Beauty and the Geek

Last week, we met the nine male geeks and nine female beauties of season 5 of Beauty and the Geek who will begin their quest to become more than just beauties or more than just geeks, and perhaps winning $250,000 while they're at it. This season, instead of competing in beauty/geek pairs, it will be a battle of beauty versus geek. Which beauties and which geeks have the potential to make the biggest transformation? Who has what it takes to make it all the way? Well, it's too early to say. All we really know about them is what we've gathered from their pictures, their professions and their chosen monikers, but that's enough for me to make a preliminary analysis.

Below, I present to you my Beauty and the Geek Preseason Power Rankings of the geeks.

9. Tommy, sweater vest enthusiast

There is nothing I hate more than a fake geek pretending to be a real geek by adopting what he thinks are geeky affectations. Of course, I reserve final judgment until the show actually airs, but my immediate instinct about Tommy, based on his picture and his chosen description, is that he is a slightly geeky but mostly normal guy who is playing up his geekitude for a chance to live in a mansion with some hot babes and possibly win a quarter of a million dollars. Besides, his bio says that he's a law student, which doesn't strike me as a particular geeky position in life. Now, if he is planning on using his law degree to bolster Lawrence Lessig's campaign for open source software, then he will immediately rise to the top of my list, and I will eat my words.


8. Joe, cowboy

I make no secret of my undying love for the socially inept, but that doesn't mean my love is indiscriminate. My first impression of Joe is that he is definitely a geek, but I have a hunch that he's also going to get on my nerves right away as well. He is in dire need of a makeover, but I suspect that he's going to be one of those geeks whose appearance doesn't really change even after getting a new wardrobe and haircut.


7. Jonathan, mama's boy

Jonathan looks like a very sweet and soft-spoken guy, which I would find absolutely endearing in person, but perhaps doesn't translate as well on television. He might become the pushover of the house and be eliminated too soon.


6. John E., recovering Microsoft addict

Every season of Beauty and the Geek has one of those opinionated geek types who are continually at odds with their more comely counterparts, and I feel that John E. is going to be that guy this year. I only hope that he has learned the error of his ways and now suckles at the teat of Linus Torvalds.


5. Chris, MIT oceanographer

Chris is going to be the big transformation this season, mark my words. He looks like he just needs a small boost in self-confidence before he becomes the life of the party.


4. Jason, one buff geek

I have a soft spot for athletic geeks—Josh was my favorite from last season—so I've got high hopes for Jason. My taste for sporty nerds developed when I was in college where the men's ultimate frisbee team was entirely composed of math, physics and computer science majors. Frisbee fosters a very open and unintimidating environment in which the players do not judge you if you happen to be pasty white from spending the summer in front of a computer, you see. Here's hoping that Jason knows his way around a disc.


3. Greg, self-proclaimed “Gaysian”

This little dude is just too adorable for words. His profession is listed as “clothing designer and pastry chef,” which doesn't sound geeky right away. But maybe he's a clothing designer and pastry chef who also likes RPGs and fantasy. Plus, the slightly embarrassed grin on his face is so winsome. I know that he will steal everyone's hearts.


2. Matt, the poet

Matt wins my heart simply because of the goofy suit-and-tie T-shirt he's wearing in his promo picture. It's just awesome. Where can I get one?


1. Jim, videogame programmer

Jim is my true love. His hometown newspaper ran a profile on him recently, in which I learned that he was a chess champ in high school and that he used to read a four-inch-thick Visual Basic manual during sustained silent reading in fourth grade. All of this, plus his phenomenal Jesus beard and hairdo, are why he is my favorite going into the season.

Click here to read the Beauty and the Geek Preseason Power Rankings for the beauties.



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)