The premise of the show consists of a group of "Beauties" (young women who have relied primarily on their looks and are intellectually inept) and a group of "Geeks" (young men who have relied primarily on intellect and are socially inept) 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 a total of two teams to compete against each other in a pure "quiz show" type question and answer session, with the team getting the fewest number of questions correct being 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.
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.
The fifth season will be the final one until enough time has passed to make the format seem fresh again or if producers come up with a new twist to the format.[1]
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(s)"
Tristin's original partner: Brandon Chris's original partner: Amanda (changed after Week 1)
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.
Who Changed the Most (decided by previously eliminated contestants) (Megan & Scooter)
Cecille & Nate
Megan & Scooter
Winners
Megan & Scooter
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. The majority of the contestants were torn between wanting Nate to win, and his partner, Cecille, to lose. Nate, believing that winning would only reinforce Cecille's behavior, asked contestants to vote against him. This led to Megan and Scooter winning 7 to 2.
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
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, Jasmine and David 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[31].
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.[32] 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.
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.
Ratings
Seasonal rankings (based on average total estimated viewers per episode) of Beauty and the Geek on The WB and The CW:
A Norwegian version will start on Norwegian TV3 in March 2006. It has been given the name Prinsessen og Professoren (The Princess and the Professor).
In Denmark, the original American show is aired with Danish subtitles.
In France, the original American show is aired with French dubbing on NRJ12.
An Italian version started on Italia 1 in September 2006, called La pupa e il secchione (The Doll and the Nerd), hitting ratings records for the channel.
An Estonian version also started on Estonian TV3 in September 2006 called Kaunitar ja geenius (The Beauty and the Genius)
A Portuguese version started March 2007, called A Bela e o Mestre (The Beauty and the Master). The "master" word was used because there is no word in Portuguese that has the same meaning as geek.
A new version of the show is now set to debut on TF1 in France under the title Bimbo et Intello, however recent reports claim it will not be aired anytime soon[53], and other one in Mexico under the title ''La Bella y el Nerd'' which is being transmitted by TV Azteca now.[54] The first episode of TurkishShow TV's Güzel ve Dahi (The Beauty and The Genius) was aired on July 72007.[55]But after some public pressure against showing unintelligent contestant girls, the producers had to cancel the show.
In Belgium and the Netherlands, a Dutch version of the show is produced by VTM and RTL 5. The first season aired late 2006 and a second season aired in September 2007. The Dutch version is called Beauty & de Nerd.
A Spanish version, broadcasted by Telecinco, was called Nadie es Perfecto (No-one is Perfect), and it was a failure.
In Israel, a Hebrew version of the show, produced by Abott Reif Hemeiri, began airing on July 23, 2008 on Israel 10. The casting was done with the temporary title ???? ?????? ("The beauty and the genius")[56], while the final title was ???? ?????? ("The beauty and the geek").
Encyclopedia
top
