SPOILERS AHEAD:

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE 3-27 EPISODE OF ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER (AND CARE TO) SKIP THIS POST)

Last thursday night on the coming attraction for tonight’s “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader”, it was announced that someone gets to the million dollar question and answers it. I was totally flabergasted that they would actually announce that someone would finally win the top prize more than a year after the show first aired. Then I remembered watching “Live with Regis and Kelly” (or was it Kathie Lee at the time…. who cares). On one particular morning, Regis announced that on that very night someone would win a million on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” At the time, it seemed exciting and of course I watched. I even remember the question (Which president made an appearance on the television series “Laugh In?”). Over the past few years, it seems like a cheap way to increase ratings.

It seemed like deja-vu while watching 5th Grader until the contestant who graduated from UCLA and has an MBA from USC got to the second question:

“What is the subject of the following sentence? Sierra baked a cake for Olivia.” He even got the three choices:

A: pronoun; B: proper noun; C: common noun

Unfortunately, this smart (?) guy thought the subject of the sentence was “cake” so he chose answer C. Sorry to say, the fifth grade student who could have saved him also chose the wrong answer. So the bright guy who knew he would be the first million dollar winner on the show flunked out on the second question and went home with nothing.

AH, but wait….. since the man was sooooo sure that he would not only get to the top question but answer it correctly, Jeff showed the question and it was answered correctly.

I guess the advertisement did not say that the million dollars was actually won only that the question was asked and answered. CHEAP RATINGS PLOY. If it were five days from now, some would have shouted “APRIL FOOLS!!!“

While having a few minutes free today, I flipped through the endless array of nothingness which is television (especially on a late Saturday afternoon). I happened across the game show “Greed.” One of the multiple choice questions was: “Which four of the following has won a Best Actor Oscar.” The six possible answers were:

Al Pacino
Robert Redford
Paul Newman
Michael Douglas
Tom Cruise
Nicolas Cage

The question got my head spinning about controversies in the category. George C. Scott refused the award for his portrayal of Patton because he did not like the way in which the character was presented. Marlon Brando refused the award for his role in one of the most acclaimed films in motion picture history, The Godfather, in order to protest the mistreatment of Native Americans in motion pictures. Those are two of the most notable controversies in the 80 year history of the Best Actor award. Are there any others?

As for the question itself, I had to check the veracity of one of the correct responses. I was absolutely sure of one of the actors until it came up wrong. I was even certain of the role for which I was sure he had won. See if you can guess the correct four.