A whole new crop of brainy but awkward guys will meet with attractive but academically challenged women in the third season of Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg’s (“Punk’d”) social experiment, “Beauty and the Geek.”

The CW announced Monday that the reality show will make its two-hour season premiere Jan. 3 and will continue in that timeslot for eight consecutive episodes.

“In “Beauty and the Geek,’ Ashton and Jason have created a compelling and entertaining examination of how society views appearance and intelligence, and the third edition is easily the best one yet,” says the CW’s President of Entertainment, Dawn Ostroff. “This series is the perfect companion to seamlessly bridge our two cycles of “(America’s Next) Top Model’ this season and continue The CW’s momentum on Wednesday nights.”

The formula for the contest will remain the same: each geek will pair with a beauty for a chance to win a $250,000 grand prize. In order to compete, the women must learn some intellectual skill from their partner, while the men will in turn learn some social skills. In the past, the female contestants have had to learn how to give a speech and read a map, while the guys were challenged with shopping for women’s clothes and dancing in front of an audience.

This season promises similar awkward challenges. The guys will brush up on their performance and humor skills to deliver a stand-up routine and then get over their embarrassment and hormonal upheaval when asked to sketch a nude model. The women will have to stay on top of current events for a television newscast and become knowledgeable enough to act as museum tour guides.

‘Ugly Betty’ novela goes mobile

The telenovela that Ignacio Suarez (Tony Plana) watches on “Ugly Betty” gets only a few seconds of screen time in most episodes of ABC’s first-year hit. Starting this week, though, you’ll be able to catch more of it.

The network has launched mini-episodes of “Vidas de Fuego” (“Lives of Fire”) on its Web site; later this week Verizon Wireless users will be able to see the mini-show on their mobile phones (provided they have the V Cast service). New episodes will debut every Thursday on ABC.com.

“‘Vidas de Fuego’ is a perfect example of how we’re utilizing unique content across digital platforms,” ABC’s Bruce Gersh says. “Extending this original mini-telenovela online and on mobile offers our loyal fans another way to connect and interact with their favorite ABC program.”

“Vidas de Fuego” is the story of a handsome priest and his secret lover, the beautiful (and pregnant) maid on the wealthy Rivera family’s ranch. Meanwhile, Sofia Rivera is seducing her stepson in hopes of wresting control of the family fortune.

The telenovelita will run for six episodes (ABC is also producing another six-episode story) and is dubbed into English for airing online. It stars several actors with novela experience: Marlene Favela, Sebastian Rulli (both of “Contra viento y marea”), Ninel Conde (“Rebelde”) and Helena Rojo and Eduardo Rodriguez (both of “Peregrina”).

Fox tightens ‘The Loop’ order

“The Loop” doesn’t even have a spring premiere date yet, but Fox is already putting the series on notice.

According to the industry trade papers, Fox has trimmed the order for the midseason comedy by three episodes, from 13 to 10.

Although “The Loop” premiered last spring to fairly weak ratings, Fox was encouraged by the show’s retention of its “American Idol” audience (at least compared to “Life on a Stick,” apparently) and hoped to retool the comedy for its second season, concentrating more on the workplace adventures of the junior airline exec played Bret Harrison.

At the network’s upfront presentation this spring, Fox announced that “The Loop” would air on Wednesday nights at 9:30 p.m. after the “American Idol” results shows shrink to a half-hour.

Since the show hasn’t had a chance to find a new viewership this year, the episode cut is believed to be the result of Fox’s already stuffed spring premiere schedule. While almost all of the network’s fall offerings have flopped, Fox has a slew of new shows hoping to benefit from the network’s inevitable “American Idol”-fueled spring resurgence.

On the drama front, Fox has “Drive” and an untitled wedding series from David E. Kelley on tap. In addition, the comedy “The Winner” is in production, though that series only has a six-episode initial order.