A Real Reality Show: MacArthur Grant Competitors Vie Onstage for $100M Prize

Some key differences between “Shark Tank,” the hit reality show airing on ABC, and 100&Change, the first-of-its-kind MacArthur Foundation grant competition that saw its version of a final four present their ideas before a Chicago audience Monday:

“Shark Tank” is about bringing a product to market, a new twist on the paper clip or a brownie that doesn’t go to your hips or some such. 100&Change is a quest for a solution to a global problem worthy of the Chicago charity’s largest-ever grant of $100 million.

“Shark Tank” ideas have never been pitched by a Muppet developed to help children in Jordan learn to read and write. The stage of 100&Change, in a ballroom at the Loews Hotel, was visited by Tonton, who came on with her puppeteer to tell of a refugee girl from Syria she befriended—and to argue for the early childhood education project backed by Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee, founded by Albert Einstein.