Makers of The Bachelor film in Sydney for Aussie version of First Dates reality show to air on Channel 7

FORGET The Bachelorette, a hot new dating show is coming to Australia which sees singles paired and sent on blind dates — and Single in Sydney columnist Sarah Swain is one of them.

Sarah SwainEXCLUSIVE

3 min read

December 20, 2015 - 12:00AM

Manly Daily

FORGET The Bachelorette, a hot new dating show is coming to Australia. First Dates, a fly-on-the-wall show which sees lovelorn singles matched-up and sent on a blind date in a Big Brother-style restaurant, will be on Channel Seven next year.

Dozens of cameras rigged up in a real restaurant record daters’ every move, from first impressions to awkward silences — and even who pays the bill.

The show is being made in Australia by Warner Brothers, who also produced must-watch hits The Bachelorette and The Bachelor.

The show has been a hit around the world especially in the UK where it started.

Lauren, who appears on new TV show First Dates on Channel Seven. Supplied by Channel Seven

Nicholas, who appears on new TV show First Dates on Channel Seven. Supplied by Channel Seven

Four series have been made there and the format has also been sold to Canada, Germany and the USA, where chat queen Ellen DeGeneres is involved.

The series was shot in Sydney a few months ago at real restaurant, Verandah in Elizabeth Street.

Rather than making fools of people, the series actually aims to find love for singles.

A Channel Seven spokeswoman, said: “The series is warm, kind and generous, and served with a good dollop of humour.

“First Dates allows us to observe human behaviour in its purest form. This is a series about people’s lives, their stories, the diversity of a country — these factors are played out through the prism of dating and the universal feeling of wanting to love and be loved.”

The daters are also interviewed before and after their date, which can offer cringe-worthy moments.

The show has the same makers as The Bachelorette and The Bachelor.

In the UK daters have included widow Olive, 80, and widower Terence, 82, who had a touching experience talking about missing sex, as well as a couple who downed jagerbombs.

A female date even recently plotted an escape from the window, and a celebrity version was also screened for charity.

First Dates comes to Channel Seven in 2016.

MY FIRST DATE

MANLY Daily journalist Sarah Swain, who writes a column called Single in Sydney every Friday for the Daily Telegraph, appears on the show and offered an insight.

I’m sitting at the bar of the restaurant waiting for my date. Nothing funny about that.

Except I have a microphone pack strapped to my thigh, the waiters are wearing foundation, and little remote control cameras are whirring around me.

Sarah was fairly confident she won’t be made to look bad. Picture by Chris Pavlich.

You see, when I was offered the chance to go onnew reality TV show First Dates I didn’t hesitate.

Well, I did ask my friends and my boss what they thought, before agreeing to turn up the next day at a CBD hotel.

You see I’d caught the show in the UK, and was fairly confident they wouldn’t make me into the next Suzie from The Block. Or so I hoped.

The show is from the makers of The Bachelorette. Picture: Toby Zerna

And having been single for quite a while — you can read about my adventures every Friday in Single in Sydney — I thought it would make excellent story.

After all, going on a TV dating show has to be the ultimate place to look for love these days.

But before being ushered into the restaurant via Big Brother-style countdown, and shown to the bar by a real Maitre’d, I’d been grilled by one of the producers about my love life in a hotel conference room.

And I might be a journalist myself, but the producer was so friendly I soon found myself revealing all, from breakups to my perfect man (when they’d asked when I applied my mind went blank and I said Ronan Keating. I’d like to change this to Daniel Craig please). Oops.