King of the Nerds is a new reality TV show that aired on January 17. In the show, nerds compete for a cash prize of $100,000 and the title of “King of the Nerds.”

Being an acclaimed nerd myself, I was interested in what TBS would do with the concept. What kind of games would they play? What would the contestants be like? The commercials seemed very…interesting to say the least, so I gave it a shot.

The show started off by introducing each of the contestants. Each had their own abilities in math, science, gaming and so on. The diversity of the group was interesting and made deciding which player was my favorite a hard choice.

The presenters then chose team captains out of a hat; one for the Orange Team and one for the Blue Team.

And then came the first challenge: choosing who they wanted on their teams. The problem? There was an odd amount of people and whoever didn’t get picked was getting sent home.

The person who didn’t get picked, in a turn of events, wasn’t getting sent home, as being the last picked for anything is the definition of being a nerd.

That person was then given the power to decide which team, in their opinion, was strongest and would win the challenge. This ended up being the Orange Team, which meant the Blue Team would soon lose a member of their team.

That itself was enough for me to keep watching, as I wondered what other mind games they’d pull on the contestants and the viewers later in the episode.

In the final challenge of the night, two people from the Blue Team were pitted against each other to see who would be the first to go home.

Unsurprisingly, the challenge was a game of life-sized chess.

I have never played a game of chess in my life, nor do I actually know any of the rules of chess; it’s just not something I’ve been interested in.

But even without prior knowledge, the narration from the contestants was enough to keep you informed on who was winning, who was losing, and how badly or well played a contestant’s move was.

Even though my money was on one contestant during the chess match, his opponent ended up beating him, and I was completely caught off guard. It was ‘Game Over’ for the losing contestant, so the loser said his goodbyes to the others, and the first episode came to a close.

From the variety of different types of nerds, to the challenges, to even the nerd themed house the contestants stay in, King of the Nerds is a great show.  It has twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat each commercial break. Even if you don’t consider yourself a nerd or even know anything about being a nerd, the show is easy to understand and is very attention-grabbing.

Though the show has only just premiered, I have high hopes for its future episodes and I will be faithfully watching it on TBS each Thursday night.