The Fall Television Debut of "Beauty and the Geek" Offers Some Interesting Twists

Ashton Kutcher's brainchild - - "Beauty and the Geek" - - held its 2007 fall premier Thursday, September 20, 2007. As promised the geeks were even geekier and the beauties more beautiful than ever before.

This year, the CW Network's hit show expanded its roster to include ten couples. After meeting all of the contestants, the beauties and geeks were treated to an outdoor barbecue and held a slumber party on the grounds. This gave everyone an opportunity to meet one another before they were paired into couples.

Unlike in year's past, however, the show conducted intelligence tests on the beauties and social skills tests on the geeks. The beauty and geek that scored lowest on the tests then had the opportunity to choose with whom they would be paired. But that isn't all. They also got to choose all of the other teams.

Joshua, a 26 year-old-student working on his master's degree at Princeton, was the lowest scoring geek, while Shalandra, a 26 year-old bartender who wants to model, was the beauty at the bottom. After talking over their ideas about teams and discussing options with many of their new friends in the house, they decided to pair themselves together.

While they paired some teams as their friends wanted, they also kept others apart. According to them, the unpopular decisions weren't intentional but I don't think that either side quite bought into that claim.

Another new twist for this year was the addition of a tenth couple which would consist of one male "beauty" and one female "geek." Let's take a look at this year's contestants, beginning with the beauties:

Amanda, a 25 year-old model, who wants an All-American family, complete with two children and pets;

Erin, a 22 year-old hair stylist, who loves to shop;

Hollie, a 26 year-old theme park performer (she plays Betty Boop), who wants to marry rich;

Jasmine, a 22 year-old babysitter, who aspires to sell real estate;

Jennifer, a 26 year-old waitress, who studied journalism in college;

Katie, a 25 year-old retail store manager, hopes to travel the world;

Natalie, a 22 year-old waitress, intends to go to North Carolina State to major in Abnormal Psychology;