After a couple of poorly-received twists that changed the show's original concept and some subsequent big ratings drops, Beauty and the Geek will apparently find itself off the air after its currently-airing fifth season ends next month.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
While nothing has been confirmed yet, Variety reported Beauty and the Geek could return to the airwaves "one day," given either a new "unique twist" or "the passage of enough time" for the show's current format to once again be deemed "fresh" again.
"You can never be sad about a run like this," executive producer J.D. Roth told Variety.
Produced by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, Beauty and the Geek premiered on The WB in Summer 2005 and its second season served as midseason replacement programming for the network the following winter.
When The WB and UPN decided to cease independent operations and launch a new network that would combine the best programming from both networks, Beauty and the Geek joined America's Next Top Model (a former UPN series) as one of The CW's reality mainstays.
Beauty and the Geek's Winter 2007 third season -- the show's first on The CW -- averaged 4.03 million viewers during its eight-episode broadcast run. The performance ranked the show as one of The CW's most-watched 2006-2007 season series (trailing only Top Model and the final season of 7th Heaven, another former The WB series) and resulted in the network deciding to broadcast two editions of the show during the 2007-2008 season.
However while Beauty and the Geek's third edition had continued to follow the show's original format and paired "gorgeous but academically impaired" women with "brilliant but socially challenged" men, a new "hunky guy" and "nerdy girl" twist was included in last fall's fourth-season cast.
Beauty and the Geek's fourth installment averaged 3.04 million total viewers (a still decent number for the lightly-viewed The CW network) during its 11-episode broadcast run last fall. However the show's fifth edition -- which has had to air against both Fox's American Idol and NBC's recently-concluded The Biggest Loser: Couples reality series -- has averaged only 1.88 million viewers during its first seven broadcasts.
This spring's fifth Beauty and the Geek's season began with the beauties competing against the geeks -- a twist that apparently failed to please both former viewers and the season's cast.
"None of us liked that twist," previously eliminated fifth-season geek Jonathan Prater told Reality TV World in a recent interview.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio
