Plot Synopsis

Hosted by former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin, CHILD GENIUS features a group of boys and girls aged eight to 12 from across America, all competing for a $100,000 college fund and the title of Child Genius. In cooperation with American MENSA, the competition takes place over multiple weeks and tests the nation's best young minds on their knowledge of math, spelling, geography, memory, human body, US presidents, vocabulary, current events, zoology, astronomy and space, inventions, literature and arts, earth science, and logic. Round by round more brilliant children are eliminated until finally one child is left standing. Based on the popular UK format, CHILD GENIUS, this U.S. version of the program features 20 children competing over eight weeks in the first season.
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Season 2 of CHILD GENIUS, now called CHILD GENIUS: BATTLE OF THE BRIGHTEST, premiered on Thursday, January 7, 2016 at 8pm ET/PT of Lifetime, with 12 new contestants competing throughout the 10-week season. Season 2 contestants include: Adrian (age 10; hometown: Peachtree City, GA), a musical prodigy, who has played at Carnegie Hall and was a breakout performer on AMERICA'S GOT TALENT; Arnav (9 Dobbs Ferry, NY), a budding mathematician and scientist, who loves to challenge and correct his dad; Chancellor (10 Stuart, FL), a self-taught chess player, who performs at a high school level; Claire (10 Arcadia, CA), for whom attending school is her "playtime"; Drake (10 Los Altos Hills, CA), a disciplined tennis player, who solves Rubik's Cubes in his spare time; Gianna (10 Denver, CO), a Mensa member, who was reading at the 11th grade level when she was only in the second grade; Iris (11 San Antonio, TX), a Shakespeare aficionado, who won a writing competition for her very first novel; Jaden (11 Chico, CA), a lover of music, math and meat, who follows a strict Paleo diet; Jenna (11 San Antonio, TX), a gifted Mensa member with an off-the-chart IQ; Sam (12 Sugar Land, TX), who competes against 8th graders in math and is also fluent in Russian and French; Selah (9 Kissimmee, FL), who skipped first grade and reads five years above her grade level; and Vivek (9 Bloomington, IL), who not only maxed out on an IQ test, but also takes college level courses at Northwestern University.
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On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 10pm ET/PT, Lifetime premiered the Season 2 finale of CHILD GENIUS. The final week of this season's competition pits three intelligent youngsters in the Academic Olympiad, with the winner earning a $100,000 college fund and brainiac bragging rights.