Dating Show Reality Television



Dating shows follow a competition format for the most part, and they pit guys against each other for a woman. Nowadays, men are pitted against each other for women, and there are same-sex dating shows as well. MTV specializes in this sub-genre, and they are breaking the mold as far as dating shows go because of their young audience. They are marketing to a demographic that is highly interested in dating, sometimes at the sole expense of marriage, and they have the leeway, time, and energy to innovate in the dating show sub-genre. Dating shows have been around since the earliest days of reality television in the 1940s.



Dating shows have an enduring impact in American culture for decades. Their appeal never waned, and they merely morphed over the years. Dating shows are in abundance. Cheaters, The Bachelor, The Millionaire Matchmaker, The Bachelorette, Blind Date, Daisy of Love, Elimidate, That's Amore!, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Temptation Island, Dating In The Dark, joe Millionaire, Matched In Manhattan, Kept, Loved: Bad Girls Need Love To, Farmer Wants A Wife, More To Love, There's Something About Miriam, and Average Joe are just a few of the dating shows. There are several dozen more. Some of them focus on dating exclusively while others are more geared toward relationships in general. A lot of these have a focus on the guy specifically. Other dating shows from the past have tended to focus on the girl, pitting several suitors against her. In today's marketplace, when women have all the options, it is sometimes the lonely loner that is left out of the relationship arena. Therefore, the focus of dating shows has shifted to the lone man like Farmer Wants A Wife, Joe Millionaire, and The Bachelor. These shows show the plight of modern man that has yet to find an eligible woman.



Dating and relationship shows tend to attract a following unlike other shows. The course of a relationship often spans a full season, and once an audience member is hooked into the relationship, they will continue to watch it for the rest of the season. This is like vicariously living through someone else's relationship, and it is more alluring than watching a romantic movie where you can't really empathize with the real man or woman's decisions, choices, and mating needs. These shows are geared toward middle-aged women and older men that have not yet found a mate. Younger audiences tend to focus on social experiment reality television shows where it is more akin to their experiences where a lot of people are living together in the same house. Very few reality television shows receive a large crossover audience that includes lots of different demographics and receives wide news and audience coverage. Shows like this include Survivor, Big Brother, and Temptation Island. Very few others have attained the ratings numbers of those three, but strict dating shows have a hard time attaining that kind of audience. Marriage, newlywed, and long-term relationship shows get a lot more coverage like Temptation Island, The Bachelor, and The Bachelorette for instance.



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