The Buffa-Lowdown

"I like Avery! I don't like mom!"

- Ricky

The Buffa-Lowdown is the thirteenth episode in Season 3 of Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn. It first aired on May 6, 2017, to an audience of 1.28 million viewers.

Synopsis
Ricky takes advantage of his power on the school's news show, but when the other quads learn the reason, they band together to help him.

Plot
At Edgewood School, Principal Tarian has put up a news team for The Edgewood Buffa-Lowdown morning announcements newscast. The team:
 * Ricky - the producer
 * Dawn and Mae - the main news anchors, co-hosts
 * Dicky - Haps in the Halls (field reporter in the halls)
 * Nicky - cafeteria highlights for the day
 * Avery - birthdays
 * Natlee and Dooley - the studio camera crew.
 * Miles - Dicky's camera man.
 * Shelly (Principal Tarian's tortoise) - Shelly Cam.

During the morning news, the co-hosts Mae and Dawn announce that there are still tickets left for the upcoming school dance. They invite Dicky in the halls to show how students are embracing Dance-posal (dance proposal) - a new trend where students put elaborate displays just to ask someone to the dance. Dicky uses his Haps in the Halls segment to show off students asking others out to the dance. He also interviews his parents Tom and Anne who are working as janitors in the school as part of school spirit week. Nicky reports on today's cafeteria food but advises students to bring food from home.

During birthdays segment, Avery shocks everyone when she uses her valley-girl accent to announce today's birthdays and also takes the opportunity to settle scores with those who didn't invite her to their birthdays. After the show, Ricky surprises everyone by firing Mae and replacing her with Avery. Dawn, Dicky and Nicky confront Ricky about it since Avery is terrible and won't help them get an A for that class. Ricky says that he's smart and he knows what he's doing. The next day, Dawn can't stand reading news with Avery because she keeps mispronouncing common words with her valley girl accent. After the telecast, she complains to Ricky about it but Ricky says Dawn is the one who was terrible, and Avery was great. Dawn gets angry and takes away Ricky's mic and headphone, making herself the producer and pushing Ricky to be Avery's co-host.

Unfortunately, Ricky is unable to anchor the news with Avery because he keeps freezing and getting the hiccups whenever Avery talks to him. After the show, the rest of the team go to Ricky to find out why he was acting so weird. Avery passes by and talks to Ricky. He starts getting the hiccups again. Dawn figures out that Ricky has a crush on Avery and Ricky admits it. Dawn leads Mae, Dicky and Nicky to help come up with a plan to help Ricky get over his fear of talking to Avery. To help Ricky get confidence in talking to Avery, the quads put on face cut-outs of Avery and try to talk like her but it doesn't work. Mae puts on a tablet with a clip of Avery asking "Why are you staring at me?" This triggers Ricky's hiccups meaning that it's effective. Mae replays it over and over whenever Ricky tries to talk until Ricky finally replies that he looks at her that way because he has a crush on her and wants to get married. After that Ricky gains the confidence he needs to talk to Avery. He manages to talk to the real Avery without freezing. The team plans that Ricky will ask Avery out to the dance by doing an epic dance-posal after the next Buffa-Lowdown news. To be safe, Ricky puts the words in a teleprompter so that he doesn't get nervous and forget what to say.

The next day, everything is ready for Ricky's dance-posal. Dawn goes to lay the groundwork with Avery. She asks Avery if anyone has asked her to the dance yet and Avery says not yet but there's a boy she wants to ask her out. The boy is in the Edgewood Buffa-Lowdown team. He's Dawn's brother. His name rhymes with "icky" like Ricky. The boy is Nicky. Dawn is shocked. She attempts to get Avery to like Ricky instead but Avery has her mind set. Realizing that she can't convince Avery, Dawn plans to stop Ricky from asking Avery to the dance to avoid humiliation. However, she can't reach Ricky in good time before they go live. She comes up with a plan to send the message to Ricky indirectly through other co-hosts hoping that Ricky will get a hint. She gives Mae - who is now in charge of birthdays a card that calls for Ricky's attention and wishes birthday to "Hugh Shuden Tasker" (you shouldn't ask her). But Ricky doesn't take the hint. During Haps in the Halls, Dawn tells Dicky to say there will be no more dance-posals and no one else should do it. It doesn't work.

Out of options, Dawn switches to the Shelly Cam and kicks Ricky out of the co-host chair and forces Nicky to replace him. Nicky doesn't want to do it because Avery has a crush on him and he doesn't like her that way. Nicky starts reading the teleprompter to end the news but unfortunately reads the segment Ricky had written to ask Avery out. Avery is excited to be asked out by Nicky while Nicky is shocked. Ricky comes back to the scene and blames Dawn for doing it on purpose to humiliate him just to get Mae back. Nicky insists they were trying to help and he doesn't even like Avery. He asks Natlee out but Natlee says she wanted Dooley to ask her out instead. While Dooley is asking Natlee out, Principal Tarian comes in.

Principal Tarian blames the team for ruining the news and says he'll give them a B- minus. Ricky stands up for the team and tells the Principal that they did it on purpose to show how extreme promposals can get. The rest of the team plays along. The Principal falls for it and promises to give them an A plus.

Avery thanks Ricky for standing up for the team and helping them get an A. She asks Ricky to ask her out but pronounces "Me" as "Mae" making it sound like she wants Ricky to ask Mae - who is already going out with Miles. Ricky later realizes she meant "Me" and wonders why he couldn't hear Avery's valley-girl accent before.

Main Cast

 * Lizzy Greene as Dawn Harper
 * Casey Simpson as Ricky Harper
 * Mace Coronel as Dicky Harper
 * Aidan Gallagher as Nicky Harper
 * Allison Munn as Anne Harper
 * Brian Stepanek as Tom Harper
 * Kyla Drew Simmons as Mae Valentine

Recurring Cast

 * Isabella Revel as Avery
 * Siena Agudong as Natlee
 * Theodore Barnes as Miles
 * Hayden Crawford as Dooley
 * Jason Sims-Prewitt as Principal Tarian

Continuity

 * Mae says she's afraid of balloons, a secret she revealed in the early episode, Dawn Moves Out.
 * Shelly (Principal Tarian's tortoise) was also seen in Quad Court.
 * Avery was Ricky's date to the Renaissance Fair in Ye Olde Hand Holde when the quads were doing a mature-off contest. She also used the valley-girl accent in that episode.
 * Dawn and Mae were seen to be part of the school news team in the episode, Urban Legend Outfitters, when they were running the school newspaper.

Trivia

 * Avery returns since her first appearance in Ye Olde Hand Holde.
 * This episode was scheduled to air on May 13, 2017.
 * This is the second time Dawn and Mae join a news team.
 * This was scheduled to be the Season 3 finale.
 * Dance-posal is a spoof on proposal which has become a popular trend.
 * After this episode, Ricky is rarely seen talking to Avery. This is presumably because Ricky stopped liking her, due to her accent.
 * Tom and Anne only appear in the 1st scene of the episode which leaves the quads the only characters to appear in every episode after the theme song.