Comments on: How to Play Syndicated “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader”

By: JeopardyWinner

JeopardyWinner — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:57:24 +0000

Hey, when are they auditioning people for this show

Seems like an easy $250,000 or $150,000 with taxes

By: Positive Polly

Positive Polly — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:19:49 +0000

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.

By: Positive Polly

Positive Polly — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:17:23 +0000

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.

By: Marko Polo

Marko Polo — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:19:46 +0000

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.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:19:36 +0000

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).

By: BobHagh

BobHagh — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:12:34 +0000

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).

By: Scott Meckley

Scott Meckley — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:58:57 +0000

Sounds exciting. I can't wait to watch this.

By: Kevin C.

Kevin C. — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:05:11 +0000

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.

By: Joe Raygor

Joe Raygor — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:17:28 +0000

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)

By: DeVares

DeVares — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:37:31 +0000

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.

By: dropzone5

dropzone5 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:11:48 +0000

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.

By: gamerrox

gamerrox — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:11:26 +0000

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.

By: GrahamGB

GrahamGB — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:49:36 +0000

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.

By: ScottNotSteve

ScottNotSteve — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:41:10 +0000

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.

By: MillRL

MillRL — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:31:09 +0000

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.