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.

This is a great show because it can be watched in two ways: First, you can watch it with kids. That was the key to "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" and it works here as well. The kids love it, especially if the adults don't know the answer (it doesn't matter whether it's the adults on the screen or at home).

Second, this show is sufficiently predictable that, without kids around, you can watch it in ten minutes or less on TIVO. Like "Deal or No Deal," the interesting part is watching the contestant mess up by going for a question they don't know or risking $425,000 on the $1,000,000 question. Since the questions come about every 6 minutes, you just skip forward. And unlike "Deal or No Deal," there's no incentive to stop to watch the banter between the host and the regulars.

Additionally, there are enough questions on subjects that we never use that most adults have a Paul Simon moment every couple of shows (realizing just how much they learned in grade school but forgot).

Finally, although Foxworthy's not at the top of his game (and probably cannot be on a family show); he's far more entertaining than Howie and probably as good as Regis was. Likewise, even though some of the kids' comments appear strained and were likely fed to the kids (through their ear pieces), the ids are still funnier and more articulate than the "Deal Or Not Deal" supporting staff.

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.

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.

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..