CMT Acquires 'Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader'

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MTV Networks’ CMT has acquired the exclusive cable rights to Twentieth’s Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader in a multi-year deal, said Mary Beth Cunin, CMT’s senior vice president of programming strategy on Aug. 4. The show, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, will premiere as a daily strip on CMT on Monday, Sept. 21.

As part of the deal, CMT and Twentieth will work together to produce themed episodes of the series, such as a country music week. Original episodes of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader are being produced for broadcast and cable syndication to launch this fall.

The game show originally premiered on Fox on February 27, 2007, and pits real fifth-graders against adults in a game of intellect and skill, with the fifth-graders usually presiding. Mark Burnett Productions produces the show.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.