01 Feb
Posted by Alex Davis as FOX, Fifth Grader?, New Show, Opinion, Schedule Change
FOX’s strategy is very easy: stick any piece of shit after “American Idol” and it turns into a pile of gold. FOX is debuting “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”, from Mark Burnett, starts on Wednesday, February 27th, and Thursday, February 28th, at 9:30PM ET. These are half hour episodes. The show will then get hour-long episodes, again, post-Idol, on March 1st and March 8th at 9PM ET. Finally, on March 15th and March 22nd, the show will lead off at 8PM ET to see if it can hold its own. Essentially, the show will see if adults can remember things a fifth grader would know by being quizzed from fifth grade material. According to Zap2It, in a press kit, these are examples of questions:
In what state is Mount Rushmore located?
What are the colors of a rainbow?
What are the names of the five Great Lakes?
And most FOX execs were stumped. I’m not calling myself a genius or saying if you make a tiny mistake you’re an idiot, but if you don’t know the five Great Lakes, or where Mount Rushmore is, and especially the colors of the rainbow, I think we may need to put your brain on the side of a milk carton. However, my main issue is with how the FOX execs are labeling the show. They are calling it hilarious. If it was something serious like WinTuition, I think it would be fine. However, you know they are going to capitalize on the stupidity of people on this show by making fun of people who don’t know simple things. The entire show will be “Haha, you don’t know what a 5th grader knows”, and that doesn’t sit well with me.
I shouldn’t say it’s a piece of shit yet, but it’s just looking like it. If questions are this easy, how is it going to be fun to watch? At least “1 VS 100″ throws in some really hard questions as the game goes on. This is just sad. If this is how I think it is, we might have a contender for the Worst Game Show of Revival Two on our hands. But obviously I’ll be giving it a shot, and I hope I’m wrong in saying that it’ll suck.
8 Responses
MYOB
1February 1st, 2007 at 9:42 am
What in the heck does geographical knowledge have to do with intelligence? I admit it, I didn’t know the Great Lakes or the location of Mount Rushmore, but I consider myself to be a pretty intelligent person. I just could care less about geography. This is the kind of stuff that you need to know in fifth grade, but once you’re an adult, it really doesn’t matter if you’re not pursuing a career in that field.
Matt
2February 1st, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Piece of shit after AI? You think House is a piece of shit? Well then, you are not very intelligent. I happen to think House is a good show and if we are gonna debate things are real pieces of shit, then what about the poor excuse of comedy called Whose Line is it Anyway?
Mike
3February 1st, 2007 at 2:23 pm
This is the person who posted a few hours ago as “MYOB”, and I’d like to apologize for the confrontational tone of the previous post. It was a bit out of line. I just tend to get defensive when I see comments like the one Alex made in this post, because throughout my school career, I’ve always excelled in the “three R’s”, but struggled with history, geography, and science. And it’s really not that I don’t care about those subjects, but just that I got overwhelmed with all of the dates and locations that I needed to memorize, and as a result, I didn’t retain most of it. I do think it’s important to have a general knowledge of this country’s history and geography, so I probably should make an effort to educate myself a bit more.
Alex Davis
4February 1st, 2007 at 2:33 pm
No, your comment was fine and I appreciate your honesty, I really do. I just think this show is a waste of time. If it was something serious like WinTuition, I think it would be fine. However, you know they are going to capitalize on the stupidity of people on this show by making fun of people who don’t know simple things. The entire show will be “Haha, you don’t know what a 5th grader knows”, and that doesn’t sit well with me.
And trust me, I am awful with geography too. But I think it’s common knowledge to know the Great Lakes and where Mount Rushmore is. I’ll make a little addition to the post. Again, I do appreciate your total honesty. It is always welcome when it comes in an inteligent form, as both of your posts did.
Darren
5February 1st, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Knowing geography isn’t a sign of intelligence, per se, no. Knowing about the world about you, however, is a part of being an all-around intelligent person.
Speaking as someone who was born and raised outside the US, why *don’t* you know where the landmarks of your own country are? Why doesn’t it seem to matter that the people on Street Smarts, and other shows, don’t know the difference between cities, countries and continents? Clearly, someone with degrees in education decided that this is valuable information to know when you’re in fifth grade, not so that you can forget it all by the sixth, but because voting ethically in a presidential election would include being informed about which country (or city, or continent) the candidates plan to bomb. Or negotiate trade agreements with. Or outsource your jobs to.
Sorry, being bad at math doesn’t excuse you from doing taxes, or from having to calculate discounts in the store to figure out if you’re really saving money. Being bad at science doesn’t mean you’ll never have to touch a computer in your life, or household cleaning products, or a car engine. Being bad at history and geography doesn’t prevent you from having to keep an eye on politicians before they decide to try stomping all over your freedoms.
Intelligence without information is called “potential”. But only in fifth-graders.
Andy
6February 1st, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Who will be the emcee/host?
KP
7February 2nd, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Is it just me, or does this seem like it’s going to end up feeling like a Comedy Central format if Comedy Central had an ungodly amount of money to spend on programming?
Cole
8February 28th, 2007 at 8:35 am
i watched your sjow lasntight it sucked it stunk can i be in it and i will show you action
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