Forget tinder, First Dates Australia is the latest dating craze that has single guys and gals in a flurry. Getting set up on a blind date is awkward enough, without a thousand prying cameras, perched around the room to capture your every move.
While the show will help the singles with hair, wardrobe and the all important perfect match, everything else is left up to the contestants. There’s no rides in hot air balloons over the countryside – aka The Bachelor. Just a simple three course meal at a Sydney restaurant where at the end of the night the couple must deliberate over the bill. So far most guys have been the chivalrous kind and paid in full, but that could change this Wednesday night.
The charm of the show lies in it’s casting of everyday Australians, of all ages. Giddy teenagers from the country, successful twenty-somethings, and middle aged adults who have more on their mind then just oysters when ordering from the menu.
Although only one couple has successfully gone the distance after the show, plenty of interest has been shown on social media for those still on the market.
So far we’ve met a former beauty queen slash flight attendant and a bashful guy in an Hawaiian shirt who’s parents named him Nicholas Nicholas. “Did your parents hate you?”, asked his date, the spitting image of Home and Away’s Bonnie Sveen.
Last week, we saw the horrified look on party girl Loan’s face when her date Joel mentioned he had a kid, after she professed her hatred for children. Not to mention a double date with identical, identically, dressed twins.
Special mention also goes to an unlucky in love career girl who rates herself as above 7 hot and below 5 crazy and then went on to interrogate her date like the Spanish Inquisition. He didn’t have a five year plan and didn’t make the cut, although her second chance redemption date was more promising.
First Dates is narrated by Sunrise’s newest weather correspondent Sam ‘Mac’ McMillan. There’s little intrusion from cameras or producers, although a keen-eyed bartender gets conversation and drinks flowing each week.
At the end of the date, the pairs escort each other to the the confession box where they need to decide whether or not to go on a second date.
The look of horror on some of their faces, makes viewers question if the potential in-laws were about to pop out from behind a corner.
Alas, most contestants end up arranging for a second date, but don’t quite find the time to meet up and are still looking for their one and only.
First Dates Australia airs after My Kitchen Rules, 9pm Wednesday on Channel 7.
Image Credits : First Dates Australia