“I do some moderately stressful things in my job – Question Time, election night – but they’ve got nothing on this,” Ms Gillard said.

“I’d wanted to be a teacher, and maybe if I’d stuck on that path I’d know more about fifth grade curriculum than I do now.”

Ms Gillard is on the show to raise money for Melbourne youth support group Western Chances, which provides scholarships for disadvantaged youth.

Picture: The Herald Sun

If Ms Gillard answers 10 questions correctly she can win the top prize of $500,000.

McManus said yesterday Ms Gillard might have a sneakier way to reach the top prize on the show.

“She is also federal Education Minister so she has the opportunity to retrospectively change the curriculum and secure the half-million for her charity,” he joked.

[N.B: I highly doubt they asked Rove about this 'yesterday' (Friday 28/8) as he was in the U.S. and traveling at the time. Some creative licensing perhaps?]

SHE has university degrees but Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard is about to face the biggest test of her intellect – is she smarter than a 10-year-old?

While her boss Kevin Rudd has made two appearances on Rove, Gillard has taped an episode of Rove McManus’ other Channel 10 show Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?

Ms Gillard, who has degrees in Arts and Law, was on leave yesterday but her office confirmed her appearance on the show, with her episode believed to be going to air some time next month.

Fifth Grader takes on a new format this season with a celebrity competing each week for a nominated charity, as well as a regular contestant. MasterChef judge Matt Preston is in the first episode.

Just a note, they had celebrity contestants last season as well. So it isn’t a ‘new format’ this year.

Rove is looking for audience members to come and be part of the fun of the new season of “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?”.

Recording will take place in Melbourne in late June/early July. Tickets are free and everyone is welcome

Details and Booking here.

A small word from me… 5th Grader is back in 2009 despite those figures for the finale. To be fair Ten’s ratings across the board have been less than stellar for the last few months and last nights ratings were following that trend. One thing that will not help is that Ten will be airing the American version of 5th Grader over summer. Way to get people sick of the formula Ten.

September 18th: 1,111,000
September 25th: 953,000
October 2nd: 871,000
October 9th: 809,000

Gaining 400k viewers from your lead-in is not an easy task.

Keep an eye out, if you see a loud and funny older woman with Grey curly hair or Ricki Lee you may see yours truly in the background.