Relationships

On April 6th, 2009 the Game Show Network debuted the new version of The Newlywed Game. As mentioned in a previous story we did, this show is sponsored by eHarmony. One critic called the show a "30-minute-long infomercial for eHarmony with a game show scattered here and there." The show doesn't stray far from the original concept but I found it lacked the wit of previous hosts like Bob Eubanks from the 60s.

Carnie Wilson is an interesting choice as the new host for the show. She taped the first set of 40 shows over 11 days when she was 5 1/2 months pregnant (due June 2009). This is also here first stint at hosting a game show. If you don't remember who Carnie is, she is the daughter of Brian Wilson, the lead singer of the Beach Boys. She also had a successful singing group called Wilson Phillips in the early 90s. Since then she also had a TV talk show.

For a review of The Newlywed Game TV show read TV Squad.

For more information about the dating site, read our eHarmony review.

The Richard Ivey School of Business (The University of Western Ontario), Intouch Magazine (Winter 2009 edition), has a feature story about the history of a few of their graduates who are successful business men in the online dating industry. Lavalife co-founder Nicholas Paine (HBA ’83) is interviewed first. He talks about his experience in the early 1990's of converting their Tele-classifieds business (Classifieds over the phone) into a web personals site, and by 2001 into the popular dating site Lavalife.

Sam Moorcroft (MBA ’95), is also interviewed about how he started the popular Christian dating site, ChristianCafe.com. In the late 90's Sam had used a U.S. based Christian dating service to meet women locally and on the advice from a friend decided to start a website himself.

The key to the success of Christian Cafe.com was filling a niche in the market. Moorcroft knew from the women he had dated that they wanted to meet believers like themselves.

In the beginning years Sam and his brother held down several jobs to support themselves while they got their online dating site off the ground. In ten years ChristianCafe.com has grown into a multi-million dollar business.

To find out more information about these dating services from Canada, read our ChristianCafe.com review and our Lavalife review.

Usually Perfectmatch gets all the sweet media deals in movies and TV's when it comes to online dating sites (Dancing with the Stars, Must Love Dogs, etc..).

According to the unofficial eHarmony Blog, eHarmony will be the company who is the main sponsor of the The Newlywed Game TV show which is set to premiere April 6, 2009 on the Game Show Network. It is hosted by Carnie Wilson (her father was in the famous group, the Beach Boys). There are 40 episodes in the series and with the new retooled show, comes a twist. The winning couple of each episode will have a bonus round at the end of the show were they go up against a Goldwed couple. This is a couple that has appeared in a previous episode of the show that ran off and on through the 1960's up to the 1990s.

For more information on this popular dating site, read our review of eHarmony.

Our local talk radio station had a Love Expert on one of their shows a few days ago. She (I forget her name) talked a fair bit about men and woman getting back into the dating game after 10 years or more. Her target audience was single people after a divorce. She discussed online dating as a solution and went into a bit of detail, good for beginners but nothing really new that you wouldn't find here. One thing she did mention, which I hadn't thought about before was, for the most part when woman are matched, they are a lot more forgiving about a man's weight than his height. The opposite is true for men. Men are more critical about a woman's weight than how tall she is.

We have had a few articles recently (see Story) about how online dating sites have seen a spike in memberships as the economy slips. The opposite trend seems to be true for divorces, when compared to the economy. Couples who are struggling with their relationships tend to stay together more and longer when the economy is down. Worries about money and finding someone to pay half the rent or mortgage are the primary reasons.

A economics professor at San Diego State University had an interesting point of view regarding marriage. Shoshana Grossbard noted that probably a greater percentage of online daters now, are not looking for marriage. For the most part, most people do not want the expense of getting married in times when money is tight. As example, In the first few years of the Great Depression, the number of marriages dropped 20 percent from 1929 to 1932.

Read Sign On San Diego for more of the story.

When dating, you and/or your partners religion may eventually become a factor if the dating leads to a long term relationship or marriage. If conflict arises it may even lead to a breakup. Family customs, spiritual holidays and how children are raised, are only some of the things in which you both need to consider. Here are a few other situations that you could deal with if religion is important to either one of you:

• The family of your partner cares about religion but they do not.
• Your partner's religion is important in their life and wants a partner with the same religion and commitment to it.
• Your partner wants to honour their religion and will honour their partner's religion as well. Children will be raised in both religions.
• Your partner will convert to your religion.
• Your partner wants you to convert to their religion
• Both you and your partner have the same religion but different degrees of observance.

For dating sites which Religion is an important part of the member's life, check out our Religious Dating Site Category.