Jeff Foxworthy hosts new Fox show

By RICK KUSHMAN
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

It looks like Fox has decided what it's going to bet on for a while: shows that fit with the audience of "American Idol."

Fox has a new game show, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" that premiered Tuesday night and showed up immediately again on Wednesday night after "Idol." And everything you need to know about the target audience is in the title.

For the grown-ups, it's a quiz show about stuff that should be memorized at the DNA level by now. For the kids, it's a way to show parents you're smarter than they are, or at least pretty smart and should get the car keys once in a while. Or don't fifth graders ever get to drive?

The show's set looks like a classroom, and adult contestants get questions that come out of elementary-school textbooks.

Right now, you're thinking, "How many state capitals can I name?" Fewer than you think.

If the contestants get stuck, they do have a lifeline option: fifth graders.

See what I'm saying? Could be fun. The executive producer is Mark Burnett of "Survivor" and "The Apprentice," and the host is Jeff Foxworthy, who's been telling the press for a week that he feels he's winning the battle against growing up.

X X X

If you haven't heard yet, this should be good news for fans of "Grey's Anatomy." ABC announced last week it will try out a spinoff of "Grey's" that will focus on Addison (Kate Walsh).

If you're vaguely familiar with the hospital drama/soap, Addison has been part of the love triangle that includes Dr. McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo).

"Grey's" creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes would run the spinoff, too, and it would also star Taye Diggs. ABC said the new show will audition as something called a backdoor pilot, meaning it will first air as a regular episode of "Grey's," probably during May sweeps.

And what's it mean for the mothership series? The good news/bad news is there will be more on the air from the talented Rhimes, but she'd have two shows to look after and might have to write less and supervise more.

Plus, if you're like me _ though I'm guessing I'm in the minority, since "Grey's Anatomy" is the most popular drama on TV _ you're disappointed that the spinoff won't extract the one uninteresting character from the series. That would be Meredith Grey. Sorry, I like the show a lot. Love some of the characters. Meredith just doesn't do it for me.

X X X

One of the good things about the new technology sweeping through TV is that, besides letting viewers skip commercials, some companies are making great commercials so we won't skip through.

There are the Geico ads with that very cool lizard, the celebrity translators and the therapy-seeking caveman. Or there were the Oscar-night montages from JC Penney and Apple that were better _ and more moving _ than the stuff on the show. And there are the Diet Coke spots, like the one with the actress who won't come out of her trailer without her soda.

But when did credit-card companies start making the best ads, ever?

A couple of them also aired during the Oscars. The American Express spot with director Wes Anderson _ he tells a props guy, "Can you do a .357 with a bayonet?" _ is startlingly witty.

And the MasterCard ad with the sniffly zookeeper and the elephant that goes to town to get cold medicine and soup is adorable.

How do you not love an elephant who cruises the store aisles with a little shopping basket, then pats his zookeeper with his trunk?

I'm not sure any of that sells credit cards, but they do make you stop and watch.

X X X

And speaking of the Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres talked on her daytime show about being on her end of the camera at the Kodak Theatre, hosting the biggest show on the planet, and about the effort that goes into something like that.

She planned and wrote for weeks, then rehearsed most of the week before. That tambourine, for instance, that got effortlessly tossed into her hand? Took tons of work to get to effortless.

Then on the night before, the entire crew went through a dress rehearsal, all three hours of the show. They ran through it again Sunday morning, broke at 1 p.m. to dress, then went and did it live at 5 p.m.

"How many times we rehearse?" Ellen asked the producers of her live daytime show. "That's right, none."

But she said for all her years on stage and in front of cameras, the Oscars are something huge and special.

"You're standing there backstage, waiting to go on, and they're counting down to 30 seconds. And there's an incredible energy in the room," she said. "And your brain is messing with you. Your mind is like, 'What if you can't talk? What if words don't come out, it's just sounds ... and Jack Nicholson is the only person who understands you?'"

(Contact Rick Kushman at rkushman(at)sacbee.com.)