The Einstein Factor

Last updated

The Einstein Factor
Einsteinfactor.jpg
Written by
Directed by
  • Peter Ots (2004)
  • Jon Olb (2005–2006)
Presented by Peter Berner
Composer Michael Lira
Country of originAustralia
No. of seasons6
No. of episodes244 [1]
Production
Executive producers
  • Ian Duncan
  • Shaun Levin
  • Bruce Kane
Running time30 minutes
Original release
Network ABC1
Release8 February 2004 (2004-02-08) –
22 November 2009 (2009-11-22)

The Einstein Factor was an Australian television quiz show that was broadcast on ABC1. The show's host is comedian and broadcaster Peter Berner. It was first broadcast in 2004 and in 2009 the show commenced its sixth and final season, with the ABC announcing the program would not be renewed in 2010. [2] The final episode aired on 22 November 2009. It was broadcast on Sunday nights at 6:30 pm from 2004 until 2009 & also on Tuesdays at 1:30pm on ABC. The Einstein Factor was created by Australian television producer, Barry O'Brien, and was produced by Sparkz with Ian Duncan and Shaun Levin as Executive Producers.

Contents

Overview

The show's self-styled goal is to find the person who "knows everything about something and something about everything". [3] To that end, contestants with specially nominated subjects appear each week. The show was also noted for Berner's offbeat manner and humorous approach to being a quizmaster. The program proved quite popular with a wide audience.

The key to the program's uniqueness is the use of a Brains Trust, a panel of three "experts", usually celebrities, who compete alongside the contestants. Regular Brains Trustees have included Barry Jones, [4] Berner's radio colleagues Tony Moclair [5] and Matt Parkinson, [4] comedians Tim Ferguson and Michael Veitch, musician Red Symons, scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Former Temptation Grand Champ Stephen Hall and Actor, historian and musician Alice Garner.

Show format

The first round simply involves Berner asking up to 15 questions to each contestant on their special subjects. [6] The round ends either when the contestant answers all 15 questions or when 90 seconds elapses, whichever comes first. The subjects are often quite specific and the questions difficult for outsiders to know. Special subjects have included Stargate SG-1 , Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Ned Kelly, Harry Potter , Star Wars , Doctor Who , Icelandic songstress Björk, Michael Collins and World War II aircraft. [6] This will be followed by banter between contestant and brains trust. Each correct response earns the contestant 100 points. A "bonus" true or false question was introduced in the 2005 series which the contestant can either choose to answer themselves which a correct answer scores 100 points or place their faith in the Brains Trust to answer the question, in which case a correct answer yields 200 points, with no penalty for an incorrect answer.

In round two, contestants are given nine 'subject headings' which generally have only an indirect and allusive relation to the topic underneath—for example, a question labelled "Rock and Roll" is as likely to be about geology as it is music. However, in the first season these categories were a lot more clearly named. Contestants are asked to choose, in turn, one subject on which to receive a question. Each contestant makes two picks, so only six out of the nine subjects are asked. The question is then put to all contestants and the Brains Trust. [6] The contestants are given five seconds to select their multiple choice answer, then the Brains Trust discusses the question and agree on its selection. If the Brains Trust gets the question right, all the players who also got the question right receive 50 points; if the Brains Trust are wrong, players who answered correctly receive 100 points. In the sixth season, this round was changed so each player would select one category per round instead of two, and the Brains Trust also selected one category.

In round three, 15 questions are put to the contestants and the brains trust. Two questions come from each of the contestants' special subjects, which are mixed in with nine other general knowledge questions. The round is a "hands on buzzers" round as seen in many quiz shows, [6] with the brains trust sharing a buzzer. Contestants who get a question right receive 100 points—an incorrect answer means 100 points are deducted from their score. The Brains Trust receives no points for correct answers, but their intervention can deprive the contestants of points, which is presumably why their buzzer made a different sound.

Play-Offs and Finals

A season of The Einstein Factor can be divided into three parts of 13 episodes each plus the series grand final, bringing the total number of episodes in a season to 40. The winners of each programme's heats compete at the end of the series in a series of "Play-Offs", the winners of which compete in a "Series Final". The three winners of the "Series Finals" compete in "The Einstein Factor Grand Final" to determine the series overall winner. Specialised subjects remain the same throughout. The following list is the typical structure of the last third of every season, usually commencing in early to mid-August:

The Einstein Factor Series Winners
SeasonsGrand Final Air DateWinnerSpecial Subject
Season 17 November 2004Diana Burleigh Gilbert and Sullivan
Season 213 November 2005David Campbell Dr. Who: 1963–1989
Season 312 November 2006Virginia Noel Classical Greek Mythology
Season 425 November 2007Andrew McDonald The Luftwaffe and its Aircraft 1936–1945
Season 523 November 2008Paul Bahr 1975 Australian constitutional crisis
Season 622 November 2009Andrew Whatham The Life and Times of Wilhelm Canaris

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>University Challenge</i> British quiz television series

University Challenge is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962. University Challenge aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC revived the programme on 21 September 1994, the programme's 32nd anniversary, with Jeremy Paxman as the quizmaster. Paxman relinquished his role as host following the conclusion of the 52nd series in 2023, after which he was succeeded by Amol Rajan. In October 2022, an ITV documentary, Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson's, explored how Parkinson's disease has impacted him and revealed that Paxman recorded his very last episode of University Challenge on 15 October 2022, which aired on 29 May 2023.

<i>The Krypton Factor</i> British television game show (1977–1995, 2009–2010)

The Krypton Factor is a British game show produced by Granada Television for broadcast on ITV. The show originally ran from 7 September 1977 to 20 November 1995 and hosted by Gordon Burns.

<i>Its Academic</i> American quiz show

It's Academic is the name for a number of televised academic student quiz shows for high school students through the United States and internationally. It's Academic programs have notably aired on NBC-owned WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., NBC affiliate WVIR-TV in Charlottesville, Virginia, and CBS-owned WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland.

<i>Street Smarts</i> American Game Show

Street Smarts is an American game show that featured two in-studio contestants trying to predict the outcome of interviews of people who were found on the street. The show, which was hosted by Frank Nicotero, aired in syndication from 2000 to 2005. Nicotero would be on locale with the on the street contestants, virtually any and everywhere in the United States. The in studio gameplay however, was at G4 and TMZ, headquarters, Victory Studios, in Glendale, California.

<i>Brain of Britain</i>

Brain of Britain is a BBC radio general knowledge quiz, broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Headline Hunters is a Canadian game show that appeared on CTV from 1972 to 1983. It was originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir. It was hosted by Jim Perry, who hosted two other Canadian game shows and several American game shows concurrently with its run. CFTO-TV meteorologist Dave Devall, who worked with Perry on the aforementioned two series, served as the announcer and was a de facto co-host for this series. It was a Glen-Warren Production for the CTV Television Network and was filmed at the Glen-Warren Studios in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough.

Going for Gold is a British television game show that originally aired on BBC1 between 12 October 1987 and 9 July 1996. It was revived for Channel 5 from 13 October 2008 to 20 March 2009.

It's Academic is an Australian children's game show which is based on the long-running American version of It's Academic, and pits students from different schools against each other in a test of knowledge covering a number of diverse subjects including English, mathematics, science, geography, sport, music and popular culture.

<i>Buzz!: The Music Quiz</i> 2005 video game

Buzz!: The Music Quiz is a party music video game developed by Relentless Software and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. It is the first in the Sony's Buzz! series of video games, and it was released for the PlayStation 2 exclusively in Europe. In The Music Quiz, players answer questions asked by the host, Buzz, by using the four Buzz! buzzers.

<i>Miljoenenjacht</i> Dutch television game show

Miljoenenjacht, officially Postcode Loterij Miljoenenjacht, is a Dutch game show, sponsored by the country's postcode lottery, where a contestant and at-home viewer could win up to €5,000,000 or as little as €0.01. The show is broadcast at various times, spanning across six episodes for each set. The program was originally shown by TROS on NPO 2, but moved to creator John de Mol's channel Tien in 2005. After the channel was discontinued after its sale to the RTL Group, the program moved to RTL 4. In 2019, the program moved to SBS6 due to the transfer of Linda de Mol from RTL to SBS.

Blokken (Blocks) is a Belgian quiz show based on the video game Tetris. It is broadcast on VRT 1 and hosted by Belgian television personality Ben Crabbé. The show is the longest running quiz show on Belgian television, with 22 seasons. On 10 December 2017 the show aired its 5000th episode.

WinTuition is an American game show created as an original series for Game Show Network, on which it originally ran from December 9, 2002 to April 1, 2003, with repeats until January 4, 2004. The game had a school-oriented theme in which three contestants competed to answer questions on general school-based subjects in an attempt to win a $50,000 college fund, hence the name of the show. The show was hosted by Marc Summers and announced by Burton Richardson. Henry Winkler served as the show's executive producer. WinTuition would end up being the final game show that Summers would emcee.

Counterpoint is a BBC Radio 4 quiz. Described in the show's introduction as "The general knowledge music quiz", the questions are about music, from classical, jazz, pop, musicals, and all other forms of music. It was originally hosted by Ned Sherrin (1986–2006). In the chair for the 2007 series was Edward Seckerson with Paul Gambaccini taking over in 2008, following the death of Ned Sherrin in 2007. Russell Davies took over temporarily in 2013 following allegations made against Gambaccini, who returned to the show in November 2014 after being cleared of the allegations.

<i>BrainSurge</i> American childrens TV game show

BrainSurge is an American children's game show that aired on Nickelodeon and was hosted by Jeff Sutphen. The show taped its first season in February 2009, and debuted on September 28, 2009. The show's format was adapted from the Japanese game show Brain Survivor. The U.S. version was created by Scott A. Stone, co-creator of Legends of the Hidden Temple, and Clay Newbill, executive producer of The Mole.

<i>A Question of Genius</i> British TV series or programme

A Question of Genius is a game show hosted by Kirsty Wark and produced by BBC Scotland. The show was broadcast on BBC Two. It was recorded at BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow. It ran from 16 March 2009 to 4 June 2010.

<i>Fifteen to One</i> British game show

Fifteen to One is a British general knowledge quiz show broadcast on Channel 4. It originally ran from 11 January 1988 to 19 December 2003 and had a reputation for being one of the toughest quizzes on TV. Throughout the show's original run, it was presented and produced by William G. Stewart. Thousands of contestants appeared on the programme, which had very little of the chatting between host and contestants that is often a feature of other television quiz shows.

The 3rd Degree is a British quiz show broadcast on BBC Radio 4, hosted by comedian Steve Punt and made by Pozzitive Television. The series is recorded at different universities around the country, the contestants all coming from the university in which the recording takes place. One team consists of three students and the other of three lecturers who teach the subjects the students are studying.

Download is an Australian children's game show which aired on the Nine Network from 2000 until 2002. Scott McRae hosted the show in 2000–2001; he was replaced by Nathan Lloyd in 2001–2002, while Emily Jade O'Keefe hosted the final season of the show. The co-host for the final season was Miss Bytes.

<i>Million Dollar Minute</i> Australian TV series or program

Million Dollar Minute is an Australian quiz show which aired on the Seven Network. It premiered on 16 September 2013. The show was originally hosted by Grant Denyer, and later by Simon Reeve, and aired at 5:30 pm on weeknights. The show was cancelled in September 2015 and was replaced by The Chase Australia in its timeslot. Repeats are currently shown on 7TWO in place of Home and Away's Early Years on Hiatus.

Campus Challenge is a Philippine television quiz show broadcast by UNTV. The show ran continuously every Sunday for 4 seasons beginning August 14, 2011, until it concluded on April 28, 2013. It was hosted by then-MTV VJ Jonathan "Sib" Sibulo and then-Miss Air Philippines 2018 Zahra Bianca Saldua. It is a Filipino adaptation of Arirang TV quiz show, Superkids.

References

  1. ↑ Houston, Melinda (17 April 2011). "Show us the money". The Age . Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 23 July 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  2. ↑ Bodey, Michael (24 August 2009). "No dark forces at work, says ABC quizmaster". The Australian . Retrieved 24 August 2009.
  3. ↑ "The Einstein Factor". Sydney Morning Herald . 3 April 2004. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  4. 1 2 Johnston, Tony (31 October 2004). "Einstein Factor takes the (non-existent) prize". Herald Sun . Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  5. ↑ Enker, Debi (26 August 2004). "CRITIC'S VIEW - Sunday - PREVIEW". The Age . Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Nguyen, Kenneth (12 February 2004). "Offbeat experts steal the show". The Age . Retrieved 16 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.