History
The dating game show subgenre has its origins in the United States. The original dating game shows were introduced by television producer and game show creator Chuck Barris. The format of Barris's first dating show, The Dating Game , which premiered in 1965, saw a bachelor or bachelorette ask questions of three singles seen only by the audience. The various suitors were able to describe their rivals in uncomplimentary ways, which made the show work well as a general devolution of dignity. Some of the questions were written to elicit humorous or suggestive answers. Another Barris show, The Newlywed Game , featured recently-married couples competing to answer questions about each other's preferences. The couple who knew each other the best would win the game; sometimes others got divorced. Once, someone divorced after appearing on The Newlywed Game got a "second chance" on The Dating Game. Gimmicks were the lifeblood of all such shows, which drew criticisms for instigating disaffection that could not have been effected.
The genre waned for a while but it was later revived by The New Dating Game and the UK version Blind Date , and the original shows were popular in reruns, unusual for any game show. Cable television revived some interest in these shows during the 1980s and 1990s, and eventually new shows began to be made along the old concepts. Variations featuring LGBT contestants began to appear on a few specialty channels.
Other shows focused on the conventional blind date, where two people were set up and then captured on video, sometimes with comments or subtitles that made fun of their dating behaviour. He Said, She Said focused not on setting up the date, but on comparing the couple's different impressions afterwards, and for their cooperation offering to fund a second date. These resembled the reality shows that began to emerge at about the same time in the 1990s.
The increased popularity of reality television since the early 2000s has influenced new types of dating shows, where the emphasis is on realistic actions and tensions, but use less realistic scenarios than the traditional blind date:
- The Bachelor (2002) and The Bachlorette (2003), where a single man or woman partakes in activities with a larger group of single contestants, eliminating them over the course of the season until one remains.
- The Fifth Wheel (2001), in which four people, two of one sex and two of another, are allowed to meet and bond to an extent, before a "fifth wheel," a person of one of either gender, but always a heterosexual, enters and attempts to break up the equilibrium.
- Joe Millionaire (2003), a series satirizing the genre, where a group of women competed to become the bride of a bachelor billed as being a millionaire. However, the bachelor was actually a blue collar worker who wasn't a millionaire. If the last remaining woman still accepted his love despite the stunt, they also shared a grand prize of $1 million. A 2022 revival employed two bachelors, with one being a millionaire, but their identity was not revealed.
- Are You the One? (2014), a series where a group of singles attempt to deduce the "perfect matches" determined by producers for a chance to split a cash prize among themselves.
- Love Island (2015), a series where a group of male and female singles are isolated at a villa in a vacation setting, attempting to form couples while also competing in challenges to earn advantages and the opportunity to go on dates. Couples may also face elimination via viewer vote
- Temptation Island (2001), where long-standing heterosexual couples were deliberately separated and made to watch each other's mates interacting romantically on and after dates, making extensive use of video—the only means by which they could communicate on the island.
- Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? (2000) a one-off special with a beauty pageant-like contest to become the bride of a single man, billed as a having a net worth of at least $1 million, whose identity was not revealed until the conclusion of the competition.
Alongside these reality competitions, there were also other new studio-based formats for dating shows. The 2008 Australian series Taken Out , which was exported internationally to other countries under the title Take Me Out, featured bachelors discussing aspects of their personality and interests with a large pool of singles. The singles could press a button on their podium to eliminate themselves from contention if they were no longer interested in the bachelor, with the game ending once there are none remaining.
GSN's Baggage (2010) featured singles presenting personal details about themselves (their "baggage", which are presented in briefcases reminiscent of the game show Deal or No Deal , and are often of a shocking and/or embarrassing nature) to a bachelor or bachelorette. At the end of each episode, the bachelor or bachelorette must present "baggage" of their own to their chosen suitor, who then chooses whether to accept or decline their offer of a date. [1]
Modern innovations
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new wave of dating shows began airing in U.S. syndication that were more sexually suggestive than their earlier counterparts, including shows such as Blind Date , Elimidate and The 5th Wheel , which often pushed boundaries of sexual content allowed on broadcast television. As the 2000s progressed, the ratings for many of these shows began to decline, a situation exacerbated by the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy in 2004 as production companies out of fear of being imposed with monetary penalties by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for indecent content began self-censoring their dating shows (and many syndicated programs targeted at the 18-49 demographic, in general) to levels in which even profanities typically permissible on television were edited out of episodes.
Since then, the game show has virtually died off from television syndication, though cable television networks such as VH1 have continued to air dating shows with content similar to that of the syndicated dating shows of the late 1990s and early 2000s and major over-the-air broadcast networks have tried, often with marginal success, to use dating shows that are less risque compared to those shows. Attempts to revive the dating show in syndication first came in 2011, when Excused and Who Wants to Date a Comedian? both debuted; this was followed in 2012 by NBCUniversal Television Distribution's sale of reruns of the Game Show Network series Baggage into syndication. All three shows were dropped in September 2013, removing the genre from broadcast syndication for a time. In July 2014, VH1 aired Dating Naked , modeled on Dutch show Adam Zkt. Eva , which matches up heterosexual contestants who are nude most of the time.
A popular dating variant of the talk show involved inviting secret admirers to meet on stage. On an episode of The Jenny Jones Show , a gay secret admirer publicly revealed his crush on a straight acquaintance; three days after the episode's taping, the acquaintance murdered the secret admirer, in which he claimed humiliation over the revelation of a same-sex crush. [2] [3] The secret admirer variant of the talk show has remained popular, it continued be used on Oprah , but with less emotionally loaded surprises, and much more careful checking of the guests' backgrounds and attitudes; occasional episodes of Maury combine this format, though not always in a direct manner, with reveals of high school classmates who were considered to be unattractive as teenagers reuniting with their former school friends or tormentors as adults, after changing their image to become more physically attractive.
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a host, who explains the rules of the game as well as commentating and narrating where necessary. The history of the game shows dates back to the late 1930s when both radio and television game shows were broadcast. The genre became popular in the United States in the 1950s, becoming a regular feature of daytime television.
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s with shows such as The Real World, then achieved prominence in the early 2000s with the success of the series Survivor, Idol, and Big Brother, all of which became global franchises. Reality television shows tend to be interspersed with "confessionals", short interview segments in which cast members reflect on or provide context for the events being depicted on-screen; this is most commonly seen in American reality television. Competition-based reality shows typically feature the gradual elimination of participants, either by a panel of judges, by the viewership of the show, or by the contestants themselves.
Charles Hirsch Barris was an American game show creator, producer, and host. Barris was known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. He was also a songwriter who wrote "Palisades Park", recorded by Freddy Cannon and also recorded by Ramones. Barris wrote an autobiography titled Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which was made into the film of the same title starring Sam Rockwell and directed by George Clooney.
The Bachelor is an American dating and relationship reality television series that debuted on March 25, 2002, on ABC. For its first 25 seasons, the show was hosted by Chris Harrison. As the essence of the original The Bachelor franchise, its success resulted in several spin-offs including The Bachelorette, Bachelor Pad, Bachelor in Paradise, Bachelor in Paradise: After Paradise, The Bachelor Winter Games, The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart, The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever!, The Golden Bachelor, and The Golden Bachelorette, as well as spawning many international editions of the shows.
The Newlywed Game is an American television game show that puts newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally created by Robert "Nick" Nicholson and E. Roger Muir and produced by Chuck Barris, has appeared in many different versions since its 1966 debut. The show became famous for some of the arguments that couples had over incorrect answers in the form of mistaken predictions, and it even led to some divorces.
The Dating Game is an American television game show that first aired on December 20, 1965, and was the first of many shows created and packaged by Chuck Barris from the 1960s through the 1980s. ABC dropped the show on July 6, 1973, but it continued in syndication for another year (1973–1974) as The New Dating Game. The program was revived three additional times in syndication afterward, with the first from 1978 to 1980 as The All-New Dating Game, the second from 1986 to 1989, and the third from 1996 to 1999.
Love Connection is an American television dating game show in which singles attempt to connect with a compatible partner. Originally hosted by Chuck Woolery, the show debuted in syndication on September 19, 1983, and ended on July 1, 1994, after 2,120 shows. Reruns continued to air until September 8, 1995. The series was relaunched for one season in 1998 under the same title with Pat Bullard as host. In 2017, the series returned on Fox with Andy Cohen hosting. This second revival ran for two seasons.
Blind Date is an American dating game show. The show was originally hosted by Roger Lodge, and is currently hosted by Nikki Glaser.
Blind Date is a British dating game show first produced by London Weekend Television. An unscreened pilot was made with comic Duncan Norvelle as presenter but it was eventually hosted by Cilla Black, who already hosted the LWT series Surprise Surprise. Blind Date originally ran on Saturday nights from 30 November 1985 to 31 May 2003 on ITV.
A blind date is a romantic meeting between two people who have never met before. After a blind date they can decide whether they want to be in a relationship or not.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television game show based on the format of the same-titled British program created by David Briggs, Steven Knight and Mike Whitehill and developed in the United States by Michael Davies. The show features a quiz competition with contestants attempting to win a top prize of $1,000,000 by answering a series of multiple-choice questions, usually of increasing difficulty. The program has endured as one of the longest-running and most successful international variants in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise.
Christopher Bryan Harrison is an American television and game show host, best known for his role as the host of the ABC reality television dating show The Bachelor from 2002 to 2021. He also hosted its spin-offs The Bachelorette from 2003 to 2021, Bachelor Pad from 2010 to 2012, Bachelor in Paradise from 2014 to 2021, the first season of Bachelor in Paradise: After Paradise in 2015, Bachelor Live in 2016, and The Bachelor Winter Games in 2018. He also served as the host of the syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from 2015 to 2019.
A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila is an American reality television dating game show similar to the TV show The Bachelor. It premiered on October 9, 2007 on MTV starring Tila Tequila. The series consists of a bisexual-themed reality dating show where 16 heterosexual male men and 16 lesbian female women contestants live in Tequila's house and compete for her attention and affection. The contestants were not aware of Tequila's bisexuality until the end of the first episode, after ten contestants had been eliminated. The remaining contestants, both male and female, then shared the same home for the remainder of the series. A Shot at Love II premiered on April 22, 2008.
Baggage is an American dating game show hosted by Jerry Springer and broadcast by Game Show Network. The original series premiered on April 19, 2010, airing for four seasons. A spin-off series, entitled Baggage on the Road, aired for one season, which debuted on January 7, 2015. The show has earned high ratings by GSN's standards; despite this, it has also received mixed critical reception.
Bachelor Pad is an elimination-style two-hour American reality television game show that debuted on August 9, 2010 on ABC. The show features contestants from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, who compete for a final cash prize of $250,000. Former game show host and news anchor Chris Harrison reprises his role from The Bachelor, while Melissa Rycroft served as special guest co-host for the first season.
Burning Love is a web and television comedy series that is a spoof of reality dating competition shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. The show was created and written by Erica Oyama, while her husband, Ken Marino, co-produced, directed and starred in the series. Ben Stiller was one of the series' executive producers and appeared in a supporting role.
Who Wants to Date a Comedian? is an American reality-based dating competition series that debuted in first-run syndication in the United States on September 19, 2011. The half-hour series was created by Byron Allen through his production company Entertainment Studios.
The Bachelorette Australia is a reality television adaptation of the U.S. series of the same name, and a spin-off of The Bachelor Australia. The series, hosted by Osher Günsberg, premiered on 23 September 2015 on Network 10.
The Bachelor is an American romance and relationship multimedia franchise which began with the reality television series The Bachelor in 2002 and now includes multiple spin-off television series, a podcast network, a website, live tour, and more.
The Game Show Show is an American television documentary miniseries about the history of game shows. It premiered on ABC on May 10, 2023. The series features interviews from former and current game show hosts.
