Beauty and the Geek

Before this season of Beauty and the Geek started, I made completely arbitrary Power Rankings of all the beauties and the geeks. Although they were completely superficial judgments, based only on each contestant's publicity photo and his or her tagline, it might be a worthwhile exercise to revisit my list to see how good my predictions were, especially since I've been told by more than one of the actual contestants that I was way off the mark.

Before I get to that, let me explain the thought process I had while ranking everyone. There were two different approaches I could have used: 1) rank people based on who I think will win, or 2) rank people based on who I most want to win. In hindsight, although I probably should have done option 1, I really ended up doing option 2.

I ranked Tiffany and Jim both at the top of their categories, and I stand by my decision. Sure, they were the third pair eliminated, but with the new game show style of the elimination round, it wasn't necessarily due to their lack of ability that they were sent home. Tiffany didn't get as much airtime as some of the other beauties did, but she did show a lot of spunk in the football game. And Jim. Oh, Jim! I'm kind of in love with Jim. I knew there was something special about him right from the very beginning. He had some memorable quotes, like the one about his distaste for "obtrusive air-quotes." And for the icing on the delightfully nerdy cake, he finally got to have the makeover he wanted to badly. No joke, he is one seriously good-looking dude, and I'd pick him any day over Tommy.


Speaking of Tommy, I knew in my gut that he is not a real geek, and he has proven that to be so. He may dress conservatively, but a sweater vest does not a geek make. He has continually proven himself to be popular, well-spoken, un-awkward, athletic, and a hit with the ladies. Just because you are smart, which I've no doubt Tommy is, it doesn't mean you are a geek.

It was hard to make any initial judgments about the beauties because most of their publicity photos were all just blandly attractive, but after watching six episodes now, one thing immediately comes to my attention: how wrong was I about Amber?? I mean, honestly! I put her at number two in my rankings, but she ended up being probably the most unlikable character in the history of the show! I hereby admit my mistake.

I did alright with the rest of the beauties, however. I described Randi as a "no-nonsense kind of girl who knows what she wants and goes after it." That's an understatement, huh? She did engage in an awful lot of fights during her time on Beauty and the Geek, but I have to say that I found her utterly charming, if a little vain, when I interviewed her. Leticia and Cara were at numbers three and four, respectively, and they have indeed become two of my favorite beauties. Go me!

Back to the geeks. I think I was absolutely right about Matt and Greg, ranked second and third, respectively. Matt is very, very sweet, and Greg did in fact steal everyone's hearts, just as I predicted that he would. The other very colorful character worth mentioning here is Joe, who was named the geek "most likely to let it all out" in this week's recap show. I ranked him next-to-last because I had a suspicion that he was going to get on my nerves. And guess what? He does get on my nerves. He seems to get on all of his co-castmembers' nerves too.

Regarding his makeover, I predicted that his appearance wouldn't change that much even after getting a new wardrobe and a haircut. Now that we've already seen the results of the makeover, I guess his appearance has changed, but I wouldn't say that it was that much of an improvement. I can't take credit for this, but someone else who recaps Beauty and the Geek observed that he's now a dead ringer for Chastity Bono.


What do you think? Do you think I was way off the mark in my initial assessment? Do you think I'm still wrong about the beauties and the geeks? Share your comments.


Read related articles:
Preseason Power Rankings – The Geeks
Preseason Power Rankings – The Beauties



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Images courtesy of the CW, January Magazine)