‘King of the Nerds’ season 2 premiere review: Kelsey Syers, Chris Jackson and a game of quidditch
We have been eagerly awaiting the return of “King of the Nerds” to TBS since there is very little in the way of nerd reality show programming these days. Now that “Beauty and the Geek” is off the air the only time we see nerds involved in reality competition is if they are part of a bigger cast like John Cochran on “Survivor” or Ian Terry from “Big Brother”, so having a reality competition come up that’s all nerds battling it out in brainy challenges is an epic win for us.
To start off this season we saw the death of King Celeste, leaving Nerdvana without a ruler. Last season the winner was chosen by a popularity contest (everything that a nerd is not), so we were happy to hear that things have changed this year. How the winner will be chosen hasn’t been revealed yet, but knowing what happened last year we expect to see more social strategy happening this season.
When Zachary and Chris were picked as the two team captains, Nicole decides to only tell Zachary about her profession, and they make an early alliance (something that was sorely missing from last season). So who is on what team?
Gold team aka “Midas Touch Attack”: Zachary, Nicole, Jack, Josh, and Mary Kate
Purple team aka Titans of Rigel : Chris, Katy, Brian, Xander, and Kayla.
We were shocked that Kelsey wasn’t picked for a team, because while she may be the most socially awkward person in the house she is also incredibly smart and versatile. By not getting picked, Kelsey was awarded all the power – meaning that she gets to chose who she wanted banished from Nerdvana. She chose Nicole and Kelsey takes her place on the gold team, but with another twist Nicole gets to choose the “winning” team and she joins that team. So she chooses the gold team and sends Kelsey over to the purple team (the losing team).
So who was sent to the nerdoff? The gold team picked Chris and the purple team picked Kelsey (which was a shocker to no one.) The challenge was fantasy, more specifically they were asked fantasy questions and if answered correctly then they would be playing a real life game of quidditch to gain points. Kelsey clearly knew more fantasy trivia and was able to have more opportunities to fly on the broom and throw potions into cauldrons for points (although her first time on the broom it seemed that she didn’t know she could throw all 6 potions.) While Chris is a smart guy, Kelsey really showed that she has some nerdy chops regardless of her social idiosyncrasies, but she ended up being the first person sent home.
For us Kelsey was easily one of the nerdiest people we’ve seen on this show and we can honestly say that we are shocked that she is the first person eliminated (and also not in the top four this season). There are other people in this cast that don’t come across as genuine nerds and just seem to be trying too hard, so to see someone like Kelsey go home was a great loss. There are a few people that are clearly the real deal like Zachary, Kelsey and Jack, but then there’s also Xander who is someone to watch out for this season, because while everyone else there seems to be an expert in something, he’s got a number of interests and could easily run the table. Also, the RadioShack lab is in the shape of a TARDIS…. which is completely awesome. Grade: B –
Who do you think is going to win this season of “King of the Nerds”? Is there anyone that stands out as an early favorite? If you missed the cast spotlights we did this season which include our Nerd Scale detailing who we think is at the top of the pack, you can check it out here. Also if you want to get some TV updates every Sunday, just subscribe to our newsletter.
Photo: TBS