Fox’s Are Your Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? debuted with gigantic ratings, leading some to say that it will be the new sensation game show of the year. Is this terrifying to anyone else?
The show features a cast of fifth graders who help adult contestants answer simple elementary school questions. At least that’s what it would feature if they ever got on with it. I admit, I’ve only seen the show once. Unlike Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? or other hit game shows, there was only about five minutes of actual content and the rest was filler. Sure, Millionaire had countless dragging moments of “Are you sure? Is that your final answer? You’re sure?” Fox’s Fifth Grader only included about four actual questions. The rest of the show was just host Jeff Foxworthy making jokes with the kiddie contestants and generally pandering to the dumbed-down viewers who apparently adore this kind of thing.
Sometimes network television makes me question the very fabric of society. If this kind of thing is one of the highest rated shows of the season, what does that say about humanity as a whole?
There is a lot wrong with this and I am happy to say I watched it once and that was it for me. First Jef Foxworthy is not a real red-neck, in the same way that Carlos Mencia is not a real Mexican. Listening to Foxworthy do “family friendly” humor was enough to make me change the channel. Also, just knowing that Everybody Loves Raymond was a hit show for so long, let’s me further know that most of America is not, in fact, smarter than a fifth grader.