Jeff Foxworthy enjoys Being Smarter than A 5th Grader

Jeff Foxworthy wasn't hankering to become a game-show host.

He'd already found plenty of ways to make people laugh: stand-up comedy, television, records, books. And he was happy staying home with his family in Atlanta.

Then Mark Burnett, famed for creating Survivor, called Foxworthy, famed for redneck and blue-collar comedy, and invited him to preside over a show that would have adults match wits with 10-year-olds.

"He described it as kind of a game show meets Kids Say the Darnedest Things," Foxworthy recalls.

The name of the show would be Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

The whole idea tickled Foxworthy, 49, who has built his comic career around family humor. Kids would get a chance to show off how much they know. Adults would mistakenly think the kids were easy pickings.

In fact, the idea tickled Foxworthy enough to overcome his reluctance about traveling to Los Angeles to tape the show.

And he's glad it did.

In its second season on Fox (8 p.m. Thursdays), 5th Grader is attracting a big audience. Last week, about 10.5 million viewers tuned in, 18th-best among all prime-time shows, according to Nielsen Media Research.

As far as Foxworthy is concerned, things could hardly have turned out better.

The production schedule for a game show is great, "especially when you're trying to make your family your first priority," Foxworthy says in a phone interview from his home.

The current season of 5th Grader was shot last summer, so Foxworthy's wife, Pamela Gregg, and their two daughters, Jordan, 16, and Juliane, 13, were able to go to California with him.

Unlike a sitcom, which Foxworthy says can require "five 14-hour days to do an episode," game-show production zips along. "We do two or three episodes a day," he says. It takes about four weeks to shoot a whole season.

That leaves plenty of time for Foxworthy's other interests, including writing. He's the author of 26 books, and his first children's book, a collection of poems called Dirt on My Shirt, will be out from HarperCollins on Feb. 26.

Foxworthy's laid-back, folksy personality (just like your favorite teacher's) and his kindly wit make him ideal for a show that relies heavily on children and is meant to be watched by parents and their offspring together.

He's spent his entire career mining the routines of family life for his material. "Everybody's family's crazy," he says.

And he keeps it gentle.

"I don't ever want to be unkind or hateful or mean with people," he says. "I'm just trying to make you laugh at yourself."

Comedians make great game-show hosts, and it isn't hard to see why.

Like a stand-up comic, a game-show host has to improvise a lot.

"There's not a script," Foxworthy says. "You get a little card telling you, hey, this guy's 49 and this is where he grew up and he's good at math in school, and then it's kind of off to the races. But I think comics secretly love that."

The Fox network hasn't officially renewed 5th Grader for next season. Given its success, "you'd like to think we'd be back," he says. "But it's TV. I know better than ever to count on anything."

Still, he says, "I'll do it as long as they want me. I really enjoy doing this."