You're setting your bar pretty low when talking about beating a TV show host. But I would question how much 'research' is involved in Creationism. Isn't it all there in the Bible in black and white? What's to research?
I’ve seen that argument as well - lowering expectations for Nye in order to make his defeat less ignoble.
The “what” is in the bible, but not so much the “how”. The evidence is what is to be researched in order to refute the interpretation of the secularists whose goal is not “science” but a refutation of God.