Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? is a game show franchise based on the television game show of the same name. The television show began broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company network as a special in the United States and Canada on February 27, 2007, and it grew to be popular enough that a half-hour-long syndicated TV series was developed by the owners.

Since then, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? has been replicated in several other countries, some versions under the same title, and some under modified ones. The first season of this TV program ranked 28th in the Nielsen ratings in the U.S., with an average of 12.7 million viewers per episode. The status of the Fox-TV series following the summer of 2008 was unknown, but the syndicated TV show debuted in late-September 2009. Episodes from this series were also broadcast on MyNetworkTV one evening per week, and on the Country Music Television (CMT) channel it was broadcast on five evenings per week.

GSN began airing the show November 6, 2011 in five-hour blocks starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern/6:00 p.m. They currently air Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? Sunday nights.

In 2013, the show appeared in TV Guide's list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.

Each game is played by a single contestant who earns money incrementally based on a payout ladder by answering simple trivia questions, with the game themed as a school quiz. The game relies on the premise that an adult would not know the information generally taught in elementary grade school, because it is rarely used in adult life by the type of person chosen to be a contestant. Therefore, the show is essentially a test to see how much an adult has retained since graduating elementary school. The show also derives its humor by occasionally displaying the contestant's educational attainment, implying that in spite of that, they struggle to answer some questions.

The contestant is presented and chooses from a set of ten subjects and grade level question topics. The question is then revealed. Some questions are multiple choice or true/false; others require the contestant to answer without any options.

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