ZIRKOS KIDS
PRE-SCHOOL SHOW
26 COMPLETED EPISODES
(30min or 24min versions available)
Zirkos Kids is a pre-school television show created by Australia’s Wave Entertainment.
Producers of the Zirkos Kids are brothers Matthew and David Gee. Says David, “We wanted to produce world-class children’s entertainment that would bring high production values together with the colour and movement of a children’s show.” Matthew adds “Each Zirkos Kids episode contains at least two new songs and dances in it, and we have consulted with educational experts to ensure that our pre-school audience is exposed to suitable language and behavior in these role models.”
What’s the show about? In short, it is all about the learning adventures of Jinka, Zubba, Zol and Mei Mei, who are children from the planet Zirkos coming to learn more about planet Earth. And, just like our own pre-schoolers, they’re here to learn about the way that humans work, rest and play. The Zirkos Kids greet each day with a sense of adventure, enthusiastically getting their instructions from their wise, old leader Skylus, before jumping in their Spacebuggy on their way to a day’s fun and learning.
Largely filmed in Australia, the show also positively emphasises discovering the outdoors, rather than limiting children to an indoor environment. In most of the episodes the adventure takes place away from the Zirkos Kids’ space shuttle. Examples of some episodes involve learning about animals, painting, playing games outside, riding on a steam train, learning about a fire station or going fishing.
ZIRKOS KIDS IS FUN
Every Zirkos Kids show involves singing, talking, laughter and rhyming, from the time that the Zirkos Kids rise to sing their Wake-up Song, until returning from their day’s adventure and finishing with the Zirkos Lullaby. There are no slow, outdated nursery rhymes, just original modern songs and upbeat rap rhymes – our show’s emphasis is on children being themselves and enjoying the experience of togetherness, co-operation and learning.
ZIRKOS KIDS IS AN ADVENTURE
From the time the Zirkos Kids enthusiastically receive their daily mission, the Zirkos Kids are keen to explore and discover the wonders of the everyday world. The Zirkos Kids will try anything – from having a picnic, to playing tennis, going to the playground or riding on a steam train! The emphasis is on children discovering the real world, as we believe in taking them on journeys beyond the fixed sets and static environments of other shows.
ZIRKOS KIDS IS LEARNING
Zirkos Kids has been conceived by educational and family experts. The show’s core values, scripts, books, activities and early learning concepts have all been written and arranged by teachers. Rather than lecturing children, Zirkos Kids teaches children modern social, moral and educational concepts through the adventurous experiences of the characters of Zol, Zubba, Jinka and Mei Mei, making learning fun, not burdensome.
TELEVISION
AUSTRALIA– Airing on NBN Television (Nine affiliate) – Zirkos Kids won it’s timeslot every week for it’s five week run on NBN. We are up against four other channels. On 13% of the days we scored over 90% of the viewers watching at that time (10am in the morning). This is an outstanding result and the TV station has just announced that because of the ratings success, they will re-run the whole 2 series in December/January for the school holidays.
ASIA – In Asia, Zirkos Kids has been sold into Japan (Kids Station – Cable/Satellite), STV 12 in Singapore, and Radio and Television Brunei. Our ratings in Singapore were pleasing, with recent figures of 5% comparing very favourable against the BBCs Tweenies at 2%. We will move to a better timeslot to increase our figures even more, within the next couple of weeks.
MIDDLE EAST – Across the Middles East, Arab ARTS and Orbit will broadcast the Arabic translated version of Zirkos Kids in 2001.
UNITED KINGDOM – RTE in Ireland will transmit the Gaelic translated version of Zirkos Kids in 2001. Channel East in the UK will transmit the English version in late 2000.