The buzz log. What the world is searching for...

Fifth Graders: More Brains and More Buzz
By Gordon Hurd
Sat, March 03, 2007, 2:30 pm PST

At the end of Tuesday's episode of "American Idol," host Ryan Seacrest plugged Jeff Foxworthy's new game show, "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" Ryan asked for an example of a question, and Jeff came back with, "What's a trapezoid?"

As testament to the overwhelming influence of "Idol" and to the appeal of Foxworthy's new quiz show, people rushed to Search and pushed queries on "trapezoid" up 5,680%. Who would have guessed that a quadrilateral having two parallel sides could get more Buzz than all the Season 6 contestants combined (except for Antonella Barba, of course)?

The quiz show with the hard-to-swallow concept has proven easy to follow. Twenty-six million adults, who apparently don't know squat, do know what they like to watch. Buzz on Foxworthy's show (and his slick mustache) jumped 173% after the premiere episode. Questions from the broadcast are just as popular, perhaps providing the show's title with a sad but true answer.

Beyond searching for the truth about trapezoids, adults have also reached out in desperation for "rem sleep" (+8,586%), "list of impeached presidents" (+3,808%), "dewey decimal system" (+1,604%), and "definition of a prime number" (+418%) among other quizzical queries.

Being the smarty-pants that we are, we have full confidence we could take on a force of fifth graders. But that doesn't mean we won't tune in to watch folks who may not have the brains to take on a 10-year-old.