Genius Game: David Tennant’s brainiac gameshow is even duller than doing GCSE maths

Britain loves a gameshow. But the contestants here compete in puzzles so unthinkably boring and complex that you’re baffled from the get-go. Then someone gets locked in a cage …Britain loves a good gameshow. And if there weren’t enough on our screens already, the quizmasters-in-chief, ITV, recently announced that they would be bumping off the reality-focused ITVBe in favour of a new channel dedicated to them. Hopefully it will have some better programmes than Genius Game (Wednesday 30 April, ITV1), a new series that answers a question no one was asking. Namely, what if we had more light entertainment shows that felt like being back in GCSE maths?Frustratingly, Genius Game should be good. David Tennant is the host, for God’s sake (though he joins the show via Zoom – maybe he’s elsewhere in the studio, or even at home, perhaps already aware it wasn’t worth the three-hour round trip from London, where he lives, to Maidstone in Kent, where it was filmed). Based on a South Korean series, a group of “geniuses” must compete in puzzles and games based on strategy and social manipulation, with Tennant confined to a TV screen in the corner, doing a very loose impression of Richard O’Brien in The Crystal Maze. Contestants include Bodalia, an NHS doctor who is also a touring DJ; entrepreneur Bex, who doesn’t think academic qualifications are the be-all and end-all, but does proudly possess a 100m swimming badge; and comedian Ken Cheng, who is easily one of the funniest people on LinkedIn, known for his satirical posts that send up “hustle and grind” business culture. There seems to be real potential at the outset, with the sense that this bunch were cast for their charisma as much as their IQs (or, as lecturer Benjamin puts it, “I applied for gay Love Island, so I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here!”) Oh, and there’s a £50,000 prize pot, which isn’t to be sniffed at. Continue reading...

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