The ultimate social experiment begins when seven beauties and seven geeks move into an enormous mansion in Los Angeles. After choosing teams, Brian explains the first challenge, where the women and the men must learn from each other to complete tasks. All of the contestants must rediscover the fifth grade; the women compete in a trivia contest, focusing on history, spelling, and geography. Meanwhile, the men learn dance moves from the women, who then must perform in front of a crowd of people, who judge who danced the best. Mindi and Richard win both of their challenges, ensuring them full immunity and giving them the power to nominate two other teams for elimination. At the elimination ceremony, Richard and Mindi send Eric and Cheryl and Joe and Erika to the elimination chamber, where Eric and Cheryl are eliminated.

Episode two brings strain to the game. some of the Geeks are already growing thin on the Beauties, and one pair in the house, Erika and Brad, begins a romance. The second set of tasks entails lots of oil the women must complete a series of tasks having to do with a car: popping the hood, and changing the oil, air filter, and a tire. The men are forced to brush up on massages. At the challenges, Chuck and Caitilin prosper, working as a team to win both. Fighting breaks out between the two because of Chucks inability to nominate anyone for elimination, but in the end, they decide on sending Erika and Joe and Brad and Scarlet to the elimination room. Erika and Joe lose the quiz, sending them home and ending the short-lived love between Erika and Brad.

The third set of tasks is one of the trickiest yet for both groups - the Beauties and the Geeks. The women must brush up on their rocket science and follow a series of instructions in order to assemble a rocket and launch it in the fastest time. Later, the men are taken to a series of stores in order to purchase three outfits - formal wear, swimsuit, and casual wear - for their partners to wear in a fashion show. The winners of the tasks, Scarlet & Bill and Chuck & Caitilin, choose two teams to go up for elimination. In the end, Krystal and Brad are sent home, both with tremendous boosts in confidence and skill level.

The competition heats up as the four remaining teams gear up for their new tasks. The ladies get to give the guys makeovers and the guys must go out and get phone numbers from total strangers. Tensions rise as a rivalry grows between two of the contestants, and when Chuck and Caitilin win the challenges again, they nominate Richard & Mindi for elimination for the second time, along with Lauren & Bill. The experience of having gone through elimination once already proves to be an advantage for Richard & Mindi, who survive, and Lauren & Bill are sent home.

For the first time, the individual couples must work together as a team to have a successful night of camping. The rivalry between Chuck and Richard reaches an all-time high, and the romance between Scarlet and Chuck seems to fizzle out because of the competitive fire in Scarlet. After a challenge in the wilderness, two of the teams are sent to the elimination room, where one team is sent home, leaving only two couples for the final task.

During the final day at the mansion, the teams spend more time getting to know each other, learning a skill that the other excels at - karate, cooking, kayaking, and piano - as one last thing to do with each other before the final elimination, a series of ten questions about your partner. By evening's end, one team wins a quarter of a million dollars, but both teams walk away with more knowledge and more confidence.

Beauty and the Geek's first season contestants gather in front of a live studio audience to discuss their time in the house, as well as what they took away from the experience, how their confidence has increased, and how their rivalries and romances have ended after the show has wrapped production.