Regular readers know that I’m a vocal critic of FOX’s Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader and figured that the initial report of the crew essentially leaving the show as it is for the syndicated version debuting September 2009 was a giant mistake. Let’s be honest, like 90% of quiz shows out this decade it’s a gigantic clone of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? except essentially for dumbasses. The fun part, though, of running a semi-popular crazy rambling website is audience members can tell me what goes on during the tapings and you all can digest it. After hearing how the new syndicated edition of Fifth Grader plays, I have to tell you, I’m actually sort of interested in the show. Thanks to the audience members from this past weekend who gave me feedback.
There are still ten questions comprised of two different questions in grades one through five. There are still three “Cheats”, or Lifelines, which can keep you in the game. However, there is no walking away and, thankfully, no money chain. Each grade level has a different dollar attached to it, and each right answer at that level adds money to your bank. 1st grade is worth $500 a piece, 2nd grade is worth $1,000; 3rd grade is worth $2,500; 4th grade is worth $3,500; and the 5th grade questions are worth $5,000. The bad news is if you miss a question your bank is wiped out to $0, but you still have to play through all 10 questions. You just restart at $0. After all ten questions if you have any money in your bank you can risk it on the bonus question or walk away. If you go for it and it get it right your money is multiplied by ten for a top prize of $250,000. However, if you miss that final question you lose all your money and walk away with nothing.
Again, I’m actually remotely intrigued by this format. It’s going to be interesting to see in what order contestants play the categories. Presumably the smartest strategy would be to take out some of the higher grade level questions first and save the easy questions for last to guarantee you have a chance at the bonus question and can leave with at least something. Really the only issue I have is that there are so many ways to leave with nothing in this format it’s crazy and I sense a lot of anti-climactic and cheap games because the majority of contestants the show casts aren’t the brightest. However, I know it’s a daytime show and we’re in a crappy economic situation so as long as it’s not a major problem (something we won’t know until the show airs), I’m fine with it.
But there we go. They’re offering something different than the FOX version which people tired of thankfully, and it’s a more interesting game than the original also. We’ll see how it holds up, though, against the other big money quiz shows in syndication which require you to know more than a ten year old. What do you think? Are you more cautiously optimistic with the show than before, as I am now?
26 Responses
That's interesting. This is my interpretation, lemme know if that's right. I answer four questions right and get the fifth one wrong. My bank is now $0 but I can rebuild it with the 5 questions left?
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 5:34 am
Should have specified. This is what happens when I do late night coffee-infused insomniac posting. You have to play all 10 questions. Missing a question just wipes your score to $0 and you have to finish the rest. Unless of course you miss question 10, then you're just done and they don't give you free money.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 5:42 am
Okay, cool, that makes sense. The 10x risk will be interesting, especially to see how many people go for it and with how much they have banked.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 5:45 am
The changes sound good to me. There's some added strategy involved, and it makes a lot more sense to go for the final bonus question when it increases your winnings by a factor of ten. Only a major wimp would walk away from a possible 10x opportunity on the final question.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 6:04 am
Now, I dunno about that. A risk of $1,500 would make sense. But Imany people could definitely use $25,000 and, although a skyrocketing of $250,000 would be nice, it's obviously not guaranteed and will be a challenge.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 6:09 am
This makes the game seem less broken than what it was on Fox. Even if you mess up a couple times, you still keep going untill you a) have money to risk after Q10 or wipe out after Q10.
I wonder if they'll reveal the subject for the bonus question like they did on the Fox version. That may or may not influence a player's decision to risk his/her money or walk away. Should be interesting to see how it unfolds this September.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I think the way the bonus question would give a contestant ten times the money is probably too risky for people who think they want to keep the money they have. I would have opted for a system where how many questions you got right in the main game, will also be the number that will multiply your winnings. For example, getting six questions right and having $22,000 at bank, getting a possible $132,000 by doing '22000 x 6'. I think they should consider this idea for later, possibly to make the chances of getting the maximum prize much harder and would make it technically more climatic to think about it.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 10:06 am
I grew up watching The Big Showdown in the 1970s when Wisconsinite Jim Peck presided over this classic gambling game show of spped, intelligence and nerves of steel – quite possibly, I hadn't viewed it on television since I was a kid.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Mr. Toutant,
This is your big day to tune in to Jeopardy!
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
When the show was on FOX, the big reason that I was not a fan of it was the fact that a person could win $1,000,000 for answering elementary-level difficulty questions. It was too much money for the knowledge level tested. Thought not a fan of the show, I did respect the question writing. The writing helped to make people second guess their answers.
With this change in format for syndication, I like it. It is being played for the right amount of money now. I do hope the question writing stays the same and it doesn't become a full fledge multiple choice "Millionaire" style form. I'm close to being a fan of the show, but it needs to be done right for me to become one.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Sounds like an interesting change of format. Management of question values and helps will be fun to watch. It would be nice to see the actual question before the contestant has to decide whether to walk away.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Does anyone remember the disaster the "Double or Nothing" question on the Tom Bergeron/Whoopi Goldberg era Hollywood Squares was? Hardly anyone went for it, at least from what I remember. (I stopped watching it when it became "The Whoopi Show" but started watching again once she left.)
I would suggest that if you go for the bonus question, you lose half if you answer incorrectly. Then the person leaves with something, and it would encourage more people to go for the bonus question.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Am I the only one that feels that there should be some incentive to answer the more difficult questions at the end? Otherwise it wouldn’t be a surprise if most contestants answer the hard questions and then the easier ones at the end. Maybe a cash bonus or prize package for answering the high-level questions at the end? I just fear that there will be an obvious trend in the order contestants will answer questions.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I think the incentive to answer the more difficult questions is the greater amount of money tacked onto them. It's like the way the Jeopardy! board is laid out…you can bounce around however you want, but the harder clues are on the bottom of the board and are subsequently worth more money. Yet despite this, people still choose to go top to bottom about 90% of the time, and I don't see anyone saying anything about that.
Posted on June 15th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
This, IMHO, would work if Fox does something it failed to do with Temptation and Trivial Pursuit (the latter of which is understandable since it was going through a hosting change with weeks to go before the premiere), and that is promote it. Other than that, I love it. Even if you get a question wrong, it's not the end of the world. Fox got it right this time around, but its success will depend on the first sentence of this post.
Posted on June 16th, 2009 at 12:37 am
I think just cutting the bank in half, instead of losing it all, would work better. It would give nearly everyone a shot at the final question gamble. (Unless they somehow go 0-10)
Posted on June 16th, 2009 at 3:17 am
I think I would do it this way:
$500 for each first grade question. $1,000 for each 2nd grade question, etc. all the way to $2,500 for each 5th grade question. For each incorrect answer, you lose half the money. If you have one cheat left at the end, $25,000 would get added to your winnings. $50,000 for 2 cheats. $100,000 for all 3 cheats.
Therefore, you could only win the $250,000 if you truly answer all 11 questions (without peeking, cheating, or being saved). This also provides people a more fair shot at getting some money.
Posted on June 16th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Sounds exciting. I can't wait to watch this.
Posted on June 17th, 2009 at 3:58 am
I like this a lot! It doesn't look like a carbon-copy of "Millionaire" now. I'm sure in these tough times, people who earn a couple of grand during the game may decide to take it and not opt for the 10x question. Sure, a jump from, let's say, $5,000 to $50,000 is amazing, but $5,000 is still a good days worth (knowing you have to risk everything for the 10x).
Posted on June 19th, 2009 at 3:12 am
The "all or nothing" idea would be a problem. I do think one idea to help would be "big bet" on the final question – go for it for 10 times the money or lose 90% of what they've won (ie $10,000 – a correct answer equals $100,000, a wrong answer equals $1,000).
Posted on June 19th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
So it's like "The Weakest Link", but without the option to say "bank", and they have to play through all 10 questions. It's not a bad idea, and I'm interested to see how this all plays out.
Posted on June 20th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Wow…why are some of you such jerks about this show and its contestants? First of all…IT'S JUST A GAME SHOW…why are you so bitter about it? Second, it's television…and the reality of unscripted television is that it casts personality over anything else (unless of course for Jeopardy, on which it seems to a requirement that the contestants be completely devoid of any social skills whatsoever). Second, just because a person doesn't remember every single detail of what they learned in elementary school doesn't make him or her an idiot…it probably means he or she actually got their noses out of their graphic novels and had a life instead. And it CERTAINLY doesn't make them underserving of winning a worthwhile chunk of money. It sounds more to me like perhaps none of you actually have enough personality to get cast on this show so you're just being Negative Nancies about it.
I sat through a taping day a couple weeks ago. As an FYI, you cannot view the bonus question and choose to walk away, as on the old show. You can view the bonus CATEGORY, but you have to choose to take the risk based on that, not the actual question.
Posted on June 29th, 2009 at 4:17 am
A bunch of you will probably jump on me for the mistakes in my post…oh, well. I guess I'm not smarter than a 5th grader. That and there's no edit option.
Posted on June 29th, 2009 at 4:19 am
Hey, when are they auditioning people for this show
Seems like an easy $250,000 or $150,000 with taxes
Posted on August 26th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
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