Posted April 18, 2013
By VANESSA RAMOS
NBC’s new dating competition show “Ready For Love” fails to stand out from all of the other over-produced dating shows.
Not only did the premiere rely heavily on flashy stage props, such as elevators that lower the losers below the stage, the female contestants featured on “Ready For Love” are ridiculously desperate to win the affection of the bachelor and their behavior makes the entire production feel inauthentic and tacky.
The two-hour premiere began with a clip from executive producer Eva Longoria, claiming that “Ready For Love” will be different from other dating shows that have clogged networks during the past decade.
The show features three bachelors: Tim Lopez from the band The Plain White Tees, Ben Patton, a businessman from Dallas, and Ernesto Arguello, an entrepreneur from Miami. Each episode features one bachelor who must choose from a group of female contestants in a blind audition in front of a studio audience.
These female contestants have been selected by three different matchmakers who claim to be the best at what they do.
During the blind audition, each female contestant briefly tells the bachelor a little bit about herself and why he should choose her. The female contestants come off as either annoyingly desperate or completely boring and forgettable.
During the short blind audition, some of the women chose to show this week’s bachelor, Tim Lopez, their special talent. Tim had to listen to these women recite trite lines of poetry and bad rap lyrics. One woman even tried to woo him with her opera singing that sounded more scary than it did romantic.
The hosts, Guiliana and Bill Rancic, are forced to act as though the female contestants are all wonderfully talented ladies who deserve a chance at love. Tim on the other hand seemed bored during the audition process and made the show even more unbearable to watch.
What makes it worse is when the show cuts to a clip of the women talking to the camera about how much they love Tim before they’ve ever actually met him. One woman even got teary eyed and talked about how she was madly in love with him and that she knows he’s the one for her.
The only moment when the show became remotely interesting was when Leah, one of the female contestants, reveals that she and Tim have a romantic past. This causes some minor friction between her and the other contestants, but the show is too flat to deliver any actual fighting or gossiping.
At the end of the episode after Tim has a group date with the contestants, he is forced to eliminate one. Like all other dating shows, the bachelor pretends that the decision is tearing him apart and the woman dabs tears from her eyes as she exits the scene.
In addition to the over-dramatic contestants, the show makes the viewer feel even more disconnected by showing the scene with the group date after the blind audition.
This is confusing for the viewer because it seems like everything should be happening on stage but then the show cuts to the date and then returns to the bachelor and the women on stage. The entire order of events doesn’t make sense and feels distracting, especially for a series premiere.
Overall, “Ready For Love” is not ready to become the next big dating show in network television. The contestants are completely out of touch with reality and the way that the show is produced feels frantic. This show is completely forgettable and fails to connect with the viewer in any meaningful way.
- Ready For Love on NBC
- Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET
- One hour
- Executive Producer: Eva Longoria
- Hosts: Bill and Guiliana Rancic
- Rating: One star out of five