Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

In Fox's 20 year history, the network has been the home of the NFL, Major League Baseball and hit shows such as American Idol, The Simpsons and Beverly Hills 90210 but never a major game show hit until Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.

What makes the show stand out is the combination of the youngsters helping the contestant win lots of money until they run out of cheats, a witty first time host in Jeff Foxworthy and the home audience like me likely to shout at the screen if a contestant gets stuck on a very simple question. It's a very important element for a hit game show to have viewers involved.

Foxworthy proves that stand up comedians can host game shows without upstaging the contestants and he is very good at building drama and suspense. Fortunately, he doesn't make any redneck jokes on the show.

My only complaint about the show is when a losing contestant has to tell the world "I am not smarter than a fifth grader." I find it humiliating but it makes a great T-shirt saying.

Silly but engaging game show that has adults answering grade school questions. A team of well-groomed grade schoolers are on hand to help the contestants. Jeff Foxworthy hosts, although he seems to spend the bulk of his time firing off one-liners. Not much more to be said about this, other than to note that it is the best new game show since DEAL OR NO DEAL. And like that show, it revels in exposing the typically American greed of many of the participants, who often do not seem to know when to call it a day and chance losing large sums of money. Just like many of them do when they gamble in Las Vegas, I'm sure. The questions are relatively easy, but often have little to do with day-to-day adult situations, so it can be funny (or conversely, cringe-inducing) to see adults stumbling over questions more or less readily answered by a bunch of grade schoolers.

This might have been an OK show, but it is very slow paced. There are about 6 questions answered per 30 minute episode, and there is a commercial after every question. They try to make a cliffhanger by having a commercial after a contestant has chosen an answer but it doesn't work. It just helps to bore the viewer even more.

The questions range from 1st to 5th grade questions and contestants are college graduates that have great difficulty with these questions. It may not be scripted, but it is really hard not to think that it is. The contestants are just stupid and use all of their 'lifelines' (copy, peek, and save) in the first few questions.

What makes the show even more unbearable is the children. They have five 5th graders (the classmates) and a contestant can choose one kid every two questions. The kids always get the question right and do it quickly while the adult struggles with it.

When Jeff Foxworthy makes a joke they will laugh obnoxiously right on cue, and the camera has to zoom in on their faces to show you how faked the laughs are. If only the jokes were actually funny.

Don't watch this show. It may have sounded like a good concept of a game, but you will be pulling your hair out after sitting through commercial after commercial so you can look at pathetic adults struggle with easy questions.

Ever wanted to know if you still knew everything that you learned in school as a adult? With a million dollars at stake and the chance to prove that you were that smart, this is that show in a nutshell!

The objective is simple: you pick a subject on whatever grade you choose, with 1st grade being the easiest and 5th grade being the hardest, answer a question correctly and you climb up the money ladder, and if you're stumped on a question at any point in the game, you have help from your fellow classmate standing next to you, by using 3 cheats, but after 10 questions, it's all up to you to either win the $1,000,000 grand prize or flunk out!

The host of the show was stand-up comedian Jeff Foxworthy, who does a decent job as host, delivering his unique humor and chemistry to the students, which change every season. A few students later became famous, like Laura Marano and Sierra McCormick, who both became Disney stars, starring in Austin & Ally and A. N. T. Farm, respectively.

So, if you want to know if you're smarter than a 5th grader, watch this show to find out.

The idea is fun. See what you remember of the knowledge you may not use on a daily basis. Jeff Foxworthy is a decent host. The set is elaborate and nice. But the questions come along way too slowly. I almost get the feeling that the guests are delaying their answers in order to expand the time, perhaps there is an off-camera indicator. I can only imagine what the contestant screening must be like, because I'm sure there are many people that could whip thru the questions with ease and take home the money. Anyone that knew they were going on the show could probably cram, I mean, the jackpot is a million dollars. So overall, to the producers, we want a number of questions equal to that of Jeopardy per episode or something. Of course, given the limited pool of questions they may run out pretty quickly, and the reason they move slowly could be the amount of money that is offered as a prize.