Dating In The Dark - Preview

Do looks matter? Will ten seconds of light destroy days of chemistry and bonding? In Living's new show, Dating In The Dark, each week six singletons road-test these theories as they go looking for love in total darkness.

Airing exclusively on Living from Wednesday 9th September 2009 at 9pm. the new 8-part series explores how important looks are when it comes to choosing a date. The show explores how, in total darkness, chemical attraction, personality matches and pheromones can make you think you have found a love match but when the lights go on will looks seal the deal or be the ultimate turn off? Each week we offer six singletons, all genuinely looking for love, a totally unique way of meeting someone special – in total darkness.

We all think we know what we’re looking for in a partner: Tall, dark and handsome… But surely you wouldn’t be so shallow as to rule out the potential love of your life on something as transitory as looks? Each episode, Dating in the Dark invites three single guys and three single girls to take up residence in separate apartments within a specially designed house where they are kept completely apart, only meeting each other in a dating room kept in pitch darkness: the Dark Room. So dark, our singletons cannot even see their own hand in front of their face. Viewers follow the action, week by week, via state of the art infra-red cameras in the dark room, as well as fully-lit footage of the boys and girls in their separate apartments.

Following the first ‘group date’ which takes place in the dark room, our lovebirds decide who they like the sound of most, based on listening to each other’s voices. A spot of shirt-swapping then helps guide their attraction as they get a proper whiff of each other’s pheromones. Based on theses two sensory experiences, they each decide who they want to go it alone with on a first date in the dark room.

The next round of dating is based on a scientific compatibility test, designed in partnership with Senior Lecturer for the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London, Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. Based on compatibility scores, matched couples are sent back to the dark room to find out whether there really is any science in chemistry.

Daters are then given a free choice as to who they’d like to meet again, their original choice, or their compatibility match. By now, all have begun to form an idea of what their potential love interest looks like physically, and sketch artists work alongside each dater to produce an artist impression of their date. The drawings are then handed to their subjects and tensions mount as expectations come into play.

In a dramatic moment, each of our lonely hearts is finally given the chance to see their date in the flesh for the first time. As they stand in the dark room, ten seconds of light is briefly placed on each person, revealing their looks for the very first time. True reactions are later revealed.

In a brutal culmination, our love birds must decide whether to date or ditch their suitors. If they still want to go ahead, they either turn up in the drawing room to prove their love and indicate they are willing to continue dating, or leave the house and walk away, leaving their date behind forever!