Fox puts “Our Little Genius” on hold

0

Producer Mark Burnett has put the brakes on “Our Little Genius,” which had been set to debut Wednesday, January 13th on Fox. It may not be anything on the scale of the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, but Burnett isn’t taking any chances.


“I recently discovered that there was an issue with how some information was relayed to contestants during the pre-production of Our Little Genius. As a result, I am not comfortable delivering the episodes without re-shooting them. I believe my series must always be beyond reproach, so I have requested that Fox not air these episodes,” Burnett said in a statement.
 
“Mark Burnett is one of the pre-eminent producers of unscripted programming on television. Even though we were incredibly pleased with the quality of Our Little Genius, we respect and appreciate his due diligence and the decision to pull these episodes. We agree there can be no question about the integrity of our shows. While these episodes will not air, the families who participated in the show will receive their winnings, and we are grateful for their participation,” Fox said.

In lieu of the previously scheduled episodes, Fox said the network will air an encore of the milestone 450th episode of “The Simpsons” on Wednesday, January 13 (9:30-10:00 pm ET/PT) following a special extended episode of “American Idol” (8:00-9:30 pm ET/PT). On Tuesday, January 19, Fox will air an encore of the pilot episode of the new action-drama series “Human Target” (9:00-10:00 pm ET/PT) following Idol (8:00-9:00 pm ET/PT).