;-)
I hate to break it to ya - but that's how it's meant to look out of the box.
If you publish a slideshow component in the 'feature' position - something like the excellent free simple image gallery at
www.joomlaworks.gr/ (scroll down the page for free components)
set width to 966 pixels and make your images this wide.
Will make the template look fabulous.
Also can publish search in position search and I usually unpublish footer.
we use custom module positions - so it's usually just a matter of turning a few things on and off and switching some module positions and you will be looking great in no time!
hope that helps.
ps: if you publish any module left then the left column will magically appear - same with 'feature' - if you unpublish polls then the right column will vanish.