What does it take to be a thinking woman's sex symbol? The definition really comes from what it doesn't take. You don't need to be conventionally handsome. You don't need a full head of shiny hair or photo-ready pearly whites. You don't need six-pack abs or hardened pecs. You certainly don't need a hot car or a fat wallet. What you do need is smarts and a wit best described as "acerbic."

Now, this whole "the five" thing is pretty rough. Only five slots for television's sexiest smarty-pants doesn't make things easy. There was no room for Steve Coogan, Charlie Rose, Bradley Whitford, Naveen Andrews or David Duchovny. So, the order here is arbitrary, and well, let's just preface this list by saying that we're talking about television stars here. This means that even the nerdiest of nerds is a far cry from dogsville, but these five all have one thing in common - they've got it going on upstairs.