A 12-year-old British Asian boy has been crowned as the UK’s ‘Child Genius’ in a popular television quiz competition, days after he became an overnight sensation after answering all questions correctly.
Rahul Doshi won the Channel 4 show Child Genius by beating his nine-year-old opponent Ronan 10-4 in the programme’s finale last night.
He had become an overnight sensation earlier this week after he answered all questions correctly.
The schoolboy from north London clinched the title by answering a question on 19th Century artists William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.
“It didn’t sink in straight away, but it was really nice,” Rahul said after winning the title.
In the final, Rahul impressed with knowledge of his chosen subject – Edward Jenner’s medical innovation and methodology in 18th Century England.
“I was bursting with pride,” said his father Minesh, an IT manager who had entered his son into the competition.
The final followed an intense competition aired through the week which saw the candidates showing off their maths, English, spelling and history skills as well as memory powers.
Rahul had been one of the favourites throughout, after scoring very highly in previous rounds and even bagging a full house in the very first round of the series.
He had captured the imagination of audiences during the competition after he correctly memorised the order of a pack of cards.
Rahul, whose ambition is to become a financial adviser, had revealed his strategy for the final as: “The key is to block out everything else and remain calm. So just focus on your goal. Mine was to answer as many questions as I could correctly and that helped me stay calm and do quite well in the early stages.”
Rahul, who is a member of the Mensa club and believed to have a higher IQ than Albert Einstein, was cheered on by father Minesh and pharmacist mother Komal during the show.
His father attracted some social media fury for laughing at a wrong answer given by his son’s closest rival, Ronan, in a tense finale.
“#ChildGenius an adult laughing at a children getting a question wrong shocking behaviour. Shame on you Rahul’s father,” read one of the comments on Twitter.
But Minesh Doshi had been very vocal about his competitive side throughout the competition.
He had previously said: “We are here to win. There’s no two ways about that.”
Twenty contestants aged eight to 12 were whittled down to one winner over the course of a week as part of the Child Genius 2017 series.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event
Pope Francis greets Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit near Bari, Italy, in June last year, as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and then British prime minister Rishi Sunak look on