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Are You Smarter than a Ten Year Old?

A scene from Are You Smarter than a Ten Year Old?
  • Posted at 11:15am
  • 15 November 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT
  • 19 comments

Am I smarter than a ten year old? Well, that depends. If I was put head to head with a primary-school kid and challenged to, say, arrange a skiing holiday for 20 people, I'd be fairly confident that I wouldn't cock up the flights, forget to inform the group of the maximum baggage allowance, or burst into tears if I had trouble finding a hotel.

But, on the other hand, I've not had a French vocab test in 20 years – thank goodness – so the ten year old, fresh out of last week's double French lesson, might have a chance of beating me and shouting, "J'ai gagné!"

Similarly, I couldn't tell you the dates of the reign of Elizabeth I, the chemical formula for sulphuric acid, or confidently annotate a cross section of a volcano. I used to be able to. But that just makes me, well, more forgetful than a ten year old. Not a great premise for a programme, is it? But I'm afraid it exists.

On this show, adults have to answer a range of hilariously easy questions in order to win up to £50,000. Seriously, these questions make the first five on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? feel like taking on a PhD in Bioinformatics. But, should the adults become confused under the glare of the studio lights, a group of precocious ten year olds are also answering the questions on their secret electronic pads, and they'll be on hand to help out – albeit while sniggering slightly.

Tuesday's show featured a 62-year-old computer consultant. "How old are you?" asked the presenters, Dick and Dom. "I'm 62," he replied. "And what the hell are you doing on this programme?" I mumbled from the sofa. "And what are you doing on this show?" asked Dick and Dom, in an unexpected echo. "It's my wife's fault," he replied, pointing to her in the huge audience which had congregated to watch this battle between Goliath, and several Davids in school uniform.

He breezed through the answers, the only minor problems occurring on subjects that just weren't taught at school in the 1950s. Anyone over the age of 45, for example, will regard something like Venn diagrams with confusion and suspicion. But hey, that's not their fault.

Dick and Dom were trying, hilariously, to introduce a note of suspense into proceedings, but our contestant was having none of it. What's the chemical formula for salt? "Sodium chloride," he announced immediately. "Um... Do you think there's any point in us doing the prolonged silence thing?" Dick asked Dom, or vice versa, I dunno. "Mm. He's very confident, isn't he."

Of course he is, he's a 62-year-old computer consultant, and you're asking him elementary general knowledge questions. The queues to go on this programme must be hundreds of thousands strong, and if they're not, let me have a go, I'll take Rupert Murdoch's money if no-one else wants it.

Having said all that, he walked away at the £7,500 point, having forgotten what number the Roman numeral "D" represented. His forfeit was to look into the camera and announce that he wasn't as smart as a ten year old. I think I could put up with this minor humiliation in exchange for £7,500.

To discover whether you can outthink a schoolchild, watch Are You Smarter than a Ten Year Old? on Sky One (Sky 106).

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Post a comment | 19 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 06 November 2009
  • at 10:52am
  • by LauraPledger-RT

FAO Darren - we're told Are You Smarter Than Your Ten Year Old is due to start towards the end of December, but a specific date has not yet been confirmed.

  • Posted on 04 November 2009
  • at 8:19pm
  • by Darren

Me and my daughter went to a filmiming of "are you smarter than YOUR ten year old in August and was told that it will be screened in november and the trailers will be October but have not seen them,can you please tell me when they will be screened,so we dont miss them. Thank you.

  • Posted on 23 July 2009
  • at 5:49pm
  • by Natasha hottie!

sum of those kids are really smart so i just answer them correctly as im in yr 9!

  • Posted on 17 July 2009
  • at 9:06pm
  • by yuiop

i think are you smarter than a ten year old shows that maybe some kids are smarter than an adult and if you want a challange don't be scared to play your parents and laugh at them ifthey are not smarter than a ten year oldxxx

  • Posted on 14 July 2009
  • at 3:41pm
  • by stephanie

i just want to say to the privous writer that whatever the sum is and you multiply by "0" your going 2 end up with "0"anyway.so both ways with or without the brackets ur going to have "0"as the answer.....

  • Posted on 16 June 2009
  • at 6:51pm
  • by g man

i might be smarter than a 10 year old because i am 11 years old but the questions they ask are really harder than i thought and someday i will be on the show

  • Posted on 09 May 2009
  • at 12:26pm
  • by rebecca

i am smarter than a ten year old because i am a ten year old

  • Posted on 09 April 2009
  • at 4:41pm
  • by Graham

I was a contestant in July 2008 but it was only shown a few weeks ago. I don't have Sky but have the Sky player on my PC, unfortunately the list of shows are just numbered editions, so how can i find out which one I was on?

  • Posted on 15 February 2009
  • at 12:22pm
  • by Pam

This is an answer to 'Alisan Morris'... the guy you are referring to was actually 70 years old, and I have just watched the very show you are talking about. He won £15,000 and was putting it towards helping his daughter to adopt as she couldn't have children of her own. I am quite sure if you tune in to Sky2 it will most probably be repeated. Hope this helps...

  • Posted on 08 February 2009
  • at 9:12am
  • by Ellie

I think you are amazing but my family would get them right anyday so get them quistions comeing

  • Posted on 28 January 2009
  • at 11:25am
  • by alisan morris

hi we went to are you smarter than a ten year old show and we were in 3 episodes with dick and dom in august 08 and they told us that we will be on the show . We have not seen any so far with the people that we saw? Is it possible that you would be able to get back to me, to let me know when we would be on tv. I think there was a 65 year old bloke from hertfordshire and he was going to help his daughter adpot a child with the money! Another was a 30 year old lady who has just had a baby boy. Hope to hear from you soon.

  • Posted on 17 January 2009
  • at 10:21am
  • by smarter lover

i am smarter than you all

  • Posted on 01 January 2009
  • at 12:30pm
  • by sophie

i am only eight and i am in fifth because i was pushed up 2 grades for being so smart

  • Posted on 27 December 2008
  • at 5:16pm
  • by robyn

i think its some good fun but i also think that these questions are only asked to children taught in a professional school

  • Posted on 16 December 2008
  • at 1:05pm
  • by WilliamGallagher-RT

While it's not being screened over Christmas, the editions Sky1 airs of Are You Smarter Than a 10-Year-Old during daytime hours is the one hosted by Dick and Dom.

So far there are no Dick and Dom editions released on DVD.

  • Posted on 16 December 2008
  • at 10:40am
  • by alisan

when will they be showing dick and doms version of are you smarter than a ten year old? As we went there to watch the show but have not seen it on tv yet or can we buy it on dvd? Please can you let me know. Thankyou.

  • Posted on 04 January 2008
  • at 11:22pm
  • by Katiie Babiiehh_x

Actually Youu Can Win Uptoo £250,000 Thought id Tell Ya ;)

  • Posted on 26 December 2007
  • at 1:12pm
  • by Dronfieldman

I agree with the previous poster. It is a fundamental aspect of Maths that multiplication takes precedence over addition, giving the correct answer as 5. As all the children got the answer wrong, it alarms me slightly that not only did the programme researcher not know his Maths but that the children's teacher was teaching them incorrect Maths at school.

  • Posted on 17 December 2007
  • at 3:32pm
  • by jb76

I watched this for the first time on Saturday. Am I smarter than a ten year old? Who knows. Am I smarter than their researchers? Well, if they believe that the answer to 5+3x0 is 0 then, yes . The answer should be 5 as the multiplication is a higher priority than the addition and therefore gets done first. For the answer to be 0 the sum should have been (5+3)x0.

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