Back to school

Game show formats never die, they just fade away in endless reboots.

All right, that's not really true. A lot (or maybe most) formats vanish forever after one feeble try. But Gong Show returned even after the excruciatingly bad Extreme Gong had seemingly finished the format forever. So anything is possible when it comes to game show rewinds. As Nickelodeon has just proven with their announcement of a revival of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.

Not that 5th Grader was a bad show at all. The kids and their adult colleagues turned in a solid performance on Fox under the able guidance of Jeff Foxworthy. Sadly, Jeff won't be around for this reboot, as John Cena takes the helm.

Nick will also tart up 5th Grader's sometimes dawdling gameplay with a few new gimmicks. In particular, they'll put a clock on the "Final Exam" bonus round to move things along. There's no debut date yet beyond a promise of "later this year." Bring on the smart kids.

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