Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

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Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Genre	Game show
Starring	Jeff Foxworthy Kyle Collier Alana Etheridge Jacob Hays Laura Marano Spencer Martin
Theme music composer	David Vanacore with Blessed Kateri Childrens Choir
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7 (as of March 29, 2007)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mark Burnett Roy Bank Barry Poznick John Stevens
Running time	60 min. (30 min. for the first 2 episodes)
Broadcast
Original channel	FOX
Original run	February 27, 2007 – Present
Links
Official website

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (often shortened to simply 5th Grader) is an American game show on FOX. It is produced by Mark Burnett,^[1] and is hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. The show premiered as a three-day special beginning on February 27, 2007, with the first two shows a half-hour each in length. Regular episodes, one hour in length, air Thursdays, beginning March 1, 2007. Additional episodes are currently scheduled through at least 2007-05-10.^[2] The show also airs in Canada on Global^[3] and in the Middle East on Dubai TV.

Premiering after American Idol, the show averaged 26.6 million viewers and an 11.2 rating/27 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, making it the biggest television premiere in the United States in over eight years (since the NBC sitcom Jesse, which debuted in 1998).^[4] Due to the high ratings, an additional four episodes were ordered following the airing of the initial two episodes.^[5] Furthermore, another three episodes were ordered on March 15th, bringing the total episode count to 13.^[2]

In addition, the format has been sold across the world for local versions in other countries. Deals have been signed for an Australian version on Channel Ten and a Brazilian version on SBT, among others.^[6]

1 Gameplay
2 Records and statistics
3 Controversy
4 Trivia
5 References
6 See also
7 External links
- 7.1 Classmates

[edit] Gameplay

Question	Value
1	$1,000
2	$2,000
3	$5,000
4	$10,000
5	$25,000
6	$50,000
7	$100,000
8	$175,000
9	$300,000
10	$500,000
11	$1,000,000

In each game, the contestant (an adult) is asked a series of eleven questions, taken from textbooks for first through fifth grade students. Before starting play, the contestant is given ten subjects (such as U.S. History, Math or Social Studies), each of which are associated with a grade level; there are two questions per grade, from first to fifth. Contestants can answer the questions in any order, and each correct answer raises their cumulative amount of winnings to the next level (see table on left); after a contestant answers the fifth question correctly, they are guaranteed to leave with at least $25,000. If a contestant correctly answers the first ten questions, they receive a bonus question, worth US$1,000,000.

Five actual fifth graders (some of whom are also professional child actors^[7]) appear on each show and play along on stage – each episode has the same cast of children: Kyle Collier, age 10; Alana Etheridge, 9; Jacob Hays, 11; Laura Marano, 11; and Spencer Martin, 10. The contestant chooses one to be their "classmate", who stands at the adjacent podium, and is often consulted by the contestant as to their favorite subjects before a topic is chosen; the other four sit at desks off to the side. Each child may only be the contestant's classmate for two questions (done consecutively), after which the contestant picks another child, from those who have not yet played in that game.

Contestants have three forms of assistance (two "cheats" and a "save") available for use:

Peek: The contestant can see what their classmate wrote down as the answer, and choose whether to go along with it or not.
Copy: The contestant is locked into whatever answer their classmate wrote down, without being able to see it first.
Save: If the contestant gets an answer incorrect, but their classmate does not, they are credited with a correct answer, and the game continues. However, if the classmate is also wrong, the contestant loses. This can only be used once per game, and is used automatically on the contestant's first incorrect response.

Jeff Foxworthy talking to a member of the class during the credits.

If the contestant gets an answer wrong (and is not saved), they lose all of their winnings (unless they have passed the fifth question, in which case they drop to $25,000). At any time, the contestant may choose to "drop out" after seeing a question, which entitles them to leave the game with any winnings they have accumulated. However, if the contestant chooses to drop out, or answers a question incorrectly and is not saved, they must face the camera and state, "I am not smarter than a fifth grader."

[edit] Records and statistics

Most money won: $300,000 (March 22, 2007)
Least money won: $0 (March 29, 2007)
Total winnings: $905,000 (10 contestants)
Average won per contestant: $90,500
Most correct answers (no cheats): 7 (March 22, 2007)
Least correct answers (no cheats): 0 (February 27, 2007; March 29, 2007)
Furthest advancement in the game: 10th question (March 22, 2007)
Shortest advancement in the game: 1st question (March 29, 2007)
Number of contestants to drop out: 8
Number of contestants to lose on a wrong answer: 2

[edit] Controversy

Radio shock jock Howard Stern has declared several times on his Sirius Satellite Radio show, that the idea for 5th Grader is directly based on a bit that has been performed numerous times on his radio show.^[8] He has contemplated filing a lawsuit.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Trivia

When the program was first pitched to network executives, each played a round of the game using similar questions. Peter Liguori, FOX network president, was the only network president to finish as a winner.^[9]
Was originally going to be called "Do You Remember Grade School?".^[10]
During the credits at the end of the show, a disclaimer states: "Members of the class were provided with workbooks that covered grade school level material in a variety of subjects. Some of the material could have formed the basis of questions used by producers in the show."^[11]
A tank containing two goldfish is kept on the "teacher's desk" on set. They are named Darnell and Mike^[12], a presumed reference to Mike Darnell, who heads FOX's reality programming.