Game Show

Television writer David Simon might have just picked up a MacArthur Award, commonly called a "genius grant. " School principal and super mom Debbie Phelps might excel at educating others. And Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake might have the intellectual firepower to run an entire city. But that doesn't mean they're up to the challenge of repeating the sixth grade. Indeed, Simon had to rely on two petite powerhouses — middle school students Tyteyona Berry and Rickelle Carter — to defeat five other teams Saturday night in the "Are You Smarter Than a Sixth-Grader" fundraising competition.

There is respect, admiration and awe. There are good teams, exceptional teams and the New England Patriots. Somewhere between respect and awe, between good teams and the Patriots, are the Ravens. But the gap is closing. How much, we find out Sunday. Foxborough, Mass., is this week's court of popular opinion. The perennial Super Bowl-contending Patriots are the litmus test. The Ravens are ready. "For the last decade, the Patriots have been a team that wins games, wins championships," Ravens wide receiver Kelley Washington said.

Summertime TV has been dabbling in game shows and contestant humiliation since 2001, when NBC debuted Fear Factor with an episode featuring players lowered into a pit filled with rats. But this year, the networks have taken their game to a whole new level with programs that show competitors getting punched in the face and falling into a pit of mud as they try to climb an obstacle-course wall - or players dressed like bugs getting slammed against car windshields. One entire series is built on the premise of contestants being forced to eat rich foods like clam chowder or cream pie until they are stuffed - and then put through physical paces intended to make them sick.

Presenting more sports media notes while looking ahead to perhaps our greatest national holiday, embraced by those of all faiths and no religion, by those with every shade of skin, by those whose American roots go back 400 years or last year and by those from one end of the political spectrum to the other, Super Bowl Sunday: Just added to the Super Bowl festivities: The coin for the flip will be carried out to midfield by ESPN's Dana Jacobson, who will...

Merv Griffin, whose prolific show business career included singing on radio during the big-band era and creating two of television's most enduring game shows, died yesterday at age 82 in Los Angeles. The cause of death was prostate cancer, according to a statement from his family that was released by Marcia Newberger, spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment. While widely known as host of a long-running TV talk show, his greatest contribution to television came as creator of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, the two most popular and financially successful game shows in the medium's history.

It's easy to banter about "playing the market," but investing is no game when it's your money at stake. And yet there is little doubt that people pay a lot of attention to games when money is at stake. The most visible, long-running example of this may be The Price is Right, the popular game show that will be all over the news this month as longtime host Bob Barker takes his final bow. The show is all about knowing the cost of various items, playing the odds to get a positive outcome, and winning a big prize in the end. In that way, the little competitions are not so dissimilar from real-life investing, where consumers are confronted with a variety of market, economic and personal conditions that they must account for to win the savings game and capture the ultimate prize of lifetime financial security.

We all know that kids say the darndest things. Turns out they know the darndest things, too. On TV Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? premieres tonight at 9:30 on Fox. SAMPLE QUESTIONS 1. Can you name all the colors of the rainbow? 2. Can you name all five Great Lakes? 3. In what state is Mount Rushmore located? Answers: 1. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; 2. Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, Superior; 3. South Dakota

The shift in the bedrock of primetime television is evident in the fortunes of NBC's no-frills game show 1 vs 100 and its lavish drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Last month, NBC added 1 vs 100, a quiz program featuring stunningly easy questions, a roster of talent that begins and ends with B-list comic Bob Saget, and contestants who compete in a stadium-like setting with 100 opponents at a time. Instantly, it became the most-watched Friday-night show on network TV with 12.3 million viewers.

The networks have yet to even finish introducing all their fall programs, and already the first new series in a wave of counterprogramming arrives tonight on NBC in the form of 1 vs 100, another win-$1-million game show. The genre has been good to the network with Deal or No Deal, the series that gives away briefcases full of money, emerging as a surprise hit in the spring - drawing as many as 18 million viewers a night. Hosted by Howie Mandel and airing twice a week, Deal has continued its winning ways this fall.

The National Symphony Orchestra performed a concert of video-game music last month at Wolf Trap in Virginia. Madden NFL 07 grossed more than $100 million in the sports video game's first week -- rivaling the initial ticket sales for The Da Vinci Code. Open Newsweek and read all about the World of Warcraft, a game your son or husband might know all too well. The video game phenomenon, an $8.4 billion industry, was just an art show waiting to happen. If you go Big Huge Games: From Concept to Game runs through Oct. 8 at the Rosenberg Gallery, Brown Center, Maryland Institute College of Art. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.