Blind Date (U.S. TV series)

For the 1950s U.S. TV series of this name, see Blind Date (1950s game show).

Blind Date
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Genre	Dating game show
Presented by	Roger Lodge
Theme music composer	Devin Powers
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	910
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Garfinkle Jay Renfroe Matt Papish Thomas Klein
Producer(s)	SP3Entertainment.com
Running time	23 minutes
Release
Original network	Syndication
Original release	September 20, 1999 (1999-09-20) – September 13, 2006 (2006-09-13)
External links
Website
Production website

Blind Date is an American dating game show. Hosted by Roger Lodge, the series was distributed by Universal Worldwide Television. It was later distributed by NBCUniversal.

Synopsis

During each episode, people who did not know each other were paired up and sent off on a blind date. The cameras followed their every move, while commentary in the form of subtitles, animations, and "thought bubbles" was added by the show's producers. The show was hosted by Roger Lodge.

The dates were often unsuccessful, with said failures alternating between pleasant/boring times when there was no shared romantic spark and horrendous conflicts that included verbal and physical altercations, but a fair number of dates did end up going well and had the daters saying they would go out again in the future (the show would sometimes follow up and see if that actually happened; the most common result was that subsequent dates did happen but did not produce long-term relationships). Certain especially disastrous pairings were described as "Dates From Hell," and the show frequently concluded with excerpts from the show's "Hall of Shame" (embarrassing moments), "Cutting Room Floor" (footage that was comic but not deemed integral to a date's narrative), and "Hot Zone" (extremely sexy footage from successful dates). A few times people ended up appearing multiple times throughout the course of the series, a spot reserved for famously and wildly unsuccessful daters like annoying Nicolas Cage-impersonating Johnny or shockingly angry and bitter divorcee Ward. Sometimes the subtitle "Three Strikes, You're Out" would be used on a date to indicate that the person has twice before appeared on the show with unsuccessful dates and is foreshadowed to be another unsuccessful date yet again. Blind Date occasionally matched up people older than the usual under-30 age group. Two couples who met on the show did get married in real life, with both weddings featured in special episodes. In season 1 of the show, the dates had specific themes such as "The Whole Ball of Wax" and "Hot and Cold". From seasons 2-7, the themed dates would be dropped.

Syndication

The series now airs on Reality One TV.

Uncensored Specials

The program also produced a series of "uncensored" specials. A few were released on home video but most were available only via pay-per-view television. While these shows were filled with nudity and language not suitable for regular television, they all featured Blind Date's signature humorous thought bubbles, lower third text, and graphics. Some of the more popular specials were "Hot Tubs of Horror" (and its sequel) and the "Extremely Uncensored Games" (a sports parody complete with animated announcers).

The 5th Wheel show spinoff

The 5th Wheel was a spinoff show capitalizing on the sister show, featuring more provocative and sexual content airing from 2001 to 2004. The show premise was two couples double dating, halfway through the show joined by a male or female contestant.

See also

• Blind Date (UK game show)
• Hell Date
• Disaster Date

External links

• Blind Date at IMDb
• Blind Date at TV.com