Beauty and the Geek is a reality television series that is an international franchise, the U.S version is shown on The CW. It has been advertised as "The Ultimate Social Experiment" and is produced by Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and J.D. Roth. The show's title is a parody of the titled film (and TV series) Beauty and the Beast.
The premise of the show consists of a group of "Beauties" (young women who have relied primarily on their looks) and a group of "Geeks" (young men who have relied primarily on intellect rather than social aptitude or looks) who are paired up to compete as couples for a shared $250,000 and other prizes. (For the fourth season, the producers modified the formula to include an extra team consisting of a male "beauty" and a female "geek". For the fifth season, the beauties and geeks competed against each other at first, and teams of one beauty and one geek were not selected until the end of episode three.) Each beauty lives together in a room with her geek during the course of the competition. There are challenges shown each episode, one testing the beauties on a primarily academic subject, and another that has the geeks competing in a more popular/social realm. The winners of the challenges select two teams to compete against each other in a pure "quiz show" type question and answer session: the team with fewer correct answers gets eliminated.
By the end of the competition, many of the contestants say that they have learned much about interacting with people from a different social group (and positive lessons about the character of people from that group), positive things about themselves and their own character, and often something about human nature in general.
After the airing of season 5 in 2008, production stopped and the show was cancelled.
Video Beauty and the Geek
Production
The theme song, "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" by the Pet Shop Boys (originally released in 1985), is used also on the British, Danish and Belgian-Dutch versions. Commercial promos for the show featured a different theme song, "The Geeks Get the Girls" by American Hi-Fi.
Following the second season, the American version moved to The CW Television Network, the new network formed when both The WB and UPN ceased operations in September 2006. The two-hour season premiere for the third season aired Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. EST on The CW. The fourth season premiered on September 18, making BATG the first series to premiere for the CW for the 2007-08 television season. Beauty and the Geek was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on March 12, 2008.
After the fifth season, the show was put on indefinite hiatus in order to stoke renewed interest in the show, and perhaps the addition of innovative twists to the format. In October 2008, casting began for a sixth season, scheduled to air on MTV, with minor celebrities as the beauties. However, a sixth season never materialized.
Maps Beauty and the Geek
Season 1
Cast
^1 Richard's title evolved throughout the show as he kissed Krystal (at end of episode 3 and aftermath show), Lauren (at end of episode 4) and Mindi (after the camping challenge while relaxing and during the post-final test confessional) over the show's course, hence being at first "Has never kissed a girl", then "Has kissed one/two/three girl(s)". Mindi promised Richard that if they won the competition, she would make out with him. On the aftermath show, Lauren attempted to make out with Richard, but Richard refused. After the host asked Richard the question that Richard lost with, Mindi, feeling confident of Richard not knowing the answer again, promised a make out session. Mindi initially was struggling with the notion, but stood up and made out with Richard. It was a quick French kiss with some tongue action.
Challenges and eliminations
Episode progress
- The contestants won the competition.
- The contestant won the challenge and their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant's partner won the challenge and they were safe from elimination.
- The contestant did not win the challenge but their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant and their partner survived elimination.
- The contestant and their partner was eliminated.
- The contestant or their partner won the challenge and were also eliminated.
Season 2
Cast
Note: Original partners Chris and Amanda won the first week's quiz challenge and were given the power to switch the partner of one team with another team or they themselves can switch partners. They choose the latter and broke up the team of Brandon and Tristin.
Episode progress
- The contestants won the competition.
- The contestant won the challenge and their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant's partner won the challenge and they were safe from elimination.
- The contestant did not win the challenge but their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant and their partner survived elimination.
- The contestant and their partner was eliminated.
Challenges and eliminations
Season 3
Cast
Episode progress
- The contestants won the competition.
- The contestant won the challenge and their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant's partner won the challenge and they were safe from elimination.
- The contestant did not win the challenge but their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant and their partner survived elimination.
- The contestant and their partner was eliminated.
Challenges and eliminations
Episodes
The Beauties Meet the Geeks, Part 1
First aired January 3, 2007
- Beauty Challenge Winner: Cecille
- Geek Challenge Winner: Nate
- Teams at Risk: None
- Eliminated: None
The Beauties Meet the Geeks, Part 2
First aired January 3, 2007
- Beauty Challenge Winner: Sheree
- Geek Challenge Winner: Nate
- Teams at Risk: Erin & Drew, Tori & Sanjay
- Eliminated: Tori & Sanjay
Geeks Get Naked
First aired January 10, 2007
- Beauty Challenge Winner: Nadia
- Geek Challenge Winner: Mario
- Teams at Risk: Andrea & Matt, Sheree & Piao
- Eliminated: Sheree & Piao
Beauties Pimp Their Geeks
First aired January 17, 2007
- Challenge Winners: Jennylee & Niels
- Teams at Risk: Andrea & Matt, Cecille & Nate
- Eliminated: Andrea & Matt
Beauties and the Beach
First aired January 24, 2007
- Beauty Challenge Winner: Cecille
- Geek Challenge Winner: Scooter
- Teams at Risk: Erin & Drew, Jennylee & Niels
- Eliminated: Erin & Drew
Geek Love
First aired January 31, 2007
- Beauty Challenge Winner: Megan
- Geek Challenge Winner: Nate
- Teams at Risk: Jennylee & Niels, Nadia & Mario
- Eliminated: Nadia & Mario
Down On The Farm
First aired February 7, 2007
- Challenge Winners: Megan & Scooter
- Teams at Risk: Cecille & Nate, Jennylee & Niels
- Eliminated: Jennylee & Niels
Beauty Queen and Geek King
First aired February 14, 2007
All previously eliminated contestants were brought back to spend one more night in the mansion and to assess which of the final two teams had undergone the most personal change. Their votes on this question would determine the winner of the $250,000 grand prize. Cecille was enraged by the twist, ranting to Nate about how unfair it was that the "losers" would get to decide their fate, and when Nate said she should try to make amends with them she expressed disgust with him. Nate, who by that point decided that winning would only reinforce Cecille's behavior, eventually asked contestants to vote against him; this was difficult for most of the cast as they genuinely liked him and wanted him to win but also tied into their collective anger over Cecille's bad behavior. This led to Megan and Scooter winning 7 to 2, with the remaining contestants not voting once a majority had been reached.
- Winners of Beauty and the Geek: Megan & Scooter
- Runners-up: Cecille & Nate
Beauties and Geeks Reunite
First aired February 21, 2007
Megan and Scooter and the other eliminated cast members reunite to talk about their experiences on the show and what is in store for them in the future. Cecille was bitter over losing at the end, claiming that no one in the show could have really changed and that they were stupid for thinking they could.
Season 4
Season 4 featured several changes and was by far the most controversial one. One male beauty is paired with one female geek, but the rest of the pairs remained the same way (i.e. a male geek and a female beauty). The season was also extended from 8/9 episodes to 13, featuring a recap on week 7 and the cast growing from eight pairs to ten. This was also the first season to have a pair voted out (Natalie and John on week 8) instead of eliminated through a quiz, which sparked some controversy, much like Sam's previous experience in show business, despite the fact that many other beauties had some previous acting experience as well. In episode 6 the geeks have their make-overs
Cast
Episode progress
- The contestants won the competition.
- The contestant won the challenge and their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant's partner won the challenge and they were safe from elimination.
- The contestant did not win the challenge but their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant and their partner survived elimination.
- The contestant and their partner were eliminated.
Challenges and eliminations
^1 There was no elimination room finale; instead, the two challenge-winning teams selected a team to eliminate directly.
^2 In the final episode on December 4, 2007, David and Jasmine won the $250,000. For the first time, the show's winner was decided by America's votes, four months after the taping of the first 12 episodes.
^3 This season was taped during the summer, due to the prominence of Comic-Con International on one episode.
Season 5
Season 5 premiered on March 11, 2008, taking over the timeslot of Reaper. For the first three episodes, the beauties competed as a group against the team of geeks. The remaining beauties and geeks then paired off to compete against the other pairs, as in previous seasons.
Cast
Note: John, Amber and Jillian were all eliminated before the teams paired. Jonathan was left without a partner and was therefore eliminated.
Episode progress
- The contestants won the competition.
- The contestant won the challenge and their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant's partner won the challenge and they were safe from elimination.
- The contestant did not win the challenge but their pair was safe from elimination.
- The contestant and their partner survived elimination.
- The contestant and their partner was eliminated.
Challenges and eliminations
^1 For this challenge, one member of each team was to temporarily join the opposing team. It was then revealed that if the team lost their new member would be automatically eliminated.
^2 The remaining beauties were asked to pair up with a geek. Tara, the last beauty, chose Joe, eliminating Jonathan since he was left with no partner.
^3 After winning the challenge, Leticia & Matt were given the right to pick one team to go with them at the world premiere of Prom Night and chose Randi and Greg. The four remaining teams had to send one team to elimination for the next week and had chosen Tara and Joe after a geek drag fashion show contest.
^4 Instead of elimination trivia, each losing team cast a vote for another team to be eliminated. Since the teams all had one vote, Tommy and Amanda picked Kristina and Jason as a tie breaker, sending them home.
International versions
- Currently airing franchise
- Franchise no longer in production
In Brazil, the original American show is aired with Brazilian Portuguese subtitles on the paid TV channel Multishow and it's called As Gostosas e os Geeks (The Hotties and The Geeks).
See also
- The Tester, another reality show where participants competed to become game testers
References
External links
- Beauty and the Geek (WB site)
- Beauty and the Geek (CW site)
- Beauty and the Geek on IMDb
- Beauty and the Geek at TV.com
- Beauty and the Geek USA, UK, RU
Source of the article : Wikipedia