Video: TBS's "King of the Nerds" Reveals 11 Competitors for Season 2

TBS has announced the 11 nerds who are set to face off against each other this winter in a new season of the hit competition series King of the Nerds. Hosts Robert Carradine and Curtis Armstrong, who also serve as executive producers, will once again oversee the bigger, better and more challenging "Nerd Wars" and "Nerd-Offs" as competitors from across the nerd spectrum vie for the ultimate nerd title. This season's enhanced finale will also be decided by pure nerd skill rather than by vote. King of the Nerds will kick off its second season Thursday, Jan. 23, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), only on TBS.

The following are the 11 competitors set to participate in the ultimate nerd-off:

Brian, 27 - Urbana, Ill.- Library science scholar who enjoys German-style board games and discussing 18th-century European history. At one time, he had 100 books checked out from the Yale library.

Chris, 27 - Waco, Texas - Structural engineer who loves to travel and aspires to work in the space exploration industry.

Jack, 24 - Urbana, Ill. - Bioengineering student and fencing and chess champion who enjoys watching anime in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese.

Josh, 23 - Grayslake, Ill. - Game vlogger (with nearly 700,000 subscribers), nerdcore rapper and world competitor in card games.

Katie, 24 - Pittsburgh, Penn. - Roboticist and puppeteer whose work has appeared on Broadway and who formerly performed in ballet companies.

Kayla, 28 - Greenacres, Wash. - An ice hockey player who also holds a master's degree in space studies and believes she will one day reach Mars.

Kelsey, 23 - Canton, Ga. - Quad-lingual Japanophile who is equally as interested in playing video game music on the piano as she is keeping up with fantasy/sci-fi novels and swing dancing.

Mary Kate, 23 - Starkville, Miss. - Aerospace engineering student and avid costumer.

Nicole, 28 - Milwaukee, Wisc. - Chemist, gamer and former marching band member who currently competes in a Milwaukee roller derby league.

Xander, 27 - Los Angeles, Calif. - Vlogger, graphic designer and LARP enthusiast who lost 100 pounds by playing a popular dance video game.

Zachary, 21 - Minneapolis, Minn. - Fantasy writer and hardcore gamer who has also memorized more than 300 hours of musical lyrics in genres ranging from J-pop to rock.

Guest stars set to appear throughout the second season of King of the Nerds include Bill Nye (Bill Nye the Science Guy, Dancing With the Stars), Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory), Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) and Kumail Nanjiani (Franklin & Bash). The season will also feature a Revenge of the Nerds reunion and return appearances by George Takei (Star Trek) and Yaya Han.

About King of the Nerds

In TBS's hit series King of the Nerds, competitors face challenges that test their intellect, ingenuity, skills and pop-culture prowess. The nerds live together in "Nerdvana," competing first as teams before moving on to individual challenges. In the end, only one competitor will be named the quintessential master of all things nerdy, winning the $100,000 prize.

This year's King of the Nerds competitors are looking to inherit the crown from reigning champion, Celeste Anderson, a professional gamer from Orillia, Ontario, who specializes in first-person shooters and speed-cubing. The show will be bringing back some elements from last season with all-new twists in addition to more exciting and nerdy challenges. New challenges include Robot Dodgeball, Nerdiocart and a Science Fair. The contestants will live in a bigger, better, nerdier Nerdvana during the competition and the ultimate winner will be determined by a challenge of pure nerd skill rather than a vote.

King of the Nerds is executive-produced by Ben Silverman, Chris Grant and Jimmy Fox of Electus and Craig Armstrong, Rick Ringbakk and Charles Wachter of 5X5 Media, as well as Carradine and Armstrong. Electus International, the global distribution arm of Electus, is distributing the series internationally.