5th Grader

[MarleysGh0st]

Anyone remember this show? Anyone remember that it came back onto prime time, this summer? Anyone realize that the first bunch of 5th graders, (like Jeff & PSM's Emma, who tried out for that cast) have now finished their freshman year of college?

So, glutton for punishment that I am, I've recorded it a couple times in recent weeks. Pretty much all the same, with Jeff Foxworthy still dragging everything out waaaaaaay more than necessary, along with contestants who manage to doubt themselves over the easiest questions. A few changes I noticed:

- The theme music has been re-recorded, with a version that makes the lyrics more difficult to understand than before.
- The kids' desks now have a "Kid Cam" built into them for reaction shots.
- They've made it a standard feature that at the $10,000 level, a correct answer will also guarantee $10,000 for an elementary school that TPTB have selected. This provides an opportunity to waste more show time talking to a group from the school over a live video feed.
- Most significantly, the "Copy" cheat has been modified, so that whatever the 5th grader wrote down originally doesn't count. After the cheat has been selected, the 5th grader gets to have a conference with all of his/her classmates, before deciding what final answer to write down.

In this week's show, a contestant was a school principal, himself. He got a $50,000 question asking what state bordered North Dakota to the west. He decided to use his Copy.

Spoiler

The class ended up having three votes for Wyoming, one for Minnesota and one for Montana. The 5th grader at the podium went with Minnesota and the contestant went home with $25K.

[earendel]

Anyone remember this show?

Yes.

Anyone remember that it came back onto prime time, this summer?

Yes.

Anyone realize that the first bunch of 5th graders, (like Jeff & PSM's Emma, who tried out for that cast) have now finished their freshman year of college?

No. But as you said elsewhere, young'uns grow up.

So, glutton for punishment that I am, I've recorded it a couple times in recent weeks. Pretty much all the same, with Jeff Foxworthy still dragging everything out waaaaaaay more than necessary, along with contestants who manage to doubt themselves over the easiest questions.

I've recorded and watched the new episodes. I didn't notice the changed theme song but did notice the change in the "Copy" cheat. I guess the reason is to give the contestant a better chance by using it, but as noted it doesn't always work out.

[smilergrogan]

In this week's show, a contestant was a school principal, himself. He got a $50,000 question asking what state bordered North Dakota to the west. He decided to use his Copy.

Spoiler

The class ended up having three votes for Wyoming, one for Minnesota and one for Montana. The 5th grader at the podium went with Minnesota and the contestant went home with $25K.

I think there's a case to be made that the question is ambiguous and Minnesota could be correct. Does the question mean to the west of ND or to the west of the state in question?

[MarleysGh0st]

I think there's a case to be made that the question is ambiguous and Minnesota could be correct. Does the question mean to the west of ND or to the west of the state in question?

Perhaps I caused the ambiguity by paraphrasing, but they meant the state to the west of ND. They introduced the question by first displaying one of those funny answers a student allegedly answered on a real test. That student's answer to this question was "Uhhh...West Dakota?"

[K.P.]

Here's a point of discussion.

There are three "cheats":

Peek - Look at the kid's answer
Copy - Automatically take the kid's answer
Save - Get a question wrong and stay in the game if the kid is right.

I always figured the optimum strategy when using the Peek would be to NOT take the kid's answer. That way you cover two answers, because the Save will give you the win if the kid is right. The only downside, and I don't think it's a huge downside in this game, is that you're using two cheats if the kid was right.

[MarleysGh0st]

The only downside, and I don't think it's a huge downside in this game, is that you're using two cheats if the kid was right.

But it is a huge downside, given how quickly the contestants cast for this show burn through their lifelines.

[vettech]

Shows like this make me glad I have a DVR. I can watch an episode in about 10 minutes. I can't imagine watching it "live".

[tlynn78]

Anyone remember this show? Anyone remember that it came back onto prime time, this summer? Anyone realize that the first bunch of 5th graders, (like Jeff & PSM's Emma, who tried out for that cast) have now finished their freshman year of college?

So, glutton for punishment that I am, I've recorded it a couple times in recent weeks. Pretty much all the same, with Jeff Foxworthy still dragging everything out waaaaaaay more than necessary, along with contestants who manage to doubt themselves over the easiest questions. A few changes I noticed:

- The theme music has been re-recorded, with a version that makes the lyrics more difficult to understand than before.
- The kids' desks now have a "Kid Cam" built into them for reaction shots.
- They've made it a standard feature that at the $10,000 level, a correct answer will also guarantee $10,000 for an elementary school that TPTB have selected. This provides an opportunity to waste more show time talking to a group from the school over a live video feed.
- Most significantly, the "Copy" cheat has been modified, so that whatever the 5th grader wrote down originally doesn't count. After the cheat has been selected, the 5th grader gets to have a conference with all of his/her classmates, before deciding what final answer to write down.

In this week's show, a contestant was a school principal, himself. He got a $50,000 question asking what state bordered North Dakota to the west. He decided to use his Copy.

Spoiler

The class ended up having three votes for Wyoming, one for Minnesota and one for Montana. The 5th grader at the podium went with Minnesota and the contestant went home with $25K.

<sigh>

[Bob Juch]

Anyone remember this show? Anyone remember that it came back onto prime time, this summer? Anyone realize that the first bunch of 5th graders, (like Jeff & PSM's Emma, who tried out for that cast) have now finished their freshman year of college?

So, glutton for punishment that I am, I've recorded it a couple times in recent weeks. Pretty much all the same, with Jeff Foxworthy still dragging everything out waaaaaaay more than necessary, along with contestants who manage to doubt themselves over the easiest questions. A few changes I noticed:

- The theme music has been re-recorded, with a version that makes the lyrics more difficult to understand than before.
- The kids' desks now have a "Kid Cam" built into them for reaction shots.
- They've made it a standard feature that at the $10,000 level, a correct answer will also guarantee $10,000 for an elementary school that TPTB have selected. This provides an opportunity to waste more show time talking to a group from the school over a live video feed.
- Most significantly, the "Copy" cheat has been modified, so that whatever the 5th grader wrote down originally doesn't count. After the cheat has been selected, the 5th grader gets to have a conference with all of his/her classmates, before deciding what final answer to write down.

In this week's show, a contestant was a school principal, himself. He got a $50,000 question asking what state bordered North Dakota to the west. He decided to use his Copy.

Spoiler

The class ended up having three votes for Wyoming, one for Minnesota and one for Montana. The 5th grader at the podium went with Minnesota and the contestant went home with $25K.

<sigh>

Well of course YOU know.