Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? (Hong Kong game show)

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? (Chinese: 係咪小兒科; lit. 'Is it child's play?') is a game show produced by TVB from 2008 to 2009. It is the Hong Kong version of the American show of the same name. It was hosted by Leo Ku and narrated by Kevin So [zh].

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?
係咪小兒科
Created byFox
StarringLeo Ku
Country of originHong Kong
No. of episodes26 (season 1)
30 (season 2)
Production
Running time60 minutes per episode (episode 1-15)
45 minutes per episode (episode 16-26)
30 minutes per episode (season 2)
(inc. commercials)
Original release
NetworkTVB
Release25 October 2008 (2008-10-25) –
16 November 2009 (2009-11-16)

The first season started on 25 October 2008 and ended on 25 April 2009. The second season aired between 5 October 2009 and 16 November 2009.

Format

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The format is based on the original 2007-09 United States version (not the level-based format adopted when the show switched to syndication).

The 3 "cheats" are called "參考隔籬" (Peek), "搬字過紙" (Copy) and "自動補答" (Save) respectively.

The question values are also the same as the American version, but in Hong Kong Dollars. The top prize, HK$1,000,000, is about US$129,000.

Question Values
11 $1,000,000
5 $25,000 10 $500,000
4 $10,000 9 $300,000
3 $5,000 8 $175,000
2 $2,000 7 $100,000
1 $1,000 6 $50,000

The subjects of the questions are:

However, unlike other versions, at the start of every episode, the host will ask an IQ question, which is just for fun, the answer will be announced at the end of that episode.

List of contestants

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All the contestants are celebrities. "Drop out" means the contestant quits in the middle of the game, "Flunk out" means the contestant answers the question incorrectly.

Season 1

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Episode Date Contestant Drop out/Flunk out Prize won
1 25 October 2008 Sandra Ng Drop out HK$50,000
2 1 November 2008 Roger Kwok Drop out HK$50,000
3 8 November 2008 So Sze-wong Flunk out on the HK$100,000 question HK$25,000
4 15 November 2008 Sammy Leung Flunk out on the HK$100,000 question HK$25,000
5 22 November 2008 Eric Kot Drop out HK$100,000
6 29 November 2008 Athena Chu Drop out HK$100,000
7 6 December 2008 Bosco Wong Drop out HK$100,000
8 13 December 2008 Edmond Leung Drop out HK$100,000
9 20 December 2008 Eric Suen Drop out HK$175,000
10 27 December 2008 Cheung Tat-Ming Drop out HK$100,000
11 3 January 2009 Jessica Hsuan Drop out HK$175,000
12 10 January 2009 Louis Yuen Drop out HK$100,000
13 17 January 2009 Myolie Wu Drop out HK$100,000
14 24 January 2009 Andrew Lam Drop out HK$100,000
15 31 January 2009 Wong Cho Lam Drop out HK$100,000
16 7 February 2009 Ha Yu Drop out HK$100,000
17 14 February 2009 Kate Tsui Drop out HK$175,000
18 21 February 2009 Law Kar-ying Flunk out on the HK$100,000 question HK$25,000
19 28 February 2009 Amigo Choi Drop out HK$100,000
20 7 March 2009 Mark Lui Drop out HK$50,000
21 14 March 2009 Michael Miu Drop out HK$175,000
22 21 March 2009 Ivan Ho Drop out HK$100,000
23 28 March 2009 FAMA Drop out HK$175,000
24 4 April 2009 Felix Wong, Carlo Ng Drop out HK$175,000
25 18 April 2009 I Love You Boyz Drop out HK$175,000
26 25 April 2009 Sammy Leung, Kitty Yuen Drop out HK$175,000

Season 2

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Episode Date Contestant Drop out/Flunk out Prize won
1-2 5–6 October 2009 Michael Tse Drop out HK$300,000
3-4 7–8 October 2009 Sunny Chan Drop out HK$100,000
5-6 9 and 12 October 2009 Charmaine Sheh Drop out HK$175,000
7-8 13–14 October 2009 Kiki Sheung Drop out HK$100,000
9-10 15–16 October 2009 Wayne Lai Drop out HK$175,000
11-12 20–21 October 2009 Peter So Drop out HK$100,000
13-14 22–23 October 2009 Shirley Yeung Drop out HK$300,000
15-16 26–27 October 2009 Wong He Drop out HK$175,000
17-18 28–29 October 2009 Chapman To, Yumiko Cheng Drop out HK$100,000
19-20 30 October – 2 November 2009 Kenny Bee, Benette Pang Drop out HK$175,000
21-22 3–4 November 2009 Nancy Sit, Lee Lik-Chi Drop out HK$175,000
23-24 5–6 November 2009 Vincy Chan, Wong Cho Lam Drop out HK$300,000
25-26 9–10 November 2009 Anthony Wong Chau Sang, Lorretta Chow Flunk out on the HK$500,000 question HK$25,000
27-28 11–12 November 2009 Chow Chung, Andrew Lam Drop out HK$100,000
29-30 13 and 16 November 2009 Sammy Leung, Kitty Yuen Drop out HK$175,000

Criticism

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Since the "classmates" of every episode almost got all the questions correctly, many audience thought that they memorized all the answers already before the recording of the show. Some audience may even think that the actual purpose of the show is to bring out the message that children are smarter than adults.[1] Memorizing like that convinced some people they cheated via sophisticated state-of-the-art gadgets, this included "telephoning" individualistic thoughts, pre-recorded hidden textual dialogues and even secrecy in transfer quixotic answers.[1][2]

References

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  1. ^ a b Vincent Terrace (2009). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 Through 2007: A-E. McFarland. pp. 760–789. ISBN 978-0-7864-3305-6.
  2. ^ Belgomi, Velhousi. Star India.
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