First Dates fallout — who found love and who is still single
IT’S the hit reality TV show that we can’t get enough of, but there’s one huge problem with just one episode to go.
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FIRST Dates — the show that gave us the unfortunately-named Nicholas Nicholas, “Creepy Chris” and a former Playboy model dubbed “the coke queen” — wraps its first season on Wednesday night.
The show had no problem attracting viewers — it’s the number one new reality show of 2016.
But when it came to its participants finding love, Cupid’s arrow failed to find its mark.
Producers and psychologists matched up 80 singles for 40 dates across the show’s run.
The number of second dates was scant, and six months on — with five couples to meet on the final episode tonight — only one pairing has emerged loved-up from the experiment.
Only Hayley and Chris (who appeared in episode two) have made a go of it after meeting on the show.
Ashley and Nicole, who had a rare second and third date, but ended up mates. Many more ended up friends, or friend-zoned.
On the plus side, many First Dates guinea pigs have found romance since the cameras stopped rolling. Here is what some our favourites’ lives have held since they left the First Dates restaurant.
LAUREN (dated Corbin in Ep 1, and Alan in Ep 2)
Lauren eschewed Paris Butter and craziness (she assured us of this many times) on date one, compared three-year-plans with entrepreneur Alan on date two, and remains “single, by choice”.
She has chatted with Corbin only on Facebook. She and Alan had a “friend date”, but no sparks flew.
“I’ve been focusing on being the energy I want to attract,” she says. “I may not have found ‘romantic endless love’, but what I did find was a great, long lasting friendship with (co-stars) Dee Dee and Tammy Lee.”
EMILY (dated Aiden in Ep 1)
Glamour pairing Emily and Aiden had movie-star looks but no fairy-tale ending — they’ve only chatted on Facebook. Emily has had her heart broken since the show — “I did meet someone for a little while (whom I fell in love with) but unfortunately, as they all do ... I got my heart broken once again’, and she’s single.
NICHOLAS (dated Dannii in Ep 1)
The man the world met as Nicholas Nicholas has found someone who embraces his ‘endearing idiot qualities’, repetitive name and bad shirt collection.
He and Dannii catch up sporadically on social media.
“In terms of my love life, I am quite smitten with someone and for once they seem quite smitten with me which is a great change of pace,” Nick Nick says.
“She’s very intelligent, driven and such a caring person, I just hope that I don’t end up like my puppy analogy and making a mess of it.”
DANNII (dated Nicholas in Ep 1)
The cool chick who won our hearts because to shoot down Nick Nick would have been like killing kittens has graduated from university, had a quick trip to Hawaii and started working fulltime as a pharmacist. She’s had a few dates, but is single, and hasn’t ruled trying out the First Dates experience again in season two.
VANESSA (dated Tom in Ep 1)
They seemed the cutest of country couples, but Vanessa and Tom haven’t seen each other since their date. Vanessa is single but is “dating quite a bit now that I’ve moved to Melbourne. There is a whole lot more to pick from here!”
CHRIS (dated Caterina in Ep 1)
The man the Twitterverse dubbed “Creepy Chris” turned out not-so-creepy, and has been off the market since a few days after the show aired, following a chance meeting with his new girl on his way to grab a coffee. We believe love has arrived for the would-be James Bond.
JORDAN (dated Stephanie in Ep 2)
Jordan and Stephanie Snapchat and text as mates, but Jordan has eyes only for the two new women in his life.
“I am in a relationship. I met Jemma though my brother’s girlfriend. And we have actually known each other for some time but circumstances were always in the way of us being together,” he says.
“Jemma is so beautiful, sweet, kind and generous. She treats me unlike anyone I have ever met. I feel so blessed and honoured to have her in my life. She has a little girl named Evelyn who is her world and has also captured my heart.”
The topless waiter says since he appeared on the show ‘I‘ve had a few more clients than normal and work with topless waiting has been fun to say the least’.
DEEDEE (dated Sean in Ep 2)
The former Miss Lebanon Australia isn’t in contact with Sean. In the past five months she’s moved house, changed jobs and met someone special.
“I met someone mid-February and already we’ve really hit it off. I’ve never been super affectionate but with him I kind of can’t help it,” she says.
HAYLEY and CHRIS (dated in Ep 2)
Pretty sure this is love, guys. The country girl and the carpenter are living in Sydney — Hayley made the leap from Tassie to the big smoke — and are existing on a seemingly unlimited supply of love and 24-hour pancakes.
GRIFF (dated Kate in Ep 3)
“Kate and I have gotten drinks a few times since the filming,” says Griff.
“I am in a relationship now though. We used to work together five years ago and had been friends for the whole time, but just started to get close towards the end of last year.
“I think it was actually the filming of the show that made me realise that all the things I was looking for my date to have, were actually qualities that Shani had.”
KATE (dated Griff in Ep 3 and James Ep 4)
She and Griff are mates, she and James parted ways after date number two, and Kate is now in a relationship.
She met Damon before the show, but he was travelling frequently, so it wasn’t until schedules calmed down that sparks flew. “Things with us have been incredible ever since. What I was looking for in a guy … I think I may have found,” she says.
SHARON (dated Paul in Ep 3)
She would appear on First Dates again, but Sharon is pulling no punches about bald Paul from Birmingham: “No I’m not in contact with Paul. I found him arrogant and wasn’t overly attracted to him, although he did send me two novel length messages after we filmed on how we were destined to be together,” the still-single Sharon says.
JOEL (dated Loaan in Ep 4)
They drank up a storm on their first date, and did the same on their second, when Joel confesses “I took her out but I actually did have to carry her inside … again.”
“We got heaps blind. But nothing happened,” he says.
“We’re not dating because my lifestyle is too hectic. I don’t have time for a girlfriend.” But he has a soft spot for the straight-talking Kiwi party girl: “She’s a legend. We’ll see what happens.”
LOAAN (dated Joel in Ep 4)
Loaan has had a trip to Bali with her bestie but “I didn’t meet up with Joel there because we weren’t there at the same time. But we’re planning to go to Bali in a few months”.
LACHLAN (dated Kiki in Ep 5)
They were young and full of plans, but Lachlan and Kiki decided against saving the world after their date, which left Lachlan still saving dollars and with time to look around and find love.
“I didn’t contact Kiki after the date,” he says. “I am however in a relationship. The day I got back from Sydney (after shooting the show) I spoke to the girl who had dared me to audition. I realised that this friend who I had known for over a year was actually the girl I wanted to be with.”
BREE (dated Mark in Ep 5)
She may have been a dead ringer for former Home and Away star Samara Weaving, but for Bree and Mark there was no soapie wedding.
“Mark and I didn’t catch up after the show but we message on social media all the time,” say Bree.
Bree now has a boyfriend, Jack. The pair had been friends for a couple of years, and sealed their progression from friendship to relationship when he bought her a puppy.
ASHLEY and NICOLE (dated in Ep 5)
They had two more dates after First Dates, at which Nicole got to see Ashley’s Superman tattoo, but romance failed to fly. They keep in touch, but both are now dating others.
Ashley has just met someone new. Nicole started dating her man, Nick, a few weeks after their first meeting on New Year’s Eve. “I’m very happy right now,” she says.
“FYI — Nick does not have any tattoos. And I am quite fond of that! #noshittatts.”
ANTHONY (dated Bex ep 5 and Davina ep 7)
He was our favourite affable Irishman on the show, but given that most of what he said was unintelligible (at one point he suggested we’d need ‘subtoitles’ it’s best we leave the post-show summation to Anthony.
“I got back into an old relationship and became single again,” Anthony says. “Me and Davina have kept in contact though Facebook, but never went on a second date. I’m happy, healthy and still single.”
KATE (dated Andrew in Ep 6)
She forgave him his comment about cankles (maybe it was the American versus US slang barrier) — but one date with Andrew was enough for Kate.
“I knew as soon as Andrew walked in that interview that I made a mistake agreeing to go out with him again. We did not exchange phone numbers,” she says.
“I met a Brit Blondie right after filming who I thought was ready to take me out of the serial dating life, but things didn’t work out — so I’m living the single life again.”
SHANE (dated Jemma in ep 7)
Instagram-obsessed Shane didn’t have a second date with Jemma — although they did appear together on morning TV last week when revelations about her past surfaced. He’s still single — “well over two years now and going strong”.
Probably best. As he told Jemma on the date, a woman on the scene might mean his Instagram followers drop.
HARRY T and IAN (dated in Ep 7)
They shared the first same-sex date on the show, but the psychic and the intuitive therapist didn’t share that vital spark. Yean, yeah, maybe they should have seen that coming.
“Iain reached out to me a couple of times via my public Facebook Like Page and we engaged in a couple of messages to and from. It ended there shortly after. I am single and ready to mingle ... and loving it,” says psychic Harry T.
Meanwhile Iain confesses he enjoyed Sydney Mardi Gras, is still happily single and is heading overseas next month for his first holiday in two years.
The finale of First Dates airs on Wednesday at 9pm on Channel 7.
Originally published as First Dates fallout — who found love and who is still single
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