Celebs Go Dating: a TV programme that collects a group of five celebrities from shows that are already questionable entertainment-wise. Tyger Drew-Honey, child actor from Outnumbered, Geordie Shore’s Charlotte Crosby, Paisley Billings (Tattoo Fixers), Joey Essex from TOWIE, and Steph Pratt from Made in Chelsea. The five far-from-A-list celebs, who are slightly too much in the public eye to have a normal dating life yet not quite famous enough to happily date within the celeb-o-sphere embark on a (so far) 12 episode journey of dating agency interviews, social mixers, and dates in order that they will find true love by the end of the series. Brilliant. Sounds plausible.
However all of these celebs are given an introduction that labels them as “dating disasters”, which left me thinking about how much focus there is in our society on being in a relationship rather than being single. Despite this, another fatal flaw in the concept of the programme is that the celebs all want to date someone ‘normal’…but the people selected from the general public who attend the mixers are chosen because they want to date a celebrity.
I will admit that after a few episodes I did get quite into the celebs’ dating storylines; Who kissed whom on their first date? Will a second date be on the cards? Having said that, the programme is pretty dragged out for what it is; not much actually happens. Perhaps just a few episodes per celebrity would work better so there would be new excitement each week.
A final flaw that I began to notice as the programme went on was that it was not progressive at all: all the celebs were heterosexual – fair enough – but there was also loads of blatant sexism. One of Charlotte Crosby’s dates, a muscly, tattooed, man-bunned guy called Jeavon, boasts on their date that he has slept with around 50 women in his time. Charlotte replies that she has slept with about 20 men in her time, to which he replies that this is “really bad for a girl”, and concludes that at the next mixer he will not be talking to her but will be on the hunt for “more women”. Um…no thanks Channel 4!
Image: Olessya @ Pixabay