Review of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader

During the first week of March the Fox Network decided to use the large lead in audience that the hit show American Idol produces to use to it's marketing advantage as it introduced it's new game show "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader". The show has an interesting theme, and a host that fits well with the theme, but due to how slow it moves it could struggle on it's own. Jeff Foxworthy of "You Might Be A Redneck If...." jokes fame is the host of the show. The general concept is to win $1,000,000 you need to answer 10 (actually 11 including the final question) questions that are of fifth grade level of difficulty and below.

The show also features a "class" of five elementary school kids on the stage. Contrary to what the title of the show might lead you to believe, the contestants are not competing against the elementary school kids. Instead, they use them sort of along the lines of safety nets. During each game a player can be saved one time without asking if they have the wrong answer but their elementary age teammate has the correct answer. Otherwise, you have two "cheats" as they are called on the show that you can use. One is the option to "peak you your teammate's paper", when you do this you get to see your elementary schoolmate's answer they wrote down and decide to use that or come up with your own answer. The other cheat is a "copy". This means that you must decide before seeing your teammate's answer that you will use it as your answer whether you agree with it or not. These cheats add enough uniqueness to the game that it is interesting to watch. As the contestant answers questions correctly or is saved by his teammate either using the safety net (one time) or the cheats, the money they earn increases. Unlike other trivia contests, the contestant can choose to stop and keep their money after hearing the question instead of before hearing it. If a contestant reaches the $25,000 level they are guaranteed to go home with at least that much even if they get the question wrong later in the game.