Jordan Roi, 10, puts some thought into 10 skill-testing questions at the Fairmont Royal York during the Toronto stop of a cross-Canada casting call for Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (Jack Boland/Sun Media)

Global is hoping to announce its host for Are You Smarter Than a Canadian 5th Grader? next week, and the five-episode run will be taped in Toronto in early October.

In the meantime, more than 300 kids showed up at a downtown Toronto hotel yesterday morning as auditions were held for the five children's positions on the game show.

Auditions already have taken place in Halifax, with similar open casting calls on the docket for Vancouver tomorrow, Calgary on Tuesday and Winnipeg on Thursday.

"Five cities, but only five kids -- they have to shine," said co-producer Cliff Dempster of Insight Productions.

Dempster said that while the ideal situation would be to select one kid from each of the five auditions, the show will not be bound by that constraint.

The first kid in line yesterday was 10-year-old Chelsea Hanoun, whose family got up at 2 a.m. to make the drive from their Newmarket home.

"I do well in school (Clearmeadow P.S.) and it's pretty funny when you see some adults who think they're smarter than the kids," Chelsea said when asked why she became a fan of the American version of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?, which is hosted by comedian Jeff Foxworthy.

As for a Canadian host, several possibilities -- some for comic purposes, some for serious consideration -- were suggested in a Sun Media column earlier this month. Among the names: Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Jill Hennessy, Alex Trebek, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Colin Mochrie, Wendy Crewson, Adam Beach, Dan Aykroyd, Don Cherry, Kurt Browning, Rick Hansen, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Burton Cummings and Leslie Nielsen.

Could it be one of them?