Series synopsis
The Genius, also known as 더 지니어스 is a South Korean documentary television series that premiered on tvN on April 26, 2013. It ended on September 12, 2015. It was created by Jeong Jong-yeon. It stars Kim Sung-kyu, Hong Jin-ho, Kim Kyung-lan and Lee Sang-min.
A reality series pitting people identified with "genius traits" against one another in social games of strategy, logic, and negotiation skills. Each episode consists of a main match and a death match. The main match decides the winner and elimination candidate for the day. The winner receives a token of life, which grants immunity from the death match, and potentially garnets, a game currency worth ₩1,000,000 each. Garnets can be used to improve a player's chances of winning a game, as well as b ...
Premise
A reality series pitting people identified with "genius traits" against one another in social games of strategy, logic, and negotiation skills. Each episode consists of a main match and a death match. The main match decides the winner and elimination candidate for the day. The winner receives a token of life, which grants immunity from the death match, and potentially garnets, a game currency worth ₩1,000,000 each. Garnets can be used to improve a player's chances of winning a game, as well as be traded with other players to gain favor. The elimination candidate chooses a player without a token of life to take part in a 1v1 game called the death match. The player who loses the death match is eliminated, and the winner of the death match gains their garnets. The last remaining player is the champion, and the total garnets held by the champion will be the final prize.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- Kim Sung-kyu as Self
- Hong Jin-ho as Self
- Kim Kyung-lan as Self
- Lee Sang-min as Self
- Choi Chang-yub as Self
- Kim Gu-ra as Self
- Ha Yeon-joo as Self
- Eun Ji-won as Self
Supporting cast
- Jang Dong-min as Self
- Noh Hong-chul as Self
- Kim Jae-kyung as Self
- Shin A-young as Self
- Kim Jeong-hoon as Self
- Yoo Jung-hyun as Self
- Lim Yun-seon as Self
- Park Eun-ji as Self
- Cha Yu-ram as Self
- Kim Poong as Self
- Choi Jung-moon as Self
- Cha Min-soo as Self
Episodes
This series spans 5 seasons with 51 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 3 | ||
| Season 1 | 12 | April 26, 2013 | July 12, 2013 |
| Season 2 | 12 | December 7, 2013 | February 22, 2014 |
| Season 3 | 12 | October 1, 2014 | December 17, 2014 |
| Season 4 | 12 | June 27, 2015 | September 12, 2015 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Richard Dawkins Presents The Lava Lizard's Tale A tale from the Galapagos Islands. |
|
| 2 |
Richard Dawkins Presents The Giant Tortoise's Tale A tale from the Galapagos Islands. |
|
| 3 |
Richard Dawkins Presents The Sea Turtle's Tale A tale from the Galapagos Islands. |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
1.2.3 Game Each player has nine cards: three each of "1", "2", and "3", which they must play against each other to win points. Any player with cards left over at the end loses. |
April 26, 2013 |
| 2 |
Election Game Some players stand as election candidates, and whomever gets the most votes wins. The player with the least votes will be the elimination candidate and gets to pick from the voters who will be their opponent in the deathmatch. |
May 3, 2013 |
| 3 |
Abundance & Famine Players must choose to travel to 'Abundance Land' or 'Famine Land' and will then split the land's available bread to accumulate points. |
May 10, 2013 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Food Chain Players randomly select animals and attempt to win based on its predator-prey interaction and a unique win condition. |
December 7, 2013 |
| 2 |
Seat Exchange Players have a starting number and attempt to create a 5 number straight before 10 minutes pass and all the numbers increase. |
December 14, 2013 |
| 3 |
King Game Players vote with a finger or thumb in favor of a king, but the king and the gesture change as the rounds advance. |
December 21, 2013 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Fruit Stand Players with the same fruit will engage in price wars and the player with the highest earnings will win. |
October 1, 2014 |
| 2 |
The Jury Game The jury game will be played in citizen and criminal teams. In 5 trials, the citizen team will try to get a Guilty verdict while the criminal team will try to get a Not Guilty verdict. |
October 8, 2014 |
| 3 |
Middle Race In Middle Race, you will draw a character with a unique ability and run a race using this character. You must finish in the middle instead of first or last. |
October 15, 2014 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
ID Exchange Players trade ID cards to gain points while avoiding being left with an undesirable card. |
June 27, 2015 |
| 2 |
Horror Race Players support characters to win a race to obtain garnets. |
July 4, 2015 |
| 3 |
Today's Menu Players guess how many other contestants have placed the same menu order by putting their card box on the appropriate section of the game table. |
July 11, 2015 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | tvN |
|---|---|
| First aired | April 26, 2013 |
| Last aired | September 12, 2015 |
| Runtime | 80 minutes |
| Status | Ended |
| Schedule | Saturday at 23:00:00 |