Dating in the Dark
ABC's New Dating Show
Following the second to last Bachelorette show of the season, “The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All”, ABC premiered a new dating show, “Dating in the Dark”.
The premise of the show is simple: take a group of single men and a group of single women, put them in an absolutely dark environment together and have them judge each other not on looks – the way most dating shows do it – but on their actual personality.
A Revealing Dating Experiment
Touted as "the most revealing dating experiment", three single men and three single women undergo a series of dating scenarios over a four day span. The men and women live in the same house during this time, but in different wings of the house and are never allowed to see each other outside of the light-sealed dark room.
The Participants for the Premier
The men are Stephen, an SAT tutor and MENSA member, Seth, an audio visual designer, and Allister a DJ. The women are Christina, a marketing manager, Melanie, a color design consultant, and Leni, a nanny.
Thanks to infrared cameras, the TV audience is allowed to see everything that goes on, while the participants cannot even see their own hand in front of their face. The first date was a group date involving all six people. They each judged each other on what each one contributed to the conversation. Leni seemed to be the most outgoing of both groups.
Choosing the First One-On-Ones
Host Rossi Morreale, one of People Magazine’s "Sexiest Men Alive" in 2003, asked for both the men and women to take their shirts off in order to give the opposite group something beside their initial group date impression to judge each other on.
Using the clothing (and scent in Stephen's case) as aides, Leni chose Seth and they had the first one on one date in the dark. Stephen and Christina, who both chose each other, had the next date and were the only couple to schedule a second date. Melanie also picked her first one on one to be with Stephen. None of the women picked Allister.
Extensive Questionnaire Shows Best Matches
Based on a 50 page questionnaire, the ladies were shown who they were most compatible with. Christina was most compatible with Seth, Melanie was compatible with Allister and Leni with Stephen.
The participants had a chance for another round of "free dating" (essentially like the first one on one's), but each of them chose to remain with their compatibility match.
Sketch artists were brought in and surprisingly, the men were almost dead-on as far as their non-visual guided descriptions. The ladies, however, weren't as accurate.
The Big Reveal
Next, the participants were allowed to choose one person to have revealed, and not surprisingly, everyone picked their match. Two of the girls - Leni and Christina - seemed to think that their matches would be more physically attractive than they actually were, whereas the men - Stephen and Seth - seemed very pleased with their ladies. The reverse was true regarding Melanie and Allister.
Did Personality Trump Looks
In choosing whether or not to remain with their match by meeting them on the balcony or leaving the house alone, Leni and Stephen left together despite Leni's disappointment in Stephen's physicality. Christina proves to be a bit on the shallow side in that after being the first to make-out with her match in the dark room, was so under whelmed by Seth, that she left alone without as much as a glance back. Allister and Melanie wound up leaving with each other.
Next week, the experiment starts anew with six new eager singles looking for love in a very non-traditional way.
Happy Couple
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