If you've been watching Jeopardy lately, and feeling somehow smarter, I've got bad news. It's not you. Quiz shows are getting dumber. The (relatively) good news is that some of them aren't making any bones about it; Fox's new hit is literally called, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" There's something to be said for honesty; but with the way things are going, is it possible the next big thing in quiz shows will be called, "How Dumb Are You?" We've assembled various smarty-pants to weigh in on the dumbing-down ... braniac Ken Jennings will be one. (If you're sick of all the easy questions, check out his blog for Wordplay Wednesday. It stumped me.) Doesn't this seem to be another incarnation of the '50s quiz show scandals; after all, by making the questions easier, aren't you still fixing the game?
Blog of the Nation
I think the quiz shows got dumber when most of them moved from New York to the west coast.
My chief complaint about Jeopardy in recent years is the invasion of "branding" and not-so-subtle advertising in the show. There have been more and more categories and questions devoted to consumer products and advertising slogans; for instance, last night's "Boggle" category, while interesting, is a free (or is it?) advertisement for the game. In addition to giving free (?) product placements, these types of questions tend to be easier for the home viewer and penalize those contestants who are not avid consumers. I also hate the use of celebrity clue readers.
I have to say, the first caller who said she watches the "smarter than a 5th grader" show just for the laughs probably had it right. We need something positive, something we can identify with, something happy. Why do you think "Weakest Link" didn't last? It was negative. Who wants to watch someone be insulted and told they're not good enough? We want something positive, something we can identify with, something we can daydream about doing ourselves. Most of us aren't on a par with Ken Jennings!
Quiz shows seem to concentrate on embarrasing people instead of celebrating knowledge. People like to watch "dumb" people, it makes one feel smarter. People enjoy laughing at the contestant, not about themselves.
Speaking of dumbing things down, your next segment is about collecting shopping bags.
The tv version of Jeopardy has provided enough entertainment and educational information to my family over the years as the children were growing up. I found out recently that my son who attends a big ten university is using the Jeopardy format to present his group report in a Medieval History class. They won't be "dumbing down" the information--they want an "A"
The dynamics of television have simply changed in recent years. ???Smarter than a 5th grader??? may be on the extreme of easier questions, but it yields an interesting insight into higher education. I often get many of the questions wrong on the show, despite almost finishing my PhD, whereas my wife gets almost all of them right. I think the ???5th grader??? game is an excellent social and psychological experiment about how specialized we are in our fields of employ, that we simply cannot even remember the basics. How many of us still struggle with our children???s homework? I not sure if the questions are simply ???dumbed down??? as much as specialized education simply deprives us as a society in the realm of general knowledge.
The one thing that all of the new game shows (Who Wants to Be a Millonaire, Deal or No Deal, One vs One Hundred, etc.) have in common is that knowledge is secondary. What gets people to watch is their use of the rising popularity of gambling in American culture. We want to know if the contestant is going to wager the enormous sum they have already won on being able to answer a question that hasn't been asked yet. Answering correctly or not is what keeps us watching, but it's the bet that pulls us in. It's about greed and hubris and the vouyeuristic nature of current entertainment and not whether you know more than the guy taking the gamble.
I need the address before Tuesday the 2nd of July. I lost the address on who wants to be a millioniare .I was chosen to be a contestant and have no address my computer is broken and did another computer, and it did not save it,so please can you help with that.
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