Shows What You Know!

By Brad Walters
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 1, 2007

The answer to the title question posed by Fox's new hit quiz show is: No, you're probably not smarter than a fifth-grader -- at least when it comes to traditional textbook topics. And if that revelation leaves your ego smarting, Jeff Foxworthy feels your pain.

"Like the contestants, I've pretty much deleted those files from memory," said the blue-collar comedian turned red-hot host, whose daughters have already passed fifth grade with flying colors. "The questions I do know are the ones I've helped my kids review for in the past year or two."

The show's concept is simple enough for youngsters and adults to grasp, which might explain why the show has averaged more than 15 million viewers since its Feb. 27 debut. A contestant picks questions one-by-one from a given range of subjects and challenge levels (first-grade math, fifth-grade life science and the like). As in "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," each correct answer yields more cash, but it also leaves players with a choice: Take the money and run or risk it all to try to chalk up another correct response and, potentially, $1 million. The show's ambling pace resembles that of a drawn-out school day -- all the better to keep the suspense level ramped up.

Even if the format sounds familiar, "5th Grader" occupies a class all of its own among game shows in its successful harnessing of youthful precocity. Each time the onstage electronic "chalkboard" delivers a question, a fist-pumping fifth-grader at a "desk" adjacent to the contestant jots down his or her own response on a sheet of paper and participates in the back-and-forth banter.

But unlike in an actual classroom, stumped contestants are encouraged to take advantage of three opportunities to "cheat" off their young classmates -- all of whom, incidentally, are paid actors.

"It's pretty funny to watch a 35-year-old guy that's runnin' his own business, with $100,000 on the line, say, 'Can I peek at your paper?'" said Foxworthy, 38.

It's that folksiness that has served Foxworthy well since his days as a student, when he was earning high marks of his own -- and unwittingly honing his future career path.

"When I was in fifth grade," he said, "I was busy tryin' to make the class laugh."

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5th GRADER?

Thursdays

8 p.m., Fox

Could You Outsmart a Fifth-Grader?

Not unless you ace this battery of sample show questions culled from actual elementary school textbooks. (No cheating!) Check your answers below.

FILL IN THE BLANK

(Write in the correct answer)

1 [SOCIAL STUDIES] What is the largest South American country by area? ____________________

2 [SCIENCE] The cerebrum is the biggest part of what organ of the body? ____________

3[SOCIAL STUDIES] How long is one regular term for a U.S. representative? ____________________

4 [ENGLISH] What's the compound word in this sentence? "The bus driver took an alternate route to the airport." ________

5 [SCIENCE] If you add equal amounts of red and blue paint, what color do you get? _________

6 [MATH] If you have a gross of pencils, how many do you have? ______

7 [SOCIAL STUDIES] The Incas were mainly on what continent? __________________

8 [MATH] A heptagon is a shape with how many sides? _______

9 [SOCIAL STUDIES] In the northern hemisphere, in what month is the vernal equinox? _________

10 [MATH] Emma has two yardsticks and a 12-inch ruler. If they were laid end to end, how many feet long would her line be? ______

TRUE OR FALSE

(Circle the correct answer)

11 [SCIENCE] The turtle is an amphibian. True or False?

12 [MATH] Perpendicular lines never cross. True or False?

13 [ENGLISH] "Easily," "barely" and "carefully" are adjectives. True or False?

14 [SCIENCE] An icicle-shaped deposit hanging from the roof of a cave is a stalactite. True or False?

15 [SCIENCE] The ostrich is the fastest bird on foot. True or False?

16 [SCIENCE] The moon gives off its own light. True or False?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

(Circle the correct answer)

17 [MATH] Which is longer?

1 league 1 kilometer 1 mile

18 [SCIENCE] A chimp's natural habitat is on which continent?

Asia Africa Europe

19 [MUSIC] Which of the following is a woodwind instrument?

Drum Violin Saxophone

20 [MATH] What is the lowest of the prime numbers?

One Two Three

- - -

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. Brazil

2. Brain

3. Two years

4. Airport

5. Purple

6. 144

7. South America

8. Seven

9. March

10. Seven

11. False

12. False

13. False

14. True

15. True

16. False

17. One league

18. Africa

19. The saxophone

20. Two