Thursday

“Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”

This new game show, which tests how much contestants such as surf instructors and fashion buyers have forgotten since grade school in subjects such as math, geography and social studies, is produced by the executive producer of “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.”

Friday

“Singing Bee”

NBC at 8 p.m.

A karaoke-inspired competition, beginning with a performance by Deborah Harry, in which contestants must finish the lyrics to popular songs once the band stops playing.

Sunday

“Duel”

NBC at 8 p.m.

Contestants of varying backgrounds answer trivia and strategize to outsmart their opponents in head-to-head matchups. Players begin with 10 chips valued at $5,000 each. Every time a player wins a trivia duel, he or she collects the opposing player’s chip.

Savages

In her irreverent, hilarious and heart-breaking story, writer/director Tamara Jenkins portrays two siblings who, after drifting apart emotionally and geographically, must band together to care for an elderly parent who is beginning to show signs of senility. Starts Dec. 21 at Hillcrest Cinemas and La Jolla Village Cinemas.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

The true story of a man who took an adversity beyond all imagining and transformed it into a testament to the irrepressible human urge to love, create and dream. With his third film, director and artist Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls) forges a visually stunning ode to what drives a man to go on when all truly seems lost. Starts Tuesday, Dec. 25 at Hillcrest Cinema.

Into the Evening

All that remains for Leonard Schiller is his work. His one enduring goal in life is to finish the novel whose completion has eluded him for 10 years. With his earlier books out of print, he has learned to starve himself of the desire for the success he was once so close to, though beneath this practice is a desire for his work to be rediscovered.