Beauty and the Geek


Beauty and the Geek is an American reality television series that premiered on The WB on June 1, 2005. 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 Beauty and the Beast.
The premise of the show consists of a group of "Beauties" and a group of "Geeks" who are paired up to compete as couples for a shared $250,000 and other prizes. 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, 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.

Production

The theme song, "Opportunities " by the Pet Shop Boys, 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, 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.

Season 1

Cast

Richard's title evolved throughout the show as he kissed Krystal, Lauren and Mindi over the show's course, hence being at first "Has never kissed a girl", then "Has kissed one/two/three girl". 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

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

Challenges and eliminations

Season 3

Cast

Episode progress

Challenges and eliminations

Episodes

The Beauties Meet the Geeks, Part 1

First aired January 3, 2007
First aired January 3, 2007
First aired January 10, 2007
First aired January 17, 2007
First aired January 24, 2007
First aired January 31, 2007
First aired February 7, 2007
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.
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. 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 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

Challenges and eliminations

There was no elimination room finale; instead, the two challenge-winning teams selected a team to eliminate directly.
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.
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

Challenges and eliminations

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.
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.
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.
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.

Contestants who appeared on other competition shows

CountryNameHostChannelPrizeYear aired
'Beauty and the Geek AustraliaBernard Curry
James Tobin 		Seven NetworkA$100,0008 Oct 2009 – 27 Nov 2014
':bg:Красавицата и отличникът|Красавицата и отличникът
Krasavitsata i otlichnikat		Borislav LazarovbTV300,000 лв.3 Oct – 29 Nov 2005
':es:La bella y el geek|La Bella y el GeekPablo MackennaChilevisiónCL$20,000,00022 Oct – 17 Dec 2012
'La Bella y el NerdoVíctor GómezCanal CaracolCO$200,000,0004 May 2006
'Ljepotice i genijalciIgor MešinNova TV200,000 kn18 Mar 2019
'Skønheden og nørdenThomas HartmannTV3Kr. 250,00013 Feb 2006
'Kaunitar ja geeniusOsalejad Lauri and AdelinaTV3?3 Sep 2006
'Kaunotar ja nörttiLauri SalovaaraMTV3€20,0004 Sep 2005
'Bimbo face aux IntelloLaurent OurnacTF1?Cancelled
'Beauty & The NerdDaniel Boschmann ProSieben€100,000
€50,000 		31 Jan – 21 Feb 2013
4 Jun – 9 Jul 2020
' Beauty and the GeekVJ AndyChannel V₹1,000,00019 Mar – 5 Jun 2011
':he:היפה והחנון|היפה והחנון
HaYafa VeHaChnun		Pini Tavger
Micheal Hanegbi		Channel 10₪200,00023 Jul 2008 – 7 Apr 2014
':it:La pupa e il secchione|La pupa e il secchione
La pupa e il secchione e viceversa		Federica Panicucci and Enrico Papi
Paola Barale and Enrico Papi
Paolo Ruffini and Francesca Cipriani 		Italia 1€200,0007 Sep 2006
18 Apr 2010
7 Jan 2020
'La Bella y el NerdMichel GurfiTV AztecaMEX$500.00020 Aug – 26 Nov 2007
'
'		:nl:Beauty & de Nerd|Beauty & de NerdMathias Coppens
Bridget Maasland		RTL 5
VTM		€25,0002006 – 2009
':no:Prinsessen og professoren|Prinsessen og professorenJasmin AaslandTV3200,000kr9 Mar – 27 Apr 2006
':pt:A Bela e o Mestre|A Bela e o MestreJosé Pedro Vasconcelos and Iva DominguesTVI€100,00011 Mar – 13 May 2007
'Красавицы и Умники
Krasavitsy i Umniki		Alexander Anatolyevich and Irina GrigorievaREN TV1.000.000₽20 Dec 2005 – 21 Feb 2006
'Чики и фрики
Chiki i friki		MTV Russia?2010
':es:Nadie es Perfecto|Nadie es PerfectoJesús VázquezTelecinco?5 Jul – 14 Aug 2007
'Güzel ve DahiShow TV₺100.0007 – 28 Jul 2007
Beauty and the GeekDavid MitchellE4£40,0007 Feb – 14 Mar 2006

In Brazil, the original American show aired on the cable television network Multishow under the title As Gostosas e os Geeks.