Beauty and the Geek (British TV series)
Beauty and the Geek is a reality television show, first aired in the United Kingdom on E4 on 7 February 2006, following the success of the format in the United States, and was advertised similarly as "the Ultimate Social Experiment". The first series ended on 14 March and was repeated on Channel 4 beginning on 31 March. There is no host per se, although voiceovers are provided by David Mitchell of Peep Show fame and the physical actions normally requiring a host are performed by a silent "butler" known as "Gates" (actor Alex Purves).
| Beauty and the Geek | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 48 mins |
| Release | |
| Original network | E4 |
| Original release | 7 February – 14 March 2006 |
Overview
Like its US counterpart, the show matches physically attractive, but intellectually challenged women with geeky-looking, socially inept, "genius" men, and have them try to learn from each other. The women try to learn about academia such as rocket science or anatomy from the men, while the men try to learn social skills from the women. Each pair must share a room (for some this meant sleeping in the same bed) in a large Scottish castle (Blairquhan Castle in Ayrshire) that provides the setting for the show.
The show begins with seven "beauties" and seven "geeks". The men and women take turns choosing partners by introducing themselves in gender-divided rooms. Once paired off, the teams work together to become proficient in unfamiliar areas of study. Their skills are tested in a series of competitions, usually one for the men and one for the women. The winners of each competition get to choose one team each to go to an elimination round, or both if each partner wins their respective round. In the elimination room, the women then the men answer three questions each about their area of study. The team with the most points (or the winner of the tiebreaker in the event of a tie) remains in the castle. The other team leaves immediately.
The last team remaining wins £40,000, split evenly.
Series 1
Cast
| The Beauties | The Geeks |
|---|---|
| Alex Slater "Boxing Ring Beauty" | Will Goodhand "Young Conservative" |
| Elissa Friday "Model/Aspiring Actress" | Ben Jewell "Wildlife Fundraiser" |
| Carrie Watson "Booty Dancer" | Philip Scott "Computer Scientist" |
| Hayley Dixon "Podium Dancer" | David Booth "Evolutionary Biologist" |
| Natalie Pike "High Street Honey" | Jamie Sawyer "Mathmo" |
| Sam Wyness "Essex Girl" | Edmund Bolton "Former Child Prodigy" |
| Teri Marquez "Page Three Girl" | John Gethin "Theologian/Philosopher" |
Challenges
| Week | Beauty (Winner) | Geek (Winner) | Sent Home |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spelling Bee (Natalie) | Dancing Competition (Ben) | Carrie & Philip |
| 2 | Human Body (Natalie) | Massage (Will) | Hayley & David |
| 3 | Rocket Science (Elissa) | Women's Fashion (John) | Natalie & Jamie |
| 4 | Elissa & Ben | ||
| 5 | Alex & Will | ||
| 6 | Sam & Edmund | ||
| Winners | |||
Episode progress
| # | Contestants | Episodes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||
| 1 | Teri | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | RISK | RISK | WINNER | ||
| John | SAFE | SAFE | WIN | RISK | RISK | WINNER | |||
| 2 | Sam | SAFE | SAFE | RISK | SAFE | WIN | RUNNER-UP | ||
| Edmund | SAFE | SAFE | RISK | SAFE | WIN | RUNNER-UP | |||
| 3 | Alex | SAFE | SAFE | SAFE | WIN | OUT | |||
| Will | SAFE | WIN | SAFE | WIN | OUT | ||||
| 4 | Elissa | SAFE | RISK | WIN | OUT | ||||
| Ben | WIN | RISK | SAFE | OUT | |||||
| 5 | Natalie | WIN | WIN | OUT | |||||
| Jamie | SAFE | SAFE | OUT | ||||||
| 6 | Hayley | RISK | OUT | ||||||
| David | RISK | OUT | |||||||
| 7 | Carrie | OUT | |||||||
| Philip | OUT | ||||||||
- 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.