Are you dumber than a fifth grader? now televised to find out the results.
 

in the associated press today, this news story was announced:

PASADENA, Calif. - Every parent's nightmare _ being exposed for not knowing what's in your kid's school textbook _ will soon play out on national television.

Fox announced Saturday that it is making a new game show, "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" that will air sometime later this year, perhaps as early as the spring.

Adults will compete in a quiz based on questions from elementary school textbooks. Actual elementary school students will be on hand as "experts" for the adults to consult with.

"While most game shows measure how smart you are, this is a show that will measure how dumb you are," said Peter Liguori, Fox entertainment president.

Fox won a competition with other networks to buy the idea from Mark Burnett, executive producer of "Survivor," perhaps because Liguori _ not too modestly _ said he was the only chief network television executive to answer all six questions from the show correctly.



now, we've seen people humiliate themselves on game shows before. how popular do you think this quiz show is going to get?

I actually think the show's premise might have promise, depending on how they portray people and publicize the show. It sounds like a game show setup that encourages people to be smart (or at least, not dumb) yet carries enough comedy to keep the attention of the reality-tv generation. We'll see how it pans out, but the idea itself is pretty sound, I think.

There was a similar thing on over here last year (Which I imagine they sold the idea for to Fox). It wasn't hugely popular and the people they picked were all borderline retarded. It's a nice enough idea but I think the entertainment comes more from laughing at people for being stupid than any satisfaction at knowing the answers, not my kind of game show really.

Sue enough, they're going to pick obscure stuff out of the textbook for questions ("who was the second treasurer of the united states?", as if anyone will know this stuff like if it was important) , and like Shin hinted at, they're probably only going to pick the dumbest people (but still looks either halfway decent looking, or someone people could really make fun of behind their back).

To me, it sounds like their starting to run out of reality show ideas, and I hope it's a sign that this fad will disappear soon (at least in its current forms). But then again, they'll probably continue to produce tv shows where people make asses out of themselves, so long as there is a wide enough audience that wants to watch it (Survivor comes to mind. From what I've seen, it's more "who can backstab the best" rather a geniunine "who can really survive out here". I don't think most of those people would survive if they were really in a situation like that).

I liked this when it was called Jay Walking. The questions they ask on that segment of the tonight show are on the level of elementary school knowledge, yet adults have no idea what the answers are.

Yeah but those questions were easy as pie.

it's kind of like the final questions of the old show You Bet Your Life with groucho marx, where the questions were "who's buried in Grant's tomb?" and "what color is the white house"

It would be interesting to me only if it was in a controlled environment. I've had discussions with some of my fellow TAs who say that most people can't locate Israel on a map... I was a little skeptical.... but very curious to find out (without a real means to do so). If the show chooses random people and asks them reasonable questions I think it would be interesting... but, since it's a show that needs ratings it will exaggerate the outcome, no doubt.

As opposed to...?

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Here's what I DON'T like about this whole thing:

The fact that they're testing adults on something that was taught to them anywhere from 10 to 50 years ago, depending on the contestant's age.
Hah, you don't remember something you read 25 years ago? You must be mildy retarded!

Also, something to keep in mind is that the only difference between what's in a fifth grade text book, and say, a college level text book is the reading level it's written at.

ANNNNND even if they ask questions that are obvious-as-daylight, they're not going to be proving any points that we didn't already know.
Wow, you mean there are stupid people out there? Who would'a thunk?!

...being completely anecdotal. That is, it won't be able to tell you anything about the level of knowledge of the populace. It will be people they think will get them better ratings.

Also, there is a lot different about college text books: Tone, theory they presuppose you know, depth. Plus, there are some things that educated people should know. Any single one of them is 'worthless knowledge' but as a whole people who are well educated know these things and it most often helps them to think better--which is important.

Isn't this basically the same concept as the show Street Smarts but without the wagering on whether or not the person will answer the question correctly?

Then wouldn't that be controlled? I mean, if they were to choose their people by who they thought were going to get them better ratings. So, what you're saying is that you DON'T want it controlled?

Yes, depth. But the information is still the same. I don't think they're aiming for the "well educated" person. That wouldn't make sense. Would you suggest maybe they bring on a fifth-grade teacher for example?

Also, even those who are educated can be completely oblivious to other things. For example, a history major might know shit about science, and so forth and so on.

No. It's not. That's like saying "Isn't this like jeopardy, except for, you know, the whole answering with a question and picking the amount of money?"

What kind of a college did you attend? That's pretty weird, if you honestly think this is true. People generally don't go to college and pay thousands of dollars just to rehash the things they were already taught in fifth grade. Or maybe your fifth grade was just really advanced?

Well the reason I made that statement was because in High School as we were preparing for the SAT's, my teacher took a 6th grade (I know it's not 5th, but that's damn close enough) history textbook and compared it to a freshmen level college textbook and compared how it had virtually the same information, but in a little more detail and in five-dollar words.

Eh.