Sigh. It seems like no one is “Ready for Love.”
NBC’s attempt at making a reality dating show noble by overcomplicating it didn’t connect with viewers. It’s ratings were pathetic.
You can try to tweak the formula, but the reality dating show is the same game, no matter how you play it.
Dating shows like “The Bachelor” don’t even pretend that they’re about real romance anymore. They’re about hook-ups in hot tubs and being on TV.
NBC thought it would take a defiantly above-board approach, trying to find potential wives for three clean-cut, smiley, charming young men who are looking for that special soulmate.
Enter Tim Lopez (“rock star”), Ben Patton (“businessman”), and Ernesto (“philanthropist”). The tag line is, “They have it all…except someone to share it with.”
That’s right, we’re starting with the premise that these guys are anomalies to be pitied: they have good jobs and are conventionally attractive, but the poor bums just can’t find the right woman.
Where-oh-where are these women, these elusive women who want to be in love and settle down with a partner for life?
There they are, rising up from the floor in their tight-fitting frocks!
Later, the unfortunate discarded few will disappear into the bowels of the soundstage. What happens in-between is kind of a mess.
“Ready for Love” employs three professional matchmakers who handpick 12 women (whittled down to 9 right off the bat) for each man based on their expertise. It’s a set-up similar to that of “The Voice” where the matchmakers have “teams” of women. They give tips to the contestants and after observing their behavior on their dates, the matchmakers each choose one of their team’s contestants who just isn’t connecting with her guy to put in the bottom three. Then each man gives one woman the boot each week.
Confused? I mean, Cee-Lo Green could walk out and do cartwheels across the stage, and I’d buy that it was part of the game.
Hosted by Guiliana and Bill Rancic, the show features segments taped in front of a live studio audience as well as footage from the various dates. Eva Longoria is one of the producers, which is supposed to mean something.
Last night, the show focused on Tim, the lead singer from the band Plain White T’s. The big twist with Tim is that one of his pre-selected women, Leah, is someone he’s known for a long time (pre-pre-selected?), which puts her at an obvious advantage.
For the first episode, the women initially tried to woo him from behind a wall, each having a canned “this is me” bit. One, an opera singer, sings to him in Italian. Another quotes “Dumb and Dumber.” And another babbles a poem in French that actually says, “Your eyes transport me to another world, a beautiful world where I’m not scared anymore.”
I’m glad someone’s not scared.