The show has migrated north, and in like style, Canadians turn out to be no smarter than their neighbours to the south. I watched the show for the first time the other night and the first contestant missed this question:
How many syllables are there in the word "Elementary"?
The question remained on the board, the host spoke the word several times (in five syllables), the contestant repeated it several times and then confidently said "Four". Her little classmate couldn't save her, having written "4" as her answer.
I know a lot of people pronounce it as four syllables, but I presumed it was mostly due to laziness. Staring at the word on the board, how can one reasonably pronounce "tary" as "tree"?
The second contestant decided to "drop out" with $175,000 when the valedictorian was presented with the "difficult" $300,000 question "What is the most southern point of the Canadian mainland?", a question his fifth grader helper got right despite the fact that I noted (but the host did not) that she had spelled it incorrectly. I have mentioned this place several times over the years explaining that it is at the approximate latitude of Northern California. The place is Point Pelee (Ontario).
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