Games - The Einstein Factor

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	Games - The Einstein Factor

The Einstein Factor is an Australian television quiz show, broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The show's host is comedian and broadcaster Peter Berner. It was first broadcast in 2004 and is currently in its second year. It is broadcast on Sunday nights at 6:30 pm.

The show's self-styled goal is to find the person who "knows everything about nothing and something about everything." To that end, contestants with specially nominated subjects appear each week.

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, Berner's radio colleagues Tony Moclair and Matt Parkinson, comedians Tim Ferguson and Michael Veitch and scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.

The first round simply involves Berner asking 15 questions to each contestant on their special subjects. These subjects are often quite specific and the questions difficult for outsiders to know. Special subjects have included Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ned Kelly, Michael Collins and World War Two aircraft. This will be followed by banter between contestant and brains trust. Each correct response earns the contestant 100 points. In the 2005 series, a "bonus question" was introduced, which the contestant can either answer correctly themselves for 100 points or place their faith in the brains trust to answer the question, in which case a correct answer yields 200 points.

In round two, contestants are given nine 'subject headings' and ask 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 asked to all contestants and the brains trust. The contestants are given five seconds to select their answer from a multiple choice question, then the brains trust discuss the question and devise an answer of their own. If the brains trust get 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 round three, fifteen general knowledge questions are put to the contestants and the brains trust. The round is a "hands on buzzers" round as seen in many quiz shows, 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 receive no points for correct answers, but their intervention can deprive the contestants of points.

The winners of each program's quiz compete at the end of the series in a series of "play-offs", the winners of which compete in a "grand final" to determine the series overall winner. Specialised subjects remain the same throughout.

The show is also noted for Berner's offbeat manner and humourous approach to being a quizmaster. The program has proved quite popular with a wide audience, unusually so for a program broadcast on the ABC.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Einstein Factor ]

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