TV Shows

It seems like we have had an influx of dating TV shows lately. Let's see what America has been watching.

There is the The Newlywed Game which we have blogged a bit about. It is sponsored by the popular dating site eHarmony (see Story). While not a dating show, it does deal with relationships.

One of the more popular dating shows and the number one TV show on Monday nights is, The Bachelorette. It just had the season finale last week where Jillian Harris finally picked her man, Ed Swiderski.

Dating in the Dark is a new show by ABC which has become popular. For each episode, 6 singles spend time in a house where they meet and talk with each other in the dark. No one in the house has any idea on what the other persons physical attributes are. At the end of the show the contestants must pick their match and then each person is unveiled. It is the ultimate experiment in, does looks really matter?

Another new dating show that just started on the Fox Network is called More to Love. It is from the creator of The Bachelor. More to Love works very similar to The Bachelor except, the "real world" guy, gets to pick from a group of women who come in "all shapes and sizes".

Here is a list (in no particular order) by EW.com of more new and old Dating/Relationship shows:

• Change of Heart
• A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
• Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire
• Temptation Island
• Flavor of Love
• The Littlest Groom
• Playing It Straight
• Blind Date: Uncensored
• Mr. Personality
• Married By America
• Rock of Love
• Joe Millionaire

Match.com UK has launched an interactive channel on the BT Vision IPTV service (Digital Cable). This means almost half a million BT Vision subscribers can now tune into Channel 955 and use the Match.com service to search for singles, update profiles, send winks and for viewing messages. Most of Match.com primary features are available to use through the channel. You also use the same Match.com account as you login with through the website. Not everything can be done through BT Vision though, such as uploading a photo. This can only be done by using a computer or a cell phone.

The article at New Media Age makes it look like this is a free service to cable subscribers. It is unclear at the moment if you can log in as a Match.com paid member on the interactive channel to actually send email messages to other members.

Jason Stockwood of Match.com stated:

He hoped offering the service via TV would make browsing for a potential partner a more social experience compared with the online service, which tends to be done alone.

This is an interesting idea, to make online dating a more social activity. Would you want your friends and/or family to help you favorite and send winks to other singles on a dating site? I think searching for prospects would be fun but, personally I would still want to communicate without someone looking over my shoulder.

To find out more information about this United Kingdom dating site, read our review of Match.com.

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.

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.

In mid October we reported about (see Story) Perfect Match's Dr. Pepper Schwartz on the Bonnie Hunt Show. She was helping Bonnie's friend Holly by reviewing her profile and pictures and giving her some pointers to improve her online dating adventure. Starting last week and for the next 5 weeks Holly and her online dating experiences with PerfectMatch.com will be regularly featured on the Bonnie Hunt Show. Holly currently has 3 matches she really likes and can't decide which one to go on a date with. Voice your opinion and vote on which 3 of these PerfectMatch.com guys Holly should go out with.

If you want to find out what all th fuss is about with this dating service, read our Perfect Match review.

Dr. Pepper Schwartz from Perfect Match was on The Bonnie Hunt Show yesterday. She is the dating sites chief relationship expert and helped develop their Duet compatibility matching system used on Perfect Match. On the show, Dr. Pepper Schwartz gives Holly Wortell (Bonnie's long time friend) dating profile advice as well as a personality test to help improve her odds of finding a match.

Here is a small video segment from the show in which Dr. Pepper Schwartz gives Holly advice on what profile photo to use.

Read our Perfect Match Review to find out more information on this popular dating service.