The Scholar, Episode 1: Oops, I Just Boobed You

Welcome to the first episode of ABC’s The Scholar, the competition in which ten high school seniors compete for a full-ride scholarship provided by The Broad Foundation to a school of their choice.

Before I begin, I’d like to thank all of the people who wrote in response to my contestant breakdown article (and if you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here). A number of readers informed me that “discrete” math refers to math using precise integers such as statistics and number theory, so thank you all very much for enlightening my day.

Now let’s begin. The show opens with a brief montage describing the importance of a college education in modern society, stressing that money matters. The students will be competing with each other and living together for six straight weeks. They will compete in many different academic tasks, but there is also the promise of social awakenings, as we see several contestants discussing their interests in other contestants.

This montage ends with a scene from the end of the show, where the host, Rob Nelson, prepares to reveal the winner to the group. All of the contestants are standing together waiting expectantly which leads me to believe that this might not be the standard, Survivor-style elimination that we’re used to.

As the opening credits roll, we’re introduced to each of the contestants and learn a little bit about them. This is all pretty much a recap of my contestant breakdown, so we’ll move ahead to the students arriving at the “scholar house.” They welcome each other as we get a few bits of individual commentary as well as a little more detailed backstory for Melissa. She was diagnosed with scoliosis, and doctors had to fuse metal rods in her back. We see Melissa on the phone with her mom who says, “Change your shoes. Change your life.” Sage advice.

There’s a quick plug for Intel-powered computers, and then we’re introduced to Davis. He comes across about as cocky as I had predicted. Scot claims that Davis will probably be difficult to get along with. More shots of the USC campus as Milana tells us that she expects to be dealing with brainiacs and manipulators.

The students are all gathered now and enter the library to meet with host Rob Nelson and the scholarship committee (henceforth referred to as simply the S.C) – Marquesa Lawrence, Peter Johnson, and Shawn Abbott. Rob quickly lays out the rules of the game. There will be three rounds each week.

Round One – The Captain’s Quiz pits all the players against each other in a speed quiz. The first person with the most correct answers in the fastest time wins. (And did anybody else have Regis Philbin’s voice in their head when they read that last sentence)? The top two will become team captains.

Round Two – Team Challenge will allow the two captains to select their teams. This is all that is mentioned at this point, so I get the feeling that it’s simply not described very well. I doubt an entire round consists of one game of playground pick’em. Hopefully we’ll find out more later.

Round Three – Administrative Showdown is also somewhat unclear, though we get the idea that it involves being grilled by the S.C. The captain of the winning team gets to move on to compete for a one in five shot for the finals, as do two others picked by the S.C.

The first challenge begins right away, and it’s going to be a history test involving space exploration. (Oh, and just so there’s some more pressure to rattle the players’ nerves, Rob reveals that the overall winner of the third round will receive a $50,000 scholarship from Wal-Mart). In interview segments, Amari tells us this isn’t her best subject, and Liz admits she knows nothing about shuttles. Davis, on the other hand, feels confident because lately he’s been reading a lot of books about JFK.

The quiz is fairly straightforward. A list of dates is provided, and the students must match significant events in the history of space exploration with the appropriate date. We’re privy to such events as John Glenn’s shuttle mission, the Challenger explosion, the Sputnik launch, Mir’s reentry into orbit, and the moon landing.

The quiz ends as quickly as it started. We see a few hands hitting the “I’m finished” buttons, and Rob chimes in that there is a three-way tie… cut to commercial. After the commercial break, Rob announces that the three who got the most correct answers are Alyssa, Davis, and Jeremy. Alyssa finished in two minutes, 14.3 seconds, Jeremy finished in one minute, 34.5 seconds, and Davis finished in one minute, 34.1 seconds. So Davis and Jeremy will be the team captains.

The first competition is followed by some background on Jeremy’s family. He speaks Vietnamese at home and tells the story of how his parents immigrated to America to provide a better life for him. It’s all very sweet, and his parents seem genuine.

Back at the “scholar house” we find Melissa encouraging everybody to stereotype themselves. Gerald admits to being a band nerd/theater guy. Scot calls himself the home-schooler (wow, you took a giant leap of the imagination to come up with that one, Scot). Melissa claims to have been a part of the musician crowd, and Davis admits that everyone who knows him either loves him or hates him. As if on cue, we hear Alyssa in voice-over discussing how much she dislikes Davis.

The Team Challenge is next. The two teams will follow maps to different locations throughout the USC campus. At each location they will answer puzzles and brainteasers designed to draw on knowledge from several different curricula. The first team back with the most correct answers wins, and their captain will automatically go on to the final round. We see another plug for Intel as Rob describes the laptops the two teams will be using.

Davis and Jeremy will be the captains of the Gold team and the Red team respectively. These seemed like an odd pair of colors to me at first until I remembered they were on the USC campus, so the USC colors seem more fitting in that respect. Team Gold consists of Davis, Liz, Melissa, Max, and Gerald. Team Red consists of Jeremy, Alyssa, Scot, Amari, and Milana. I wonder if these teams stick together throughout the show. Based on the Captain’s Challenge that started the show, I’m guessing they change every week. But that could lead to some confusing team dynamics.