'ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER?' (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

Yeah, kind of like if a car was at the edge of a lake. You could say that the car is bordering the lake, but if you pushed the car into the lake, would you still say that it is bordering the lake? LOL

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> I was sarcastically challenging the thought that it doesn't really border it, it's IN it!

I don't remember exactly how the question was phrased- the word "border" might not have been used, but it was clear what was meant.


I'm another one who never knew the Dewey system included fiction, maybe since every one of the 4539 libraries I've been to did not have numbers on the fiction, which is ALWAYS alpha by author,... and cramming all fiction under just one number out of 999 shows how lame that system is, sort of like me counting my Buffy Complete Collection as "one DVD" because it is one item at the store. Anyway, we certainly weren't taught about fiction being in that system in elementary school.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I guess we'll see if this show really is connecting with the audience, or just getting that American Idol bump from previous AI lead-ins, as it airs with no lead-in tonight.

 

[Jerome Grate]

My guess is probably not. The show comes on once a week which requires us to wait till next week for someone to get it or screw up, and I always find time change in many circumstances is a signal of poor ratings. After Idol it was good, by it's self it's annoying. I learned about the Periodic Table in Junior high. Well Jeff Foxworthy, I like ya, but find a better show. What gets my goat is why it takes each contestant so long to answer the darn questions. I hate that in millionaire, why bring it here and other shows, just annoying.

 

[Dave_Brown]

Tell me about it. If I was sitting in the audience I'd probably get kicked out for heckling.

Question: After the decimal point, what is the third number of PI?
Answer: "Wow, let me think about this for a second..... I like pie, so this should be easy..."
Jeff Foxworthy cuts in: "We're not asking about Hostess Fruit Pie you know. You might be a redneck if...." (audience laughs hysterically)
Answer: "Ok, boy. Well I know the first number is 3.... but I'm just drawing a blank here.
JF: "And that would be great, if the question were 'What is the first number of PI?'
Answer: "I guess I could use a cheat. I can tell that (insert 5th graders name here) looks really smart... maybe I should copy."
JF: "You went to Penn State, right? And you want to copy off a child... how sad."
Answer: "I think I know the answer, but do I know it enough to risk $5,000? That's a lot of money.... hmmmmmm... but for some reason 9 is screaming out at me.... but I might be confusing that with something else.... Ok, I'm going to copy." (pushes big red button)

JF: "After all that, you want to copy. Show us (kids name) answer..... (pause for 15 seconds of drama as adult sweats nervously) I have good news for you, she got it right, the answer is 1"

Contestant cheers giving high fives, hugs, maybe a slap on the butt and a "good game, kid" despite the fact he/she is a moron and a 5th grader saved their ass. Oh, and all that took 15 minutes. Ready for question 2?

 

[David Hobbes]

wow i hope you don't mean the Dewey system is lame. It is a fantastic system that allows everything created to have its' very own accession number. Although some of the numbers can be quite long.

 

[TonyTone]

Granted that some of the questions should be simple enough to answer, but it is quite conceivable for a contestant to have a brain freeze/fart--I surely did on this past Thursday's episode; on the true/false question regarding if the Sun is over 50 million miles from Earth, I answered incorrectly because I somehow managed to zone out in not seeing the word "over"...instead, just focusing on the fact that the Sun is roughly 93 million miles away...therefore, the answer should be "false". Boy would I have felt stupid if I got eliminated on that question, all because I hadn't read the question more carefully.

FWIW--I also zoned out on the 61-cent question...forgot all about the 50-cent coin.

My point? If I can screw up on such easy questions while sitting at home w/ no pressure on me at all...imagine how it must feel like for some of those contestants, w/ those bright lights and cameras focused on them? I mean...after all, I'd be willing to bet that each and every one of you have had a brain fart or two in your lifetime!

 

[Jerome Grate]

Tell me about it. I have to admit, my brain froze up in front of my wife many of times. What's sad is my wife thinks I'm smart

 

[MarkHastings]

and don't forget the pressures of wanting to win money. One mistake, and you're done (unlike at home) which must be extremely nerve-racking.

 

[Roger_S]

They had a real winner this past week, a blonde woman who had won $300,000 and then got stumped with...

What is the one continent that is also a country?

She started rattling off the names of the continents and finally decided to quit. When asked what her answer would've been if she'd had to answer, she replied "All of them?".

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Yeah I couldn't believe that one either. I thought, finally we get to see how they go for the $1,000,000 prize. It was a first grade geography question too. What is funny is she named all 7 continents correctly, and still didn't catch Australia.

I guess we can keep saying how dumb she is, but she did walk away with $300,000. But man, how dumb.

 

[Greg.K]

I've missed exactly one question since this show started (current geological age of the earth - Cenozoic).

I can't believe how ignorant some of the contestants are on this show. Yes, it's very different when the cameras are pointed at you, but IMO the average Jeopardy contestant could walk away with a million bucks without breaking a sweat.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Methinks thats why there is no sign-up for this show. I think they take the bottom 2% of people who take the Jeaopardy test.

 

[Bryan X]

I seriously think they must test potential contestants and reject anyone scoring above a certain level. There's no other explanation for why every contestant hasn't won $1 million.

Beyond the fact that the questions are very simple, you have three opportunities to be 'saved' if you miss. That's 30% of the questions up to the $500,000 mark you wouldn't even have to know. I haven't watched every minute of the show but I haven't seen the 'helper' student miss yet. So those are just about 3 guaranteed saves out of the 10 questions.

I have to say I do find it excruciatingly boring to watch. If it weren't for my 6th grade son enjoying the show I wouldn't watch. They drag it out waaaaaay too much. If the questions were difficult it wouldn't be bad. But since they ask a question that you instantly know the answer to, it is so painful to wait through 5 minutes of banter for the not-so-suspenseful answer.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I have seen one of the girls miss a math problem.

This like mostly every new game show out there is meant for a DVR.

 

[TonyTone]

Is it just me, or do the producers (I would have said Jeff Foxworthy but I'm sure he's being told by the powers-that-be to make sure to emphasize certain things) "subtlely" try to pressure you into dropping out when the stakes get high? I mean, Jeff kept emphasizing to that blond lady over and over about what would happen if she got the question wrong, w/ $300K on the line...even though she had a save left? It's almost as if the higher-ups had realized that "Oh sh!t--she's gonna score $500K on a first-grade question!" and thus were figuring out how to "pressure" her into dropping out at $300K...

But back to the question--w/o trying to knock her intelligence, how was it that she knew the answer to the giant panda question (the answer to which was the name of a continent, IIRC...or was it the name of a country?)...but apparently did not know the answer to the question she dropped out on...which was also a continent-related one?

 

[Dave_Brown]

I was wondering why they would be pushing so hard to drop out when she had that one save left. To get all that way and to lose it on a 1st grader question, very odd. It did seem as if they really wanted her to quit. What I also found interesting was they never showed the answer the student had written down, either.

(and to just put it out there, I moved way to quick on that question and said it was Africa. I may have slowed down, but had I been in her position, I would have been wrong and hoping the student was there to "save" me)

 

[Roger_S]

The question of the giant panda was indeed what continent did it come from and it was a good thing...she did say Asia but she was thinking they were from Japan instead of China. Luckily, both are Asian countries.

Regarging the emphasis of maybe trying to get the contestant to think about quitting, I've noticed this recently also on NBC's Identity.

 

[Greg_S_H]

This was not renewed by Fox, but I see at wiki that it will be on MyNetworkTV. I think I get that in HD and I hope the show continues in that format. Just glad it will continue at all.

 

[Scott_J]

The show is actually entering syndication in September. Those are the episodes that MyNet will be airing (two eps - once a week). Not sure if the MyNet epsiodes will be new or repeats of the syndie episodes.

I doubt it'll be in HD. I don't think it was in HD on FOX, either. I think FOX aired it in SD widescreen, as they do with a lot of their unscripted shows.