Remote patrol

Fox struck Nielsen gold last May with a riveting and disturbing game show called "Challenge of the Child Geniuses: Who Is the Smartest Kid in America?" So now it's back - two parts "Millionaire," one part Dick Clark and three parts creepy child exploitation. "Battle of the Child Geniuses 2" airs at 7 tonight on Channel 4. Assuming things go pretty much the same way this time, the program will begin with a parade of the 40 contestants ages 10-12, telling us his or her hometown (one of them, 12-year-old William Stevens, is from Jefferson City), plus One Amazing Thing about themselves. For instance, the winner of the first "Geniuses" game introduced himself thus: "I scored in the top 2 percent of all college-bound high school seniors when I recently took the ACTs." As that boast suggests, "Geniuses" never questions that there might be other measures of intelligence besides standardized test scores. But like they say about the Nielsen ratings, until someone comes up with a better way to measure intelligence, this is the one we're stuck with. >>>