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Beauty and the Geek is a reality television series on The CW. It has been advertised as "The Ultimate Social Experiment" and is produced by Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and Nick Santora.

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, production was put on a hiatus.

Production[link]

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.^[1] In October 2008, casting began for a sixth season,^[2] scheduled to air on MTV, with minor celebrities as the beauties.^[3] However, casting has since been put on hold for an indefinite amount of time.

Season 1[link]

Cast[link]

^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)"

Challenges and eliminations[link]

Episode progress[link]

     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[link]

Cast[link]

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[link]

     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[link]

Season 3[link]

Cast[link]

Episode progress[link]

     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[link]

Episodes[link]

The Beauties Meet the Geeks, Part 1[link]

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[link]

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[link]

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[link]

First aired January 17, 2007

• Challenge Winners: Jennylee & Niels
• Teams at Risk: Andrea & Matt, Cecille & Nate
• Eliminated: Andrea & Matt

Beauties and the Beach[link]

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[link]

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[link]

First aired February 7, 2007

• Challenge Winners: Megan & Scooter
• Teams at Risk: Cecille & Nate, Jennylee & Niels
• Eliminated: Jennylee & Niels

Beauty Queen and Geek King[link]

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. 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, eventually asked contestants to vote against him. 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
• Runner-ups: Cecille & Nate

Beauties and Geeks Reunite[link]

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.

Season 4[link]

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[link]

Episode progress[link]

     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[link]

^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.^[19]

^3 This season was taped during the summer, due to the prominence of Comic-Con International on one episode.

Season 5[link]

Season 5 premiered on March 11, 2008 taking over the timeslot of Reaper.^[20] 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[link]