TV Shows

TV's biggest bachelor seems to have become a matchmaker too, according to the latest buzz in Hollywood. Ryan Seacrest, who has launched such successful reality TV shows as "Keeping up with the Kardashians" (and their spin-offs) and "Married to Jonas" under his Ryan Seacrest Productions banner, has announced that he will be producing a dating competition series called "Dream Date" which will air on FOX.

According to Deadline, which first reported the news, the show will revolve around a group of women looking for love as well as a "celebrity element." No information on which celebrities might be involved, in what capacity, or even how many has been revealed.

Nationwide auditions began last spring, calling for women ages 21 and over to apply. Those auditioning were reportedly given surveys with questions that included: "Do you think chivalry is dead? Are you asked or expected to pay half the final bill? Would you like to be wined and dined? Are you ready to have a life-changing dating experience?"

The questions in the survey point to the failings of today's dating culture. It seems producers are looking for women who are disillusioned with dating and romance on some level. (It makes for good TV, too.) With all of the talk about "the end of dating" and "hook-up culture" in The New York Times and other notable publications, many daters are feeling disheartened, and wondering if they will ever find someone, or if they will ever be romanced at all. Perhaps focusing on the problems with dating is a good way to attract not only contestants, but viewers. The challenge for the show becomes: can we deliver a genuinely positive, romantic dating experience?

We don't know for sure. Producers have started shooting but are tight-lipped on the details. According to Deadline they are looking for a mid-season fall premiere but so far no date has been set.

One thing's for sure: The Bachelor and Bachelorette won't be the only popular dating dramas in the media this fall. With the launch of "Dream Date" and the serial blog posts from two co-workers at Forty Days of Dating (which has gained considerable buzz and is in consideration for a TV deal), we will have more interesting dating stories than ever to follow. And perhaps it will help us figure out our own relationship goals, habits, and challenges so that we can improve our love lives.

Or at least we can have fun watching other people's drama.

A lot of travel stories are about bad in-flight meals, sub-par hostel accommodations, and confusing cultural mix ups. But this travel story is about a couple who joined MissTravel.com, met for the first time in Cabo San Lucas, and fell in love.

Their story was featured on ABC 20/20's "Vacation Confidential" segment, alongside an interview with the site's founder and CEO, Brandon Wade. ABC is the first to document one of "the newest and wackiest vacation trends" via a reality travel dating show that isn't too far off from its travel-and-romance hits "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette."

MissTravel.com claims to be the first online dating site to blend travel with romance, by bringing together generous singles looking for travel companions with attractive singles who cannot afford to travel alone. The idea is proving to be a popular one: more than 100,000 members have joined and over 50,000 trips have been planned in the 3 months the site has been live.

MissTravel.com has stirred up its share of controversy with critics who have compared it to a travel escort agency, but Brandon Wade is on the defensive. "Most people are uncomfortable with the idea of taking any kind of risk," he said during his interview with ABC, "so they choose to look at all the things that could go wrong with MissTravel.com, meanwhile ignoring all its potential for greatness."

Sibel and Steven, the couple featured in the segment, are bound to agree. Sibel is a 27-year-old from New York who signed up for MissTravel.com with minimal expectations. Shortly after joining, she received a message for Steven, a 31-year-old financial planner from San Diego who was looking for company on his upcoming trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Sibel says she found the idea of joining a man she'd never met on a trip abroad daunting, but decided to give it a go after days of talks on Skype and over the phone. They met for the first time at Villa Marcella, a beachside mansion Steven rented out for a whopping $2500 a night. It was a weekend full of indulgences - dips in the Jacuzzi, fine dining, a private yacht, snorkeling, horseback riding, massages - and when it came to a close, Sibel and Steven kissed each other goodbye and returned to their homes.

A few weeks later, Steve traveled to New York to visit Sibel, and a few weeks after that, she traveled to San Diego to spend a weekend with him. The first success story of MissTravel.com is still being written: Sibel and Steve found what they were looking for on MissTravel.com, and the couple is still dating.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? In that case, NBC and its smash hit "The Voice" should be feeling very flattered, because FOX will be introducing a new dating show - cheekily called "The Choice" - this summer that's a clear homage to the musical reality competition.

"The Choice" will be hosted by Cat Deeley, who also hosts "So You Think You Can Dance," and blatantly takes its format from its NBC-based predecessor. "Four celebrities ... blind auditions ... spinning chairs ... but ... it's not what you think," said a promo that aired during a recent episode of American Idol. Like "The Voice," "The Choice" will feature four celebrities (whose names have not yet been announced) in spinning chairs. Only this time, the celebrities will be sizing up participants as potential dates.

Each chair comes equipped with a "love handle" (yeah, you read that right...but please try to keep your mind out of the gutter). When pulled, the love handle indicates interest in going on a "fantasy date" with the participant in question. If more than one celeb pulls the lever, they must compete for the woman. After each celebrity has three potential dates, there's a "Speed Choice" round in which each woman has just a few seconds to convince her famous suitor to take her to the final round. In the finals, Deeley poses a challenge question to the remaining two participants and the celebrities make their final choice for the "dream date."

The competition recalls the heyday of The Dating Game, as the celebrities will choose their dates without being able to see them "There hasn't been a new [dating show] hit since 'The Bachelor,' and there hasn't been an in-studio one that's worked since The Dating Game 30 years ago," Fox's Mike Darnell told EW.com. "I was thinking about how to do a blind-date show without using a wall or blindfolds, and the spinning chairs seemed like a great way to do it."

Darnell has a history of taking inspiration from competitors' creations. Take "Joe Millionaire," for example, a mischievous response to "The Bachelor," or "Temptation Island," a cheeky (and sexy!) version of "Survivor." "The Choice seems like an obvious title because you have to make a choice," he said to EW. "I'm just now realizing it rhymes [with The Voice]!"

I'm not sure I believe you, Darnell, but I'm all for poking fun at America's ridiculous obsession with reality television!

The Choice will debut on June 7, for a season of six one-hour episodes over the summer.

When people head to conventions for genres like comic books or science fiction, they might be concerned with the logistics of keeping their costume together. Maybe they're thinking about arriving in time to secure a place in line to get their favorite star's autograph, or hoping to score a good deal on rare merchandise. Still others, however, are wondering if they're going to meet someone special, someone who has the same passions.

The idea of finding love at a convention may sound strange, but it's not a bad idea at all. Everyone there likes at least something about the genre, so chances are you have common interests already. Conversation-starters abound, from crazy costumes to the prices of merchandise to speculating about the direction a series will take. The only problem is that conventions are often so hectic, and people so driven with their own agenda, that often people feel intimidated about approaching someone and starting a conversation.

Speed dating has begun to catch on in conventions as an easy way to bring like-minded singles together - and it has apparently caught the eye of TV's TLC Channel producers. A new show, "Geek Love", will premiere on December 18 in America on TLC. The show will focus on people who attend Ryan Glitch's Sci Fi Speed Dating events at conventions.

On the one hand, the premise of the show itself isn't a bad one. On the other hand, TLC, known for featuring reality shows about "unusual" families, medical anomalies and other gems such as "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," often walks a fine line between educational and exploitative. Do the producers of the channel really intend to show us a group of passionate people, deserving of love, or do they think people will enjoy laughing at a "bunch of nerds"?

The trailer for the show seems like it could go either way; the convention-goers don't seem particularly extreme or exceptionally awkward, but when the man leading the speed dating event shouts "Normal people suck!" one has to wonder if the "geek acceptance cause" wasn't just set back ten years. Either way, whether it's to root on those seeking love or pick up some basic do's and don'ts for speed dating, "Geek Love" might be worth a try.

CBS new late-night dating show called "Excused" started last week on Monday September 12th at 11pm. The thing that differentiates this show from other dating shows like "The Dating Game" or "Blind Date" (same creators) is that at the shows core there is an online dating site. The dating site is Jazzed.com. This year old service was launched by eHarmony (see Story) to help them compete against the more general oriented dating sites which typically younger singles use.

So how does the show Excused make use of the dating site? Every contestant on the show will have an online dating profile on Jazzed.com. This profile and references to the information on the profile will be used throughout the show to help match up the contestants. The twist here which Jazzed.com and TV executives hope brings in a large audience is that viewers will be able to go online and view the contestants profiles as well. Just like any other profile, viewers (who become members) will then be able to send emails or instant messages to the contestant if they choose and even potentially date if the attraction is reciprocated.

For more on the story you can read Ad Age and for more details on one of the online dating sites mentioned, please check out our review of eHarmony.

Ever dreamt of becoming a romcom star like Meg Ryan, Kate Hudson, and Matthew McConaughey?

Bob Murray - a 34 year old commercial real estate investor from Milwaukee - didn't set out to become a leading man on the silver screen, but his search for The One might make him a film star anyway. After three long-term relationships that spanned 12 years, and a year of singlehood, Murray decided to embark upon an adventure that he hopes will lead to lasting love and a movie deal. Last month, he began a 17-day road trip that will take him through 8 cities - St. Louis, Kansas City, Dallas, Santa Fe, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and a TBD city in Oklahoma - during which he will go on prearranged dates with women he met online, all the while documenting his every move with the help of a small film crew.

And did I mention he'll be traveling by cab?

In addition to a production assistant, sound expert, and camera operators, Murray will be joined on his journey by Paula Heus, a cabdriver who will also dish out romantic advice as an unofficial life coach. "She's a real firecracker and not afraid to state her opinion about things," Murray told the Bellingham Herald. When his quest is over, Murray hopes to tour the film festival circuit with a documentary about his unusual search for love.

Heus' cab has hardly left the driveway, but already Murray's project has hit a few roadblocks. A planned stop in Amarillo, TX had to be abandoned after Murray was unable to get a response to his search for a date in the city, and a rule that dates could only be arranged two weeks in advance was made when scheduled meetups with two women fell through after they found boyfriends before Murray arrived in their cities.

Murray was also able to raise less than $5,000 of the $20,000 he hoped to earn to fund the trip, so he was forced to foot much of the bill himself and exchange equity in the film for further donations from his largest investors. In spite of these setbacks, however, Murray has been on his first date in Milwaukee, with an actress named Cynthia Kmak, and has plans for adventures along the lines of mountain climbing and skydiving in other cities.

You can follow his progress on Twitter, at www.twitter.com/percent40dateamerica, and Facebook, at www.facebook.com/dateamerica.