The premiere of Beauty and the Geek’s third season aired last night, with a special two-hour episode. Beauty and the Geek is as underrated a reality show as you’ll find. It’s both entertaining and enlightening, actually working as a great little sociological experiment. Geeks are paired up with model type girls and they tackle challenges out of their respective comfort zones.
After the geeks entered on parade of scooters and the beauties by stretch limo, they selected teammates not by looks, but by listening to what they had to say, or in Sanjay’s case, his impersonation of a kitchen blender. After some bruised egos, the beauties and the geeks are paired off: Drew and Erin, Andrea and Matt, Sanjay and Tori, Cecille and Nate, Mario and Nadia, Jennylee and Niels, Scooter and Megan, and finally Piao and Sheree. The geeks are thrilled and nervous, while some of the beauties are appalled with their first impressions. The first conversations are a bit awkward, with the geeks learning that the term “booty” is not always referring to a pirate’s treasure. For the first challenge, the geeks had to get a girl’s phone number, ask a complete stranger to rub sunscreen on their back, and borrow someone’s phone to make a phone call, while the beauties had to locate library books using the Dewey Decimal System. Cecille and Nate won the challenge while Tori was left in tears because she couldn’t find the library books. Upon returning to the mansion, the teams learn that there will be no elimination ceremony, but rather there will be a chance for one team to drop out of the game in exchange for a given sum of money. Each team discusses the price they would drop out of the game for, and evaluates the real reason why they’re here. As tempting as $20,000 in cash sitting in front of them is, all teams decide they would rather have the experience than quit. The next day, the teams are presented with the next challenge. They beauties will have to play anchorwoman and interview the co-author of a bestseller, while the geeks have to perform a stand-up comedy routine in front of a real audience. Piao makes a bad decision and decides it’s a good idea to use vulgarity in his routine, but he obviously fails as the stone-faced audience is too shocked to laugh. Nate delivers a clever monologue about allergies, which wins him 86% of the vote, and the chance to send a team to the elimination room. Tori, who was the first to go to bed the night before, did not read the book, and flips open the book seconds before the interview starts. She based every single interview question on parenting, a term she probably picked up while skimming the first page. The book, however, is not about parenting, but about economics. Sanjay compares watching Tori to being forced to watch an entire season of Will and Grace. Sheree, who had studied hard the night before, was well composed and showed that she had read the book. The judges and author declared her the winner, to the dismay of Cecille, who was outraged that she did not win. The two winning teams send Tori and Sanjay, as well as Erin and Drew to the elimination room. Each team is given a series of questions to answer, the beauties are asked questions about current events, while the geeks will be asked about what makes women laugh. Tori thinks the next presidential election is November 2006 (this show was obviously filmed before then) and does not know what NYSE stands for. Sanjay has never heard of Everybody Hates Chris, and they become the first team eliminated from Beauty and the Geek. Sanjay was a good guy but Tori was insufferable and I’m glad she’s gone so early. Tori failed to study for her interview, got mad at Sanjay for not supporting her poor performance, and confessed to the camera that she could not stand Sanjay, among other dubious actions. Tori was awful, there’s no getting around it. If you haven’t checked out Beauty and the Geek yet, do so. It airs Wednesdays on The CW at 8PM ET/PT. -Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
