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.

The wife and I love this silly game show hat asks fairly simple grade school-level questions of adult contestants. Cornpone comic Jeff Foworthy was thrown in at the last minute as host, and he does remarkably well in this role, hillbilly accent, blue jeans and all. Fivel kids are on hand to help the contestant, who can win up to $1 million (and that has happened). Now for a complaint: some bright bulb got the idea to do a half-hour version of the show for daytime TV. Foxworthy is again the host,there are fewer kids on hand to help out and the money is far less than what might be earned on the original show. The real problem is the show is very tightly edited, and feels it, and most of the contestants seem to have been picked off the streets five minutes beforehand. They often flunk out pretty fast. One chipper young woman recently got every answer wrong, and the questions were at a kindergarten level. This sort of defeats the purpose of the show. Stick with the nighttime version. where the contestants have been properly screened and the show runs a full hour, which allowed for some suspense to build..

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.

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.

I really hate this show. I am a high school senior with a 4.0 and I couldn't even answer half of these questions. Most schools (especially public ones where most attend) don't teach mythology until seventh grade, animal science until seventh grade, geometry until sixth grade, world history until seventh, ancient history until tenth, chemistry until high school, and physical science and physics until high school. That's not to say that teachers may touch upon these subjects in elementary school, but they do not delve into them deep enough to answer most questions. I would love to know what schools teach these subjects at such a young age and what textbooks the questions come from. Also, I find the kids and Jeff Foxworthy extremely annoying.

This show is just formulaic crap with too many commercials, an annoying host, ridiculous contestants, and irritating questions that very few people would learn in there lifetime. I honestly can't believe it's still on the air.