Reality-TV show Stars of Science makes a comeback

A new crop of Arab innovators aim to prove their skills as Stars of Science returns to MBC4.

The Roadie tuner that was featured on the show. Courtesy Band Industries

The long-running reality-TV show Stars of Science returns to MBC 4 on Friday for a seventh season of inventions, scientific wizardry and local boffins who hope to become the next Steve Jobs or James Dyson.

If you are not familiar with the show, it's a bit like The X Factor, but with aspiring Arab scientists rather than wannabe pop divas. Instead of a record contract and a legion of adoring fans, the winners get a crucial investment that will help them to develop their winning inventions into a commercial proposition.

It also provides them with exposure to the region’s leading scientists and technological entrepreneurs, and the chance to take advantage of the research facilities and support offered by Qatar Foundation – which sponsors the show.

Science-meets-reality-TV may sound an unlikely combination for compelling viewing – but with more than 2.1 million followers on Facebook and six successful seasons in the bag, this intellectual and educational reality-show option is obviously doing something right.

The nature of many reality-TV shows around the world is such that there is often a tendency for each season to become increasingly outrageous as producers desperately try to hold on to viewers, usually at the expense of contestants’ dignity.

Although Stars of Science has evolved over the years, executive producer Viviane Zaccour, who has worked on the show since it started, says her team knows what makes it so successful, and they won't be straying too far from the tried-and-tested format during the new season.

“Keeping the show interesting is the most challenging part,” she says.

“It’s easy when you have people singing – but with scientific projects, it can be like Chinese to audiences if you don’t approach it correctly. When we were starting out, it took a long time for us to really realise what the show is about and how to make it entertaining.

“What was remarkable was the difficulty participants faced because they really didn’t know anything about innovation, so that gave us a lot of stories and a lot of challenges.

“Given that the time allocated to come up with a functioning product is just three months, it’s a very tight timescale. They have lots of experts giving them advice and sometimes they got lost in it, which is where you get this human side that’s interesting for viewers, too.”

Judge Dr Fouad Mrad has also been with the show since its launch. By day, he is executive director of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia – and he considers the show to serve a serious social function.

“Over the past 10 years or so, the Arab world has changed its outlook on education and supporting Arab youth to go into science and technology,” he says. “This is something I’ve seen first-hand. But we still must put more emphasis on technology, education and universities. Even in 2015, with all the technology we have, it’s still not enough.

"The Arab world is still a long way behind other parts of the world. We're playing catch up and we're still a few steps behind. Stars of Science can hopefully contribute to catching up.

“Even though the Arab world is in chaos right now, shows such as this can give hope, and people that contribute to Arab education and technology can give hope too.”

The inventions featured on the show over the years cover a broad spectrum of scientific endeavour.

Medical and health products feature highly, as do smartphone-related technologies. There have been a few unusual entries, too, including diagnostic boots for camel racing, from season five’s winner Mohammed Doumir. They detect any limp in the animal and transmit the information wirelessly to trainers.

But which of the inventions featured on the show has proved the biggest commercial success?

“The process after the show is typically two to three years for products to come to market, particularly for medical or health products,” says Zaccour.

"So entrants keep working on their products when they go out of Stars of Science.

“Because of that, it’s mainly things from the early seasons that are doing well so far. One of the most fun ones is the Roadie, an automatic string tuner for the oud. It took the inventor four years to get it to market, but now they’re being manufactured in China and sold.

“I’m certain there will be many more to come – at least 80 per cent of entrants are really into their inventions and they do not quit after the show. The winners get a lot of cash, but it’s not just the winners.

“The publicity from the show attracts investment to a variety of products, so I’m sure we’ll see more filtering through in the years to come.”

•Stars of Science will be broadcast weekly beginning on Friday at 8pm on MBC 4. From Saturday, October 10, a daily update show will be screened at 5pm. For more information, including application information, visit www.starsofscience.com