TV programmes rip off the kids

John Barrowman is to host a new programme in which adults compete against kids for huge cash prizes.

Well, sort of. If the grown-ups win they walk away with pots of money but if the kids win they don't get a pot to....

The programme is the BBCs The Kids Are All Right in which four adults take on seven kids of varying ages for lovely lolly.

Both adults and children can be eliminated but only the grown-ups get to keep the cash.

The only award for the kiddies, apparantly, is the satisfaction of stopping adults progressing through the rounds.

In other words, it's like taking candy from a baby and the kids are definitely not all right.

Lesson number one, kids - you've been ripped off. Welcome to the big bad world.

It just seems unfair that the adults responsible for this programme could not devise a format where the kids had a level playing field.

No doubt there are rules about the payment of cash prizes to children on TV but it's still a rough deal.

Someone tell Newsround.

I've also been watching Sky's Are You Smarter Than a Ten-Year-Old with Dick (of Dick and Dom fame) hosting a similar format.

This one is like Millionaire but with lifelines provided by the kids,

In other words it's the little 'uns who get the big 'uns their dosh by getting the answers right even if their elders are thick.

The adults could get up to £50,000. Again, the kids go home with nowt.

Contestants have to say their name and the words: "I'm not smarter than a ten-year-old" when they chose not to go to the next round.

It would be more apt if they said :"I AM smarter than a ten-year-old because I've got the money."

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