in the third round went on to the final; they were competing for an Apple Computer iBook.

The winner of the first series final, Aaron Chong, won the title of "Australia's Brainiest Kid" and A$20 000 to be held in trust until he turns 18.

Channel Ten series

About 12000 children sat the online test, some of whom were selected to sit the supervised test. The seven winners of the heats plus two others who made it into the final rounds of the heats played in the final.

This series had considerably more children participating, mainly due to the popularity of the first series.

All contestants received a Mathemagic computer tutor from the Australian Mathematics and Literacy Institute as a "participation" prize. The heat winners received ASUS laptops. The winner won a AU$20 000 trust fund.

The winner of the second series final, William Xi, won the title of "Australia's Brainiest Kid" and A$20 000 to be held in trust until he turns 18.

Series Two experiences dissappointing ratings when compared to the first series, this is widely blamed on Channel Ten's advertising techniques.

Australia's Brainiest Specials

Channel 10 have made several specials for the show starring celebrities including

• Australia's Brainiest Comedian
• Australia's Brainiest TV Star
• Australia's Brainiest Quiz Master
• Australia's Brainiest Housemate
• Australia's Brainiest Radio Star
• Australia's Brainiest Neighbour
• Australia's Brainiest Footballer
• Australia's Brainiest Musician
• Australia's Brainiest Olympian

Australia's Brainiest Comedian

Aired on November 24 2005.

The winner was Mikey Robins with Red Symons and Bob Downe running up. Other contestants were Peter Berner, Hamish Blake, Greg Fleet, Libbi Gorr, Colin Lane and Andy Lee

Australia's Braninest TV Star

Aired on February 12 2006

Some of the best of the TV world battle it out through rounds of general knowledge and brain teasers.

The winner was Julia Zemiro with Andrew G and Gary Sweet running up. Other contestants include James Mathison, Axle Whitehead, Kate Kendall, Paul Mercurio, Mark Holden and Ann-Maree Biggar.

Australia's Brainiest Quiz Master

Aired on February 19 2006

The Biggest winners from Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Sale of the Century and Temptation join to see who is the greatest of the quiz winners.

The winner was Stephen Hall with Rob Fulton and William Laing runners-up. Other quiz master contestants included: Martin Flood, Maria McCabe, Virginia Noel, Brigid O'Connor, Trevor Sauer and Cary Young.

Australia's Brainiest Housemate

Aired on February 26 2006

Featured various housemates over the five series of Big Brother.

The winner was Jemma Gawned with Chrissie Swan and Tim Brunero runners-up. Other contestants included: Bree Amer, Trevor Butler, Jess Hardy, Saxon Small, Pete Timbs and Greg Logan.

Australia's Brainiest Radio Star

Airing on March 5 2006

Contests include Amanda Keller, Barry Bissell, Bianca Dye, Tom Gleeson, Jo Stanley to name a few.

Australia's Brainiest Neighbour

Contestants are Caitlin Stasey (Rachel Kinski), Blair McDonough (PC Stuart Parker), Patrick Harvey (Connor O'Neil), Nell Feeney (Janelle Timmins), Brett Swain (Kim Timmins), Stefan Dennis (Paul Robinson), Eliza Taylor-Cotter (Janae Timmins), Carla Bonner (Steph Hoyland) and Kyal Marsh (Boyd Hoyland).

External links

• Australia's Brainiest Kid at IMDb
• Australia's Brainiest Kid
• Australia's Brainiest TV Specials