Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

The concept of the show is actually not half bad although the title is a bit of a misnomer. The real title ought to be "Are you smarter than all 5th graders put together?" Apparently only a few people are.. Of course, if you put even the smartest 5-th grader as a contestant on this show that 5-th grader would likely get clobbered. Still, the show demonstrates, and I think fairly convincingly, that most adults in the U. S. don't remember much from their K12 education beyond 4-th grade. It was also entertaining to see that the most universally dreaded category of questions by far was "World history".

But as many critical reviews have noted, the execution of the concept was pretty poor. The pace was too slow and the incessant commercial breaks were insufferable. The weakest point, though, was that the show used professional actors as the kids and they were clearly heavily prepped for each show's questions. The show would have been much better off using real, non-actor, kids and rotating the cast of kids from episode to episode. The show would have been much more authentic and relatable. I hope that at some point in the future the show will come back in a different format.

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.

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.

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.

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.