I would really like you all to tell me: should I be shocked that contestant coordinators for FOX’s new trivia show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” are looking for young, extremely attractive people to be contestants? Perhaps I should state this: to a level I can see what they are going for. The average audience will most likely be turned off by someone, to quote standup comic Maria Bamford, who is morbidly obese with tiny Tweety Bird ankles with a wandering eye. However, shouldn’t some level of intelligence be desired above all? Especially in a quiz show. I constantly check Craigslist for jobs or casting notices, and every single posting for FOX’s new TRIVIA show, and I stress the trivia part, “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” has the word “attractive” bolded. They are stressing that they want only good looking people for the show, and the rest won’t work.

This is primarily the reason that I am afraid of this new show. If this was taken as a semi-straight trivia show, like on the level that the terrific “1 VS 100″ is, the show could work. However, you just know that the entire basis of the show is going to be “Haha, look at the morons who don’t know what a fifth grader knows.” That’s going to get old very very quickly. Have we gone that far down? “1 VS 100″ and “Deal or No Deal” may have contestants that are over-the-top, but at least there are a vareity of contestants, all different ages, sizes, and appearances. However, what this show is quickly turning into is “Watch Johnny Six-Pack Be Outsmarted By Youngsters”. As much as I bitched and moaned about “Show Me the Money”, at least they had a variety of contestants. Hell, “Lingo” for seasons has wanted people specially 21 to 35 years old, but at least they get a couple dozen very good contestants. What is your opinion about this matter? Is casting a trivia show for looks a good idea for ratings, or is this going to hurt them because people don’t want to watch morons lose constantly?