26 July, 2022

Nine’s Beauty And The Geek Is A MAFS Palate Cleanser With Heart

By Mary Madigan

Nine’s Beauty And The Geek is a nice palate cleanser to the insanity and genius of Married At First and this season has seen the show lean even further into wholesome vibes and away from high drama.

The show’s executive producer, AJ Johnson (main photo), is a real fan of the concept and explains that the format lends itself to some really sweet moments: “It’s a show where people get to watch worlds collide and learn from each other,” he explained.

watching beauty and the geek and it’s so nice to watch a reality show that isn’t based on hurting peoples feelings, like what a change of pace

— nic (@nictendo64) July 25, 2022

Johnson’s also proud of the redevelopment of the show, before the Sophie Monk era and rejig. The ‘Geek’ contestants felt embellished. These days, the ‘Geeks’ consist of men who seem like the kind of guys you know, and it does make for a more realistic viewing.

Johnson told B&T, “The geeks have changed so much, and geeks rule the world now! So we needed to look at how we were representing them.”

“The show has some truly beautiful moments where people reveal the truth and talk about their rough runs”, he explained.

Beauty And The Geek

Still, despite the show’s warm vibes, it hasn’t done as well this year as last. It’s been down in the ratings and in comparison to Married At First Sight, which is the opposite of wholesome. It isn’t reaching those numbers.

Johnson attributes the downswing in ratings to consumer habits. It is true the way people watch shows has changed. Families aren’t camped around their television; they are on laptops, tablets and streaming in their rooms.

He said: “Ratings are down across the board this year, compared to last year. But I expect our BVOD to be massive.”

Johnson’s assumption is correct; the show is seeing a huge lift in BVOD, so while the show might be drawing between 400k-500k on average, it’s reaching about 700k+ on BVOD. This means the show is still reaching a very big audience.

Beauty And The Geek still has a very strong audience, and the revamped format is now being used across the world. Something Johnson rightfully takes great pride in, and he said: “They’ve taken our redevelopment and are using it across the world.

“This season, it felt like we learnt from last season and saw what worked and refined it.”

It also doesn’t hurt that the show has Sophie Monk as a host, who always brings warmth and charisma to everything she does, but why is she such a perfect fit for Beauty And The Geek? Well, Johnson puts that down to a few things, “I think she brings a bit of both! She brings beauty and geek. She’s genuinely invested in the show, and that shines through,” he said.

Sophie Monk

So what are Johnson’s hopes and dreams for the show? Well, they are pretty bloody wholesome. He just wants to keep making a show he loves, “We want this to continue for years; we feel like this new format and how we’ve adapted it with Nine is working well,” he explained.

And honestly what’s more beautiful and geeky than that?

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Beauty and the Geek Nine sophie monk