Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Returns (Yes, Returns) to TV

You might be a redneck if…it’s taken you five years to notice that Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? isn’t on the air anymore. But take heart: The deceptively difficult game show, in which adults are asked a series of questions straight out of an elementary school textbook with hilariously disastrous results, is being resurrected, and Jeff Foxworthy is returning to host. “People have never stopped coming up to me—in the grocery store, at Home Depot—and saying, ‘They need to bring that fifth-grader show back!'” says the Georgia-bred comedian. “Doing it again is just like slipping on a great pair of old boots.”

The, ahem, reboot will debut with a brand-new set—”It’s much more modern and electronic-looking,” says Foxworthy—but for the most part, the premise remains the same. As in the past, a “class” of real fifth graders will be on hand to provide much-needed assistance to the grown-ups. In order to win the $1 million prize, contestants will have to answer 10 questions (and one bonus) successfully, something that happened only twice during the show’s original 2007–2009 run. Foxworthy’s theory on why the purview of 10-year-olds bedevils so many: “If you learned something for a test but never used it again, like the names of clouds, the brain discards it,” he says. “My brain kept a file of the words to the Gilligan’s Island theme song, but it threw away triangles.”

As for whether he would ever subject himself to a turn in the hot seat, Foxworthy is playing it coy. “I think it’s better if everyone just assumes I’m an idiot,” he says. “I don’t need to take the test and prove it.”

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER?, Season premiere, 8/7c, Fox