WWTBAM Bored

I actually forced myself to watch Celebrity 5th Grader last night. Clay Aiken wasn't too bad-he seemed to be enjoying himself and was serious about raising money for his charity.

Then came Regis. He tried to be funny. He was playing for his old high school (Catholic schools need LOTS of donations from alumni to stay open-mine keeps sending fundraising letters to former students to get them to fork over cash) and wound up with $175K. He used up all his cheats before getting to the final 2 questions, both 5th grade. Now he understands how BAM contestants felt after using all their lifelines!

Kazoo65 wrote:I actually forced myself to watch Celebrity 5th Grader last night. Clay Aiken wasn't too bad-he seemed to be enjoying himself and was serious about raising money for his charity.

Then came Regis. He tried to be funny. He was playing for his old high school (Catholic schools need LOTS of donations from alumni to stay open-mine keeps sending fundraising letters to former students to get them to fork over cash) and wound up with $175K. He used up all his cheats before getting to the final 2 questions, both 5th grade. Now he understands how BAM contestants felt after using all their lifelines!

I didn't see all of the show - by the time we got home from various errands I thought it would be over, but when I switched on the TV I found it was still going - it turned out to be a 2-hour episode. So all I saw was the last 15 minutes.

I watched it. Clay was way over the top with all his banter, but that's what TPTB loves. Then he gets a $300K question about A Christmas Carol and gives a shout-out to everyone in the book but me! <grumble>®

Regis did his shtick but also respected Jeff Foxworthy's own shtick, like his favorite, "The next question iiiiissssss--coming right up after these messages!" But for all his talk about wanting to save his cheats on the early questions, he still wasted them. How could an Irish Catholic boy playing for his Catholic high school not know that the Romans spoke Latin?

We really saw how well preserved Regis is when they played that video greeting from a couple of his classmates (both of whose grammar school photos he identified without hesitation): those classmates looked old!

My biggest laugh of the evening was when Regis started telling a story of carving his initials into his teacher's desk with a penknife when Sierra, one of the new 5th graders, interrupted him. "You had a knife in school???"

Things were different in the old days, Sierra.

Clay was way over the top with all his banter, but that's what TPTB loves.

Unless TPTB is Kelly Ripa ...

I'm surprised Regis didn't, at least once say his answer and then say "Final Answer" or "That's my final answer"

I didn't even know that this was gonna be on or I would have watched "5th Grader" for the first time since the 2nd show just to see Regis in action.

takinover wrote:I didn't even know that this was gonna be on or I would have watched "5th Grader" for the first time since the 2nd show just to see Regis in action.

That's the only reason I watched it. Regis was a good choice for 5th Grader. He was charming in his own sarcastic way, and he interacted well with the kids. Whoever noted upthread that he had held up nicely for his age, particularly in comparison with his classmates, was on the mark, too.

Of course, I would like to have heard him say that he would match the show's check from his own bank account to make the contribution larger for the school. (He may well give more than that every year. I don't know. I just want to know that celebrities practice philanthropy when the money isn't being supplied by television shows and their sponsors.)

takinover wrote:I didn't even know that this was gonna be on or I would have watched "5th Grader" for the first time since the 2nd show just to see Regis in action.

I did post a reminder about this yesterday, but I think it was a more or less last minute scheduling decision, when the World Series ended sooner than TPTB expected.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

takinover wrote:I didn't even know that this was gonna be on or I would have watched "5th Grader" for the first time since the 2nd show just to see Regis in action.

I did post a reminder about this yesterday, but I think it was a more or less last minute scheduling decision, when the World Series ended sooner than TPTB expected.

I figured it was a sweeps thing, it being November and all.