Who is the youngest chef in MasterChef Junior?

When a child chef is eliminated on “MasterChef Junior,” two things happen. First, the unbearable: The child cries. This is almost always the case: Competitors range in age from 8 to 13, and by and large don’t have the backbone to endure being told they didn’t succeed. It’s agonizing, of course, or maybe heartening, if you’re the sort of person who appreciates emotional transparency.

After the crying, though, comes the camaraderie: Invariably, the remaining young chefs huddle around the eliminated ones and offer hugs and words of encouragement.

For the last two years, those scenes have been among the most heartwarming on television. “MasterChef Junior” — which begins a third season on Tuesday on Fox — is a cooking competition, but these participants upend the tensions familiar to shows of this kind and instead cheer on.

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They cook, too, but that’s only part of the appeal of this series, which works on several levels: as a showcase for telegenic children, naturally; as public service, featuring youngsters in control of their diets; and, finally, as a display of great cooking, though in the first few episodes of this season, with a few exceptions, the food prepared is less impressive than in the past.

Yes, there is a chard-wrapped salmon with an “avocado mascarpone smear on the bottom,” cooked by Jack in the premiere, but the current edition lacks some of last season’s standout archetypes: an obvious culinary obsessive (like Samuel, the runner-up), or a whip-smart firecracker (Oona), or a cartoon character (Abby). There is an abundance of cute, of course — Riley, at 8 the youngest contestant, can barely reach the countertop — but last year’s balance of personality and talent isn’t duplicated here.

This tests the show’s judges — the chefs Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot, and the restaurateur Joe Bastianich — in a different way. Their awkward farewell hugs remain, but they appear to be straining harder not to be negative. For Mr. Ramsay, in particular, “MasterChef Junior” is an exercise in reputation cleansing after years of screaming at adult reality show contestants. Here, he manages to not be condescending when critiquing young cooks who put out uninspired dishes, or when helping to rescue one who’s burned part of his meal.

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At the show’s best, though, it spotlights young people who think well on the fly, a sort of intelligence that’s not easily measured by traditional means. That creativity seems particularly inspiring when compared with the tasks asked of the competitors on “Child Genius,” a new competition show for the young that has its premiere on Tuesday on Lifetime.

In the first episode, at least, “Child Genius” — which is being made in concert with American Mensa, the high-I.Q. society — isn’t much more than a test of deep memorization with a side of deadline math. Certainly there is less improvisational flair on display than there is in the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, the Mount Everest for brainiac youth. (“Child Genius” seems devised explicitly with the goal of branding a competition in the manner of the Scripps bee, but under the Mensa umbrella.)

Last year’s spelling bee was a nail-biter between Ansun Sujoe and Sriram Hathwar and ended in a tie, as nerve-rattling a showdown as any sporting event. But there’s little tension of that sort on “Child Genius,” which instead uses a different trigger for drama.

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While children’s tears are the uncomfortable-to-watch byproduct of “MasterChef Junior,” “Child Genius” relies on an even more troubling byproduct: parental sweat. In the competition portion of the show, parents are seated in the same room as the children, and the camera spends as much time on them, fishing for exasperated reactions.

Some of the parents take a laissez-faire approach to managing their children’s intellects, but others are benevolent drill sergeants, like Vanya’s father, who insists that she down bottle after bottle of water. (Vanya is also a regular at the Scripps spelling bee.) And then there’s Ryan, whose parents encourage him to study more, practice more and then study more.

But Ryan has other ideas: He has more in common with the flamboyant types on “MasterChef Junior.” He does well in the first round, but when his mother suggests that he could do with some more preparation for the next round, he replies exasperatedly, “It’s relaxation time!”

By contrast, parents don’t play much of a role on “MasterChef Junior.” Most of the kids say it was a parent who inspired them to learn to cook, or taught them technique, but generally they report that even at their age, they long ago outpaced the adults in the kitchen, and many are cooking meals for the whole family.

The only significant airtime given to parents last season was in the finale, when they were brought in to root for their children. But unlike the grown-ups on “Child Genius,” who hover with a smothering blend of encouragement and nerves, the young cooks’ parents watch in awe from the balcony with the rest of the crowd. Meanwhile, their children take control of the kitchen, afraid only of their own tears.