Interaction: Are you smarter than a game show?

Myers: Good day everyone, and welcome to this week’s edition of Interaction, in which you can hear from people whose influence in the world is greater than or equal to yours, unless it’s less than yours. Today we are discussing the world of game shows. Back in the golden age of game shows – the non-fixed ones, anyway – one could win vast quantities of money for being extremely smart. But today, one can win vast quantities of money just for being. Did the recent resurgence of game shows make them, or the general population, more intelligent? Are winners on quiz shows still held in high regard? Is it right to make fun of dim contestants, no matter how hilarious it may be? These questions and more are why we have a panel today. I’m Debbie Myers. Joining us here in Los Angeles, CA, USA are, first, a Barker’s Beauty on the US edition of The Price is Right and a former model on Deal or No Deal, Ms Lanisha Cole.

Cole: Hi Debbie.

Myers: The co-creator and the former presenter of ITV’s Quizmania, Ms Debbie King.

King: Good to see you, Debbie.

Myers: The host of the US quiz programme Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Mr Jeff Foxworthy.

Foxworthy: Hi there.

Myers: And, a software engineer from Salt Lake City, UT, USA, Mr Ken Jennings, whose 74-day cash winnings totalled US$2,520,700.

Jennings: That was pretty good. You should give them a call in case Johnny Gilbert retires.

Myers: Perhaps I will. Thanks, everyone, for being here today. Lanisha, we go to you first. You’ve appeared on two programmes that are often criticised for being, shall we say, knowledge-optional games.

Cole: Look, I keep hearing that accusation. It’s preposterous to me. The Price is Right, in particular, requires knowledge of a wide variety of products, from index cards all the way up to Winnebagos. You need mathematical skills, probability, intuitive reasoning, strategy. It’s not just hyperactive people running around screaming about new cars.

Myers: Well, that’s certainly something to think about. Debbie, Quizmania was part of a massive controversy earlier this year, in which several phone-in programmes were found to be in violation of various British television regulations. Is there really a future for phone-in quizzes in the UK, or anywhere for that matter?

King: Absolutely. We recognise that there were errors made, but these games have been quite popular, and they will continue to be so. American programmes such as Playmania have continued to operate normally and remain quite popular.

Myers: That’s definitely an interesting point. Jeff, your programme has also been cited as evidence of the dumbing down of quiz shows.

Foxworthy: Well, there are a lot of dumb people out there. The point of our show is that these are things you oughta know already, and if you don’t know them, it’s real easy to leave with nothing at all. Sure, these are grade school questions, but as you can see from the show, actual grade school kids get stumped by them all the time. Even Jeopardy! has some really easy clues.

Myers: Well, speaking of Jeopardy!, Ken, you won 74 consecutive times on what is generally considered the most challenging quiz programme on American television today. But don’t its consistently high ratings demonstrate that there is a desire to see more intelligent subject matter in quiz shows?

Jennings: Oh, no question. I think you saw that ten years ago with Win Ben Stein’s Money, which was something quite rare: a hard quiz show with a lot of humour. Having said that, though, I think there are a lot of people who went on 5th Grader who still would have done quite well on Jeopardy!. It’s easy to forget that stuff.

Myers: Jeff, we’ve seen you remark on occasion that you’re lucky that you’ve been given the answers already. Has being a quiz show host helped your intellect?

Foxworthy: Well, my intellect is beyond help, I think. It does astonish me, though, the way some of our players arrive at their answers. It’s... you just gotta see it to believe it.

Myers: Well, that I can agree with. In any case, we’d now like to move on to questions from you, our viewers. Right now you can see on your screens... a clip of a particularly humourous player on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. All right, now the clip is over, and you can see the various ways you can get your questions to us. They include E-mail, snail mail, telephone, text message, and facsimile. The first question is a text message from Alex in Detroit, MI, USA. The question is: How many US states border Michigan? Jeff?

Foxworthy: That’s a tough one.

Myers: Ken has locked in his answer.

Foxworthy: You know what, I’m gonna peek at Ken’s paper.

Myers: All right. “How many US states border Michigan” was the question. We’re pretty sure that it’s less than 49. Let’s take a look and see what Ken wrote.

Jennings: [holds up paper with “3” written on it]

Myers: Ken said three. You can go with that, or you can say something entirely different.

Foxworthy: I think he might be right.

Myers: He only won two and a half million on Jeopardy!.

Foxworthy: Because the Upper Peninsula borders Wisconsin, and the Lower Peninsula borders both Indiana and Ohio. I’m gonna say three.

Myers: You’ve said three. Three states bordering Michigan. Before we find out if you were right, let’s look at what your fellow panelists said.

King: I didn’t answer.

Cole: Were we supposed to write something down too?

Myers: Well, that answers that. There’s Ohio, and Indiana, which you got. Wisconsin, which you got. There is one other land border that it has. That border... is with Ontario, a Canadian province. The answer is three.

Foxworthy: Thanks, Ken.

Jennings: No problem.

Myers: Let’s go to another question. Kelly in Miami, FL, USA, what is your question?

Kelly in Miami: Hi Debbie!

Myers: Hi.

King: Hi.

Kelly in Miami: The category of my question is The Price is Right.

Myers: Sounds like a question for you, Lanisha.

Cole: Okay.

Kelly in Miami: How many different pricing games has Lanisha assisted on?

Cole: How the hell would I know that?

Myers: Well, you were there.

Cole: All right, fine. The correct answer is: A lot.

Myers: What was the answer, Kelly?

Kelly in Miami: I don’t know. That’s why I was asking.

Myers: [sighs] Kelly, you lose.

[Losing Horns.]

Myers: Thank you. Well, one good sound effect deserves another, so can we have a Daily Double noise?

[Pause.]

Myers: I suppose not. We now have a question from Suki in Liverpool, England, UK. Suki, are you there?

Suki in Liverpool: Yeah, I am. I was watching Quizmania when that stupid question about women’s handbags came up, and I was thinking of things like wallets, change, makeup, notepads, nail clippers, spectacles, paper clips, cameras, mints, gum, pens. Know what those things have in common?

Cole: I think I know this one.

Myers: So Suki’s question is what do wallets, change, makeup, ... [looks off camera] what else did she say? Notepads, nail clippers, spectacles, paper clips, cameras, mints, gum, and pens. Her question was, what do all those have in common?

Foxworthy: I think I got this one too.

Myers: All right, Lanisha, let’s go to you. What do you say?

Cole: Those are things you’d find in a woman’s handbag.

Myers: That may be true, but it’s not the answer we’re looking for. Jeff?

Foxworthy: She took my answer.

Myers: Debbie? Ken? No? Well, it was in fact a trick question. The correct answer is: they’re not bloody stupid responses. Debbie, with the interest shown in more challenging British programmes like Mastermind and Fifteen to One, why, really, did phone-in programmes like Quizmania go for absurd questions such as “Name something you might find in a woman’s handbag”?

King: I don’t think there was anything particularly absurd about that question.

Myers: Is that so?

King: Yes.

Myers: The answers, as stated on your programme, included a balaclava, airplane tickets, dogs, and wall plugs.

King: Some of those are a bit unusual, I’ll admit. But you might find any of them in a woman’s handbag, which is how the question was stated.

Myers: What sort of woman are we thinking about here? She’s flying to a ski holiday in Norway with her dog but needs to mount a hook on the wall of her cabin? This is a bizarre amalgamation of Chemmy Alcott, Giada De Laurentiis, the Toolbelt Diva, and Reese Witherspoon’s character from Legally Blonde.

Jennings: That sounds like someone I’d like to meet, actually.

Myers: All right, well, there’s one more question we have today –

[No Time Left in the Double Jeopardy! Round noise.]

Myers: ...and it will remain hidden. So, thanks to Mr Ken Jennings, Mr Jeff Foxworthy, Ms Debbie King, and Ms Lanisha Cole for being here with us today. Next week we’ll be back in Warwickshire, and we’ll be talking about home technology and how individuals are becoming more and more connected to the Internet and to each other. Our guests will include an iPhone fan club president, the director of a website about websites, a technology correspondent, and an author who still uses typewriters. You can send in your questions for that programme at our website, interaction.goobnet.net. So until then, good night.

Cole: So is your pet spayed or neutered, Debbie?

King: That gives me an idea for something else you might find in a woman’s handbag.