Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Blind Date’ On Bravo, A Revival Of The 2000s Dating Show That’s Crazier Than Ever

Admit it: You watched Blind Date when it was originally on from 1999-2006. Of course you did; it was the perfect way to watch people be ridiculous, and the pop-ups that annotated each date were perfectly timed and tuned to make things even more silly. Bravo has brought the show back; how does it play in the era of The Bachelor/Bachelorette?

BLIND DATE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman is driven to meet her blind date in an Escalade-style SUV. Her name is Kristen, she’s 34 and she’s dressed in a revealing top and really short shorts. We see her state on a phone video: “Everyone has their value; for men, it’s how much money you make, and for women it’s how you look.”

The Gist: This reboot of Blind Date is more or less the same one you likely watched (but didn’t admit to watching) when it was syndicated from 1999-2006. One slight difference is that Nikki Glaser provides the snarky narration instead in place of the original’s studio-based host, Roger Lodge. Oh, and the graphics are slightly better. The show also features plenty of same-sex dates, something we rarely if ever saw on the same show.

But the format is pretty much the same: We see two “couples” go on blind dates, starting with an extreme activity, followed by dinner, then a trip to a pool or Jacuzzi or something that allows the daters to take most of their clothes off. Both dates are loaded down with graphics that poke fun of the weirdness and discomfort that ensues, pretending to know what the daters are thinking, or counting down to when one of the daters makes a bad joke or falls for the other dater.

In the first date, the “out there” Kristen meets the seemingly conservative Peter for paddle boarding. He’s dazzled by her cleavage and insists that once he has a few drinks in him, “Party Peter” comes out. He matches her shot for shot, and the two of them drunkenly do body shots and sloppily smooch in the Jacuzzi. During the second date, Angelique just can’t get past the lies told by her date Slick 23 (yes, you read right), who tells her things like he slaughters animals for a living but is a vegetarian, and he won’t even tell her his real name. Did we mention that Slick 23 is 41 years old?

Our Take: We never thought we’d be nostalgic for the original Blind Date, but we were excited to hear about this revival. What we remembered most about the old show are twofold: The funny pop-ups on the screen and the notion that any nudnik can get a date, but not every nudnik should actually be out there dating. It was basically the Woolery-era Love Connection, only we followed the people on the date.

In the 13 years since the show has gone off the air, dating has gone from “stodgy” online sites where people actually had to write to each other using full sentences to the “swipe right/left” apps where you don’t even need to spell out words. We’ve had The Millionaire Matchmaker, The Bachelor/Bachelorette and other dating shows to show how oafish people of all genders can be when it comes to looking for love. But the relative simplicity of BD and the fact that it doesn’t take itself at all seriously still plays.

Because this new version is on Bravo, and because this is 2019 and not 1999, the daters need to be more extreme. Hence the woman popping out of her ill-fitting top and the 40-something dude who won’t even reveal his real name. But the pop-ups still gave us more than one hearty chuckle and even a couple of medium laughs, and Glaser adds a bit of a modern take with her narration. “Looks like Party Peter is waiting for his invitation to arrive. In a glass. With salt and a wedge of lime,” is a good example of one of her scripted gags. She strikes the right tone that brings the show into 2019.

We also appreciate the fact that the show will show same-sex dates, and if the picture we saw of two big dudes grilling is any indication, some of those couple won’t all have hourglass figures or rock-hard abs.

Sex and Skin: Blind Date isn’t concerned with first-date decorum, like Patty Stanger might have been. The more skin, booze, and sloppy make-outs the better. But any and all sex is assumed.

Parting Shot: Angelique gets Slick 23’s real name from a producer. You’ll have to watch to find out what it is.

Sleeper Star: As always, Blind Date’s writers are the show’s MVPs, taking a look at these silly dates and figuring out ways to make fun of what’s going on without completely humiliating the daters.

Most Pilot-y Line: This whole show is silly, so it’s hard to single out the silliest of what’s essentially a piffle of a show to begin with.

Our Call: STREAM IT. As it was 20 years ago, Blind Date is “turn your brain off” television, where you can see people be ridiculous on camera, chuckle at the pop-ups and not think to much about it. And, thankfully, the formula that worked in the early ’00s hasn’t changed much.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Blind Date On BravoTV.com