Beauty and the Geek is back!

I have mixed feelings about this season of Beauty and the Geek, with the various changes to its format. But I'm crossing my fingers!

So in case you didn't watch last season, I'll refer you to my posts about it. I was very unhappy with how most of the season went, because I felt like the point of the show was being lost (see my post here) - but the producers redeemed themselves in the end (see my post here).

This season, though, they started things off right. (Yay Ashton Kutcher!) First of all, they've added in a lot more explanation by the host about the point of the show. They've also added in IQ tests for the beauties and social IQ tests for the geeks at the beginning of the show, which are designed to determine the starting point for each contestant - putting the focus back on personal growth for each individual.

After the tests (and a night with everyone sleeping outside), the lowest-scoring beauty and the lowest-scoring geek were announced. Those two were then charged with interviewing each contestant and then choosing all nine pairings. This is different than the format in previous years, where the partners were chosen at first meeting, solely on face value, usually with the more obnoxious and assertive people getting to make first selection. I always thought that process was bogus, so tonight I was pleased with the change. This exercise made people think a lot harder about who they wanted to be paired with and why, and it helped them get to know each other instead of judging a book by its cover. It also worked out better that the lowest-scoring contestants got to pick each team - they really put a lot of thought in to the decision, and although some of it was strategy, it was more about who they thought could learn the most from each other. All of this aligned much better with the point of the show, which made me very happy.

The part I'm uneasy about is the surprise twist at the end. The host announced that they'd be adding a 10th team to the mix - a "geek" who's a girl, and a "beauty" who's a guy. Don't get me wrong, I saw this reversed format coming from a mile away. But I worry about implementing only ONE team like this, instead of having a whole separate version of the show with all teams' genders reversed. Although, like the host said, this show has always been about the social experiment. And this is a social experiment indeed. So, we'll see how it goes. Maybe it will end up teaching everyone a lot -- that's it's not what they can learn from female beauties or male geeks, but it's what they can learn from other people who aren't like them, regardless of gender. I'm worried that it will create more stereotypes, but hopefully it will go one step further in breaking them down.