As brutally honest as this might sound, I remember seeing the commercials for the show and not having an interest in it (especially not with Hannah Brown being on it, ugh). I only happened to watch it one night when my aunt and I were looking at recorded shows we needed to watch. While I only saw most of The Celebrity Dating Game segment with Rashad Jennings as the mystery celebrity, I became interested in watching the other episodes after that.
So here I am talking about this show to you out of interest, because what I write comes from my heart and how I feel. Ha! Maybe you can say that the heart and feelings make up the premise of this show. And they do. But can this show make your heart sing or is it just a corny attempt at pulling your heartstrings?
What is The Celebrity Dating Game? A spin-off of the 1960’s The Dating Game, The Celebrity Dating Game is an updated version of that show, where a mystery celebrity (or in this case, a B or C-List celebrity) asks three prospective dates three rounds of questions to learn more about their personality and interests. The celebrity does not know what the prospective dates look like, and the prospective dates do not know what the celebrity looks like. Although they have the ability to guess the celebrity after each round, the celebrity ultimately chooses which person they would like to take on a date by saying the contestant’s number (either 1, 2, or 3).
Actress Zooey Deschanel and musician Michael Bolton host the show, with Michael belting out a song after the second round that gives hints as to who the mystery celebrity is. Those at home will already know who that celebrity is, but to the contestants, the celebrity they’re talking to is unknown.
The Good: This may be irrelevant to the show content, but I really like the logo! It’s quirky, and I also like the stage background, though it’s kind of like the terrestrial version of Spongebob Squarepants’ Bikini Bottom.
I also find Zooey to be a good choice of host. She’s warm, bubbly, and someone who I could bond with while hanging out. And while Michael doesn’t talk as much and is more of a sidekick, he makes some funny remarks and of course, shows off his legendary voice by singing a song about the mystery celebrity. In fact, his singing voice is probably the most valuable asset he brings to the show even though he didn’t have to sing at all. I mean, he’s a legend. I don’t make the rules.
Though it’s worth highlighting that a couple of bisexual celebrities make an appearance on the show as a mystery celebrity (Demi Burnett and Margaret Cho), with their prospective dates being from both sexes. Carson Kressley is the sole gay celebrity to be a mystery celebrity, with all of his options being men.
I think it would be interesting to see trans and non-binary people as mystery celebrities or contestants in the future. I would watch those episodes to witness the dynamic and the overall outcome.
The Bad: With that said, I still notice some implicit biases in terms of prospective dates. It seems that the White celebrities and Black men are presented with more racially diverse contestants. Meanwhile, Nicole Byer (the only Black female mystery celebrity) only had Black men as her options. It’s not that having one race of potential dates for a person is wrong, especially if that’s their preference to only date inside their race/ethnicity. I know that the show is blind on looks and it’s possible that the celebs were asked about racial preference. But if not, there’s definitely some implicit bias to investigate. It might sound trivial, but if you do some research on interracial dating and marriages, you might understand part of where I’m getting at.
That aside, the questions are rather flimsy and fall flat in terms of humor (i.e. “If you were an ocean, would your waves be harsh or gentle?”, “If I were a banana, how would you eat me?”). The best thing they can do is make you cringe and go like, “What does that have to do with anything?” I know the questions are asked with the purpose of knowing one’s personality, but come on.
I would say the funniest thing about this show is Michael’s occasional jokes. Those make me crack up at times. And I like Zooey, but somebody needs to tell her to stop dancing at every outro. She has no rhythm and my aunt and I cringe everytime we see her dance. But then again, I have no rhythm either.
The Ugly: The worst part of this show is that there’s no real prize. The pairing is just fictitious and almost a fan-fiction type beat. Not a cash prize, not a prize for “free stuff for a year” (free donuts for a year would be fitting), not even a “Cheesecake Factory dinner on us” with your date prize. I know that the pandemic is still raging, but hanging out with your date could work out if you practice social distancing in your surroundings. Without any real prize or getting to spend time with your “date” in real life, this show is rather pointless.
What’s the point in anyone competing if they can’t get any award from it? If I go on a game show, I expect there to be some cash and prizes at play. You won’t make me go on a game show that has no awards at stake.
Final Verdict: Ready, set, flirt! Or nah. With the mystery celebrity not interacting with their “date” outside of the show, The Celebrity Dating Game is more about promoting B-C List celebrities than anything else. What successful game shows have in common is that there’s prizes for winning (and maybe smaller prizes for other contestants in some game shows). There’s thrill in finding out who wins what or if anyone wins at all. Without prizes, this show in particular will not last long at all.
The best thing about The Celebrity Dating Game is the aesthetics thanks to the logo and the background. And to give the hosts credit, Zooey’s and Michael’s personalities add on to what would otherwise be a failed attempt at a revival. The Dating Game has been revived several times, though none of them have lasted more than three seasons. I smell cancellation upon its midst for this revival as well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it cancelled after this season. I definitely don’t expect it to last more than two seasons.
The celebrity guests were not awful, but can shows stop giving Hannah Brown a platform? I know she competed in Miss USA 2018, has been part of The Bachelor franchise, and even won Dancing With The Stars. But, what else does she have going on for her besides reality television? She’s not known as an intellectual, artist, businesswoman, or anything like that (some will want to bring up her racism). I know Demi Burnett (mentioned earlier) is from the same franchise as her, but I’ve heard more about Hannah. Though all-around, it’s tiring to hear about folks who are famous for things that don’t take a lot of effort. I wish I could get easy fame and money like that.
To conclude my review, do I recommend you watch it? Ehh, not really. It was something to watch to pass the time, but I didn’t find the questions funny nor appreciate the outlandish answers some contestants gave (guessing British celebrities even after hearing that the mystery celebrity was Australian, which happened to be Iggy Azalea. Really?).
What do I recommend you do instead? Like Zooey would say to the two passed-over contestants, “Go get some ice cream!” But do that while watching a different show of your choice.
Although I have to admit. I’d probably coordinate this game for my sorority sisters to play and bring in the other sororities and fraternities to play too. The Greek Dating Game, anyone? It would be a fun game to play in private and actually bring laughs to ourselves hahaha.
