‘King of the Nerds’ season 3 spotlight: Will Ben Tully stay afloat?
Today, we embark on the second voyage through “King of the Nerds” season 3. Our focus? A man named Ben Tully who does not want to sleep with the fishes. Trust us when we say that we could sit here and right ocean-related puns all night long; we’ve known people in this field before, so we have a ton of practice coming up with terrible jokes.
If you missed our grand introduction to the spotlight series yesterday, our suggestion is to go over here and check it out. We don’t want to waste a whole lot of time on that here, since we’d much rather dive into what Ben’s story this season could be! We’ll get into this a little more when we record our pre-show podcast at some point before the premiere. Hopefully, we’ll have an ETA on when that will be posted soon, after we figure out a recording date and/or get some energy drinks. Burning the midnight oil with some of these spotlights this season!
Name – Ben Tully
Age – 29
Location – Los Angeles, California
Specialty – “Marine biologist.” Technically, Ben refers to himself on Twitter as a “deep-sea microbiologist,” which is all specific and fancy. Also, his Twitter handle is @DeepSeaSith, which we personally find to be rather awesome. (Also, Episode II of “Star Wars” should be thrown somewhere into the deep sea, so far where neither Ben nor James Cameron will ever be able to find it.)
Nerd cred – Much like with Amanda yesterday, Ben professes to be a nerd of all trades! Specifically, he’s got the scientific angle down. He should be strong in that alongside math, problem-solving, and taking on some of the challenges that don’t involve putting on costumes and/or performing in front of a crowd. Also, he kind of looks like nerdy “Survivor” contestant Spencer Bledsoe, and that’s a plus since he was one of our favorite contestants of the past few seasons.
On a more serious note, Ben’s “mild-mannered” description and overall demeanor should suit him well. He doesn’t act like he wants to be a Sith Lord, or that he will produce some sort of Syndrome / Slade Wilson on “Arrow” season 2 sort of evil monologue. Not driving your fellow cast members insane is important to avoid Nerd-Offs!
Weak points – You have to be very smart and driven to do some of what Ben does, but does he come across as almost too mild-mannered for his own good? This show can be like a shark tank, and we’re not talking about the one where Kevin O’Leary pressures you into taking a royalty deal. Some of the more successful nerds are the sharks that swim quickly and confidently.
Otherwise, most of the other “weak points” for Ben are those related to TBS doing a subpar job with releasing information on the cast this season. We have no clue how this guy will do in creative tasks, whether or not he would even get the completely random Slade Wilson reference earlier, or what sort of nerd culture he likes beyond “Star Wars.” With that being said, we do think a great show would be putting him in the same room as massive “Star Trek” fan Kayla from last season, and then just watching them debate which is better for a couple of hours.
End assessment – We actually don’t have anything that crazy or snarky to say about Ben, other than that we would’ve liked his video better if he impersonated Aquaman or started to compare his fellow contestants to Ocean Master. We’ve said before that we tend to gravitate towards contestants we relate to a little, and he fits that bill. It feels like he could do pretty well on the show, and while our predictions don’t always work out well (#KelseyWasRobbed), we’ll be rooting for him in the early going.
Keep checking back, since we’re going to be blasting one of these your way daily until the “King of the Nerds” premiere airs on Friday, January 23 on TBS. Tomorrow, we’ll be back to see if “Jeopardy!” champ Colby Burnett has the questions to our answers. (We blame Alex Trebek for making us write the previous sentence that way.)
Also, you can sign up today for our CarterMatt Newsletter to get further TV scoop sent right in your direction! (Photo: TBS / Eddy Chen.)