Why You Should Watch Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

While flipping through channels on Tuesday night, I came across a new show called "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader". Now this wasn't the first time I had heard of the show. Before Tuesday I had seen several previews and commercials for the show while watching some of my favorite shows on Fox, especially American Idol and The Simpsons. I figured I could use some humor, so I turned on the show, not expecting much. But what I saw in that hour would change my TV viewing life forever, or at least until a better game show comes along.

Jeff Foxworthy is a likable host, at the most. It is obvious that this show will not not put him on the map like game shows have with "Deal or No Deal"'s Howie Mandel. But he is a good host. He does, however, manage to keep the audience and the viewers at home interested. The reason why he won't be the "it" host is because he does not create his own persona, at least not like Howie Mandel.

All the contestants appear to be average Joes and Janes. Most hold respectable jobs and have families that are seated in the audience. At first sight, most contestants seem like they could be on any other game show and do well. Plus, how hard is it to answer questions from grade school text books? Harder than you may think.

The panel of 5th graders are just that, 5th graders. They look like average 10 or 11 year old kids, a mixed group of both boys and girls. They are not famous kid stars or anything, but they might as well be. The purpose of these kids is to help out contestants try to answer all 10 grade school questions to win up to $1 million dollars.

Now the questions are a different story. Of the categories, they range from 1st grade to 5th grade level. The topics range from US History to Physical Science, and just about everything in between. Most questions are harder than you may think. The funny thing is that the answers are trapped in every adults' brain, somewhere. The questions are remedial, but locating the answer that you learned so long ago is not.