User reviews

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.

I think all "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" really proves is how many worthless facts they make you memorize in the school system, only to have you forget it shortly after unless you have an interest in the subjects. Because, otherwise there is really no true use for it.

It would be one thing if these people couldn't answer questions from something like 5th Grade math. Because math skills are concepts that you add to through education, and use throughout your entire life. But, most of the questions in this show are made up from specific historic moments and the government. Things most people aren't going to remember, unless they have their own interest in these subjects.

I also agree with the other people who said that the show was slow, they delay answers, and Foxworthy babbles too much.

This show certainly did not deserve all the hype it got.

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.

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.

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 admit the concept looked kind of amusing, so I anticipated watching the show when it was coming on after American Idol.

It's really just a gag though. OK, so some adults are dumb. Point made. And? Do people really get a kick out of watching an idiot stand up on stage and not know what in month a national holiday is observed? How long could this show really go on for? I remember watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire when it first became a hit, and one of the parts of the show was the first 5 questions they ask, which were always extremely simple and almost joke quality. Contestants would breeze through them 99% of the time, and the only real point of it was to help relieve their nervousness and provide a little humor (some of the gag answer choices were funny). It was occasionally amusing as well when someone blew an early question. That part of the show went by fast though, and then they got into the real questions with all the super-drama.

Foxworthy's game however takes that drama of the latter stages of Millionaire and applies it to questions of the first bit quality. Watching a guy sweat over the area of a triangle? What is there to gain from watching this show? As a viewer you can't play along because the questions are too mind-numbingly stupid. The only thing there is to do is laugh at how dumb these adults are. But can that last? I couldn't make it past the first commercial break. My question really is how long will America tune into it? Does FOX really think this can be a series? It would have been better as a 3 night special and not have any hopes beyond that, then it might actually have had a point.

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.

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..

This is an unbelievably pathetic attempt to spin a mildly interesting premise into some sort of dumbed-down version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". The paralyzing stupidity of the contestants is hard to watch, as is the self-righteous smugness of the kids. Foxworthy basically just stands up there making fun of the adults for taking so long to answer the questions, when we all know that he's the most clueless one in the room. The questions simply aren't believable (what random group of five fifth graders is HONESTLY going to know who the first impeached president was?). Whereas Jeopardy or WWTBAM are fun to play along with, this show moves SO SLOWLY that it's impossible to get any sort of feel for the flow of the game. Avoid this show at all costs...the less we watch, the sooner it will be off the air.

P.S. - What's with the random camera shots of the one little girl laughing hysterically?

I've been chomping at the bit to assemble a vitriolic attack against this farcical, nonsensical, ill-conceived brain cramp of a game show. (Thanks IMDb for giving me the opportunity!) Fortunately, the latest contestant Sammy - the histrionic, nincompoop construction CEO/president who boldly displayed his ostensible ignorance concerning the area of a square - came to the rescue and gave me a ripe opportunity to bust open the floodgates. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, it did: the actress/model Avis Wrentmore reminded us that you can still amass some $300,000 even if you think that density is equal to mass divided by air. Yes, you heard me correctly: Air. Oh, and by the way, according to her, all seven of our continents will be classified as countries as well.

Where should I even begin my little tirade? Let's start with the title: a misnomer. An adult *versus* one or more 5th graders played in a style closer (but certainly not identical) to that of Jeopardy would make a lot more sense and would also offer far more entertainment, accelerating the otherwise glacial pace of the program. In a Jeopardy-type format, adult contestants could truly claim that they were smarter than a 5th grader(s). Conversely, 5th graders would have the sublime pleasure in proclaiming to America that they indeed were smarter than an adult! As it stands, the current format is weak and the poor kids are background, merely serving as pawns, coming to the frequent rescue of the supremely idiotic adult contestants.

Let's move on to the host, Jeff Foxworthy. Another misnomer. Surely the viewer has asked himself: Is Foxworthy truly worthy of Fox? No! He has zero charisma, panders to the audience, displays no sense of timing or ability to create suspense, and clogs the show's flow with his distracting banter and vacuous comments. The producers need to quickly usher him through the backdoor and seek immediate backup! What about the contestants? Well, yes it's true you want to strangle them for being so conspicuously stupid, but now it's come to the point where their act has become tired, predictable, and transparent. These folks are selected not just because they've lost touch with their grade school basics, but also because they are deemed to provide the most entertainment to the audience, patronizing the kids and acting out their profound forgetfulness or sheer inability to perform even the simplest calculations. What upsets me the most is that the producers seem to have temporarily struck gold playing off of adult Americans realizing how stupid other adult Americans are - and guess what: we are playing right into their greedy pandering hands! Thankfully, I've read hundreds of other posts on the FOX website echoing my concerns: this show's machinations are most assuredly short-lived.

Suddenly I realize how long this diatribe has gotten and there's a whole host of other gripes I haven't even gotten to explore such as the awkwardly worded questions and the inability of the writers to produce bulletproof answers. Well, thankfully the FOX messageboard has a whole folder to sort that out. Of course there's also the whole cheating gimmick to the show which is altogether reprehensible and a remarkably fantastic way to propagate the message to students all across America: "Hey kids! Sammy the dolt just won $50,000 and that's the reward he gets thanks to his copying off of another student's work!" What a sad state of affairs. It's unfortunate too, because the premise isn't half bad, but they botched it up in no uncertain terms. If all goes well, this show should have a two-week half life at best, thanks be to God.

How in the world does this show get away with having so many commercials? Aren't there standards that require a certain amount of programming per hour or something? There is literally a commercial after every question. The show is excruciating enough, but the commercial to program ratio makes it downright unbearable. I'm half tempted to watch it one more time...just to time the commercial breaks. I'm guessing it comes close to 40 minutes of commercial and maybe 20 minutes of show. But no...I don't think I can stomach another hour of the painfully unfunny Jeff Foxworthy and the idiot contestants. 5 cute, precocious kids does not a show make.

I like Jeff Foxworthy and this looked like it had potential to be funny but like the other reviewer mentioned, the only word I could think of was "pathetic". The show moves at a snails pace and I couldn't believe it when after a 5 minute commercial break, the show came back, asked one question, and then went to another break! There must have been 15 minutes of actual show.

And show it was. Were these adults real or ringers? A UCLA American history grad misses a 3rd grade question on - American history? The kids are so smarmy, almost affected - they also all seemed to laugh on cue as a group. Borderline creepy. A couple of them will most definitely spend their high school days getting beat up.

The biggest disappointment was how subdued Jeff Foxworthy seemed to be. His quick wit was nowhere to be found. Won't be watching this again.

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.

Regarding the newlywed TEACHER ... if she is an indication of American school teachers...we are in SERIOUS Trouble.

Very sad that she needed help on nearly all questions and to miss the location of the Danube!!!! OMG.. Now, the pretty blond preceding her was a real gem.. just a shame she missed such a famous pilot as Chuck Jaeger...

The program itself is great and refreshes many of us on the old school days.

On the other side of the coin, it also shows us how much we have forgotten.

Great experience for the kids on the show and big ego boost to help out a struggling grownup.

Jeff Foxworthy is not a funny guy. If he was, it wouldn't matter because this show sucks. they make morons out of people and the "classmates" find it hilarious and the camera often focuses on their face while they continue to laugh obnoxiously on cue. My sister is at the top of her class in 5th grade and does not know half of these questions. Especially not the REM question, notice the kids ALWAYS get the question right? The contestant can win up to $5000 without even answering any questions themselves. This is a stupid show and is not funny. I don't think it will last more than a couple more episodes. If you want to watch a good game show go watch Deal or No Deal or Wheel of Fortune. Or better yet read and do something useful so if you are on this show you won't look like a blubbering fool.

Show is cheating!!!! On the show that aired on 3 May, if you listen carefully you can here someone whispering the answers to a few of the questions right before he (the first contestant, a male) gets that ah-ha moment of "I got it!"

One was an answer of "Xylophone" when asked a question about which one of these items are considered a percussion instrument.

The other was "Hieroglyphics" when asked what was the ancient Egyptian language of writing on walls called.

If you have the show saved, go listen for yourself. We played it over and over and everyone in our room heard it.

We thought we've heard things before, but didn't save the episodes to verify earlier suspicions. If anyone else is hearing these same things, please post. Nothing pisses me off more than a corporate scandal, especially from Hollywood. Shame is... I like this show....

This second version of this show is like the first: a show with a sweet concept, nothing more and nothing less. It's nice to see how sweet the people act together and are nice to each other.

First off, this show concept is clearly ripped off from the Howard Stern show. What's worse is that this show is not very entertaining. I was hoping that this would be a funny show, but I was wrong.

The show is desperately dragged out. It's much worse than Deal or No Deal (which I thought should be horribly boring, but it's somehow entertaining). There are also way too few questions being answered per show. What's worse, is that they use the same cliff-hanger BS that Deal or No Deal uses to cut to commercials, but instead of wanting to continue to see the show, I find myself just changing the channel, and not really caring.

For this show to be successful, it has to move a lot faster. They need to go through way more questions. They need to add more money levels (currently, I think it just takes 10 questions to get to $1 million), and find people that aren't complete morons.