For reality TV fans, the early aughts can be considered somewhat of a golden age. It was a time where anything was possible: Xzibit could mysteriously pop up in your driveway to put a cotton candy machine in your cheap Craigslist car; MTV could tear you out of your bed in the middle of the night and give a future date a blacklight to inspect your embarrassingly messy room; and The Swan, arguably the cruelest reality show ever created, was somehow greenlit.
Meanwhile, in the middle of Ashton Kutcher’s wildly successful original run of MTV’s candid camera prank series, Punk’d, he also producedBeauty and the Geek. Touted as a social experiment rather than a run-of-the-mill reality show, it brought together polar opposites – the geekiest, most socially awkward men casting directors could find and seemingly shallow bombshells – and forced them to work together to complete challenges. Continue reading “The Disturbing Untold Truth Of Beauty And The Geek”