Rick Rosner: So, it’s fall, which was a time that everyone looked forward to—at least in America—when the new shows would debut on network TV. Now, with a gazillion channels, network TV is less appealing than the higher quality, more challenging shows available elsewhere.

But there are still shows on network TV premiering now, including High Potential, which is based on a French show and probably a million other shows where a high-IQ weirdo catches the attention of the police and gets hired as a consultant to help solve crimes. Carole and I watched an episode, and it feels like a show about a genius written by people who aren’t geniuses. The plot is ridiculous, and it requires all the cops to be complete idiots so that she can find the clues they missed. There’s another show, Brilliant Minds, a fictionalized version of Oliver Sacks—a great doctor and writer on medical issues, but done in a writerly, fictional way.

Zachary Quinto plays the Oliver Sacks character in Brilliant Minds, right? He solves medical mysteries by putting himself into the mindset of his patients.

And a few years ago on CBS, half their primetime lineup consisted of shows like that. You’ve got 20 hours a week of primetime programming, which means there’s room for 20 one-hour shows, or more if some are half-hour sitcoms, or fewer if reality shows are mixed in. But CBS’s lineup was filled with geniuses solving things—like NCIS had the quirky goth girl in the lab doing science stuff.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So why so many geniuses on CBS and other networks?

Rosner: Well, here’s the thing: network TV skews toward an older demographic—people who can’t afford streaming or cable or figure out how to use them. CBS has the oldest demographic of the major broadcast networks. The trends will be more pronounced for CBS because they cater to that audience. I’ve mentioned this before—older adults are often intimidated by how fast the world is changing, while their understanding of it isn’t. A lot of older people experience mild cognitive decline, which makes them feel like they aren’t as sharp as they used to be.

Jacobsen: Right, like the stereotype of the grandma who couldn’t figure out how to use the remote control or DVR back when that was still a thing.

Rosner: So, these murder shows on CBS have a clear structure: a murder happens, the charismatic team of detectives you like steps in, and they solve the mystery by the end of the hour. They make everything clear, with much exposition and explanation, so the viewer isn’t confused. There’s always at least one genius on the team, sometimes a whole team of them.

So, for older people watching the show, it rolls over them. There are a few false leads, and then the real culprit is found, and even though it took a genius to figure it out, the viewer feels like they understood it all, too.

As an older person, you’re watching this genius solve a crime, and since you understand everything, it makes you feel like you’re still sharp. It’s reassuring. You relate to the genius, so you feel like maybe you’re a genius yourself.

Jacobsen: It’s like how Richard Feynman was praised for explaining things in a way that made you feel smart while understanding him. Feynman had that balance of intellectual and emotional skill in explaining complex ideas. He used to say something like, “If you can’t explain something to a young child, you don’t truly understand it.”

Rosner: Exactly, and that’s the idea behind these shows—they make complex things seem simple enough that everyone can feel smart watching them.

Rosner: I’ve noticed this pattern in many of these network TV shows lately. 

Jacobsen: If you keep seeing consistencies in the arguments or aphorisms of historically identified smart people, there might be something to them. John Cleese had something to say about this, too. He noted that some people lack sufficient intelligence or metacognitive awareness to recognize their ignorance or lack of intelligence. So, there’s a certain floor you need to be above to be aware of your shortcomings.

Rosner: Right, that’s the Dunning-Kruger effect, where you’re too dumb to understand you’re dumb, so you think you’re smart.

Jacobsen: Yes. But those effects are contextual and environmental. Historically, there were certain environments where the “floor” was much lower than in a highly technological and literate society like we have now.

Rosner: Sure, depending on the context, people of different ability levels can exhibit Dunning-Kruger. For example, in physics class in college, some people were much more confident in their understanding of the material than I was. Still, it took me a while to realize they didn’t understand it as well as they thought. And these weren’t idiots—the complexity of the subject just fooled them.

Jacobsen: You’ve always struck me as someone who makes jokes—dick jokes and poop jokes—but understands your level of bullshitting and is extremely honest. There’s a high level of intellectual honesty with you.

Rosner: Well, that got rewarded, which reinforced the behaviour. I couldn’t be cool or James Bond-like at Kimmel and other places. The only “coolness” I could achieve was by revealing my quirks, which often involve… poo. My asshole is competent now, I’d say super competent, but it used to be a disaster before I got hemorrhoid surgery. So yeah, there were some poo issues.

Jacobsen: That’s quite the segue. 

Rosner: Speaking of disasters, the 2024 election feels like a Dunning-Kruger case study.

Rick Rosner, American Comedy Writer, www.rickrosner.org

Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Independent Journalist, www.in-sightpublishing.com

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