The Simon Eliot Show

The Simon Eliot Show is an innovative quiz show for children where the contestants play from home via the internet using webcams. The host is a 2D animated character with blue skin named Simon, who interacts with the players in real-time using groundbreaking technology.

Each week four contestants aged 10-12 are chosen and set up at home with a laptop, headphones, and web camera. They compete to win Simon's "Stash of Coolness" prize pack.



Simon's general knowledge questions are based on the books, Everything You Need to Know About the World by Simon Eliot (Four Winds Press, 2004) and Even More Things You Need to Know About The World by Simon Eliot (Four Winds Press, 2005). The real author of the books is New Zealander Lloyd Jones, better known as writer of adult fiction such as Mister Pip (short-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize).

The Gibson Group worked with technology company Kordia to develop wireless broadband access technology that enabled seamless, real-time interface between Simon and his contestants.

Early research and development to create Simon's ‘world' was funded by NZ's Foundation of Research and Technology (FRST). FRST funding was used to build Simon and his world based on a "freeware" gaming engine called OGRE, and to research how to build the computer technology to beam real-live children into an animated world in real time. 

Simon's bedroom world operates according to video game engine principles. The contestants talk to Simon, voiced by Gareth Ruck, whose voice is automatically picked up by a microphone and transferred to Simon, the animation. The children see and hear the 2D Simon, whose movements are operated by a puppeteer using a Playstation-type joystick.

Producer Jeanie Davison explains the production process:

"Simon and his bedroom environment are contained within PCs and we link these up in real time with the 4 kids who beam in from their homes via the internet. This means the kids really do play the quiz in the heat of the moment with the animated Simon, with all the question graphics, Funky Footage etc being run into the show as it happens. The kids see Simon and all the question elements on their laptops as they play - and we mix and record the combination of live and animation elements as it all unfolds."

The Simon Eliot Show won a New Zealand On Air Award for Outstanding Innovation in Children's Programmes in 2007. The format has so far been optioned in South Africa, Norway and Singapore/South East Asia. A second series of Simon Eliot was commissioned in New Zealand in 2008.