THE WB'S HIT REALITY SERIES �BEAUTY AND THE GEEK� IS CASTING FOR ITS SECOND SEASON

Burbank, CA July 22, 2005

BREAKOUT STARS, RICHARD THE GEEK AND LAUREN THE BEAUTY, TRAVEL THE COUNTRY TO FIND THE NEXT GROUP OF CONTESTANTS

OPEN CASTING CALLS SCHEDULED IN TWELVE MAJOR U.S. CITIES

The WB's hit reality series BEAUTY AND THE GEEK is gearing up for its second season with a national casting tour starting July 30, it was announced today by David Janollari, President, Entertainment, The WB.

Producing partners Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg are scouring the country for the next seven beautiful, sexy, social-savvy women and seven intellectually endowed but socially stunted men for the show's second installment. The show will return during The WB's 2005-2006 broadcast season with new contestants and eight new episodes.

On hand to help with the selection process in six of the twelve cities will be past beauty and geek, Lauren and Richard. After all, it takes one to know one.

The national casting tour cities and dates are as follows. Specific locations will be announced soon:

Nashville, TN - July 30
Chicago, IL - July 31
Atlanta, GA - August 3
Dallas, TX - August 6
Atlanta, GA - August 7
Kansas City, MO - August 7
Charlotte, NC - August 11
Houston, TX - August 13
Miami, FL - August 14
Boston, MA - August 18
New York, NY - August 27
Los Angeles, CA - August 31

BEAUTY AND THE GEEK pairs seven gorgeous women with seven brilliant men. The members of the co-ed teams work to make their partner more well-rounded in an effort to win the $250,000 grand prize.

BEAUTY AND THE GEEK was one of the surprise hits of the summer, delivering outstanding ranks in its time period and impressive growth over the parallel period a year ago. The six original episodes ranked #1 in the Wednesday 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET timeslot among adults 18-34 (2.2/8), persons 12-34 (2.0/8), females 12-34 (2.5/9), teens (1.7/8) and female teens (2.5/11), and finished #2 among women 18-34 (2.5/9), men 18-34 (1.8/7) adults 18-49 (1.9/6) and males 12-34 (1.6/7). The show brought tremendous growth to its time period compared to the same period last year, improving by triple-digits in nearly every demo, including +120% in adults 18-34, +100% in persons 12-34 and +111% in adults 18-49. BEAUTY AND THE GEEK attracted a much younger audience (MEDIAN AGE: 32.4) than the other summer reality hit, �Dancing with the Stars,� which had a median age of 51.2.

BEAUTY AND THE GEEK is from fox21, produced by Katalyst Films and 3 Ball Productions with executive producers Ashton Kutcher & Jason Goldberg (�Guess Who,� �Punk'd�), Nick Santora (�The Guardian,� �The Sopranos�), J.D. Roth (�The Biggest Loser,� �For Love or Money�), Todd A. Nelson (&ldquoThe Biggest Loser,� �For Love or Money�) & John Foy (�The Biggest Loser,� �For Love or Money�).