Fox will be offering not just one but two new reality dating shows this summer.

ADVERTISEMENT

The network has announced it will premiere The Choice, a new reality dating show for celebrities, on Thursday, June 7 at 9PM ET/PT.

Inspired by NBC's The Voice reality singing competition and hosted by So You Think You Can Dance host Cat Deeley, The Choice will feature celebrities sitting in spinning chairs and expressing interest in potential dates without getting to see what the suitor looks like first.

"We wanted to put a new spin on the dating game show that gives celebrities The Choice of a lifetime and the chance to prove you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover," Fox reality chief Mike Darnell said.

The Choice will run for six episodes, according to Entertainment Weekly, with five of the episodes featuring male celebrities selecting bachelorettes and the sixth featuring female celebrities choosing bachelors. Fox will announce the participating celebrities at a later date.

Similar to The Voice, each episode of The Choice will film in front of a live audience and begin with a "Blind Round" in which four celebrities sit in spinning chairs turned away from the studio stage and listen to potential non-celebrity dates describe themselves and share information about their life, passions, turn-ons and turn-offs.

If the celebrity is interested, they will then pull their chair's "love handle" and it will spin around and bring them face-to-face with the suitor -- who, despite the show's "blind" format, will be a physically attractive "sexy single," according to Fox.  If more than one celebrity is interested in the same potential date then the suitor will get to decide which celebrity they are more interested in dating.

Once each celebrity has selected three potential dates, The Choice will move on to a "Speed Choice" round where each suitor will have "only seconds" to convince the celebrity that they should advance to the final round.  During the final round, Deeley will ask each suitor a "challenge question" and the celebrity will then decide who will get to go on a "dream date" with them.

The Choice is being produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions and executive produced by Arthur Smith, Kent Weed and Scott St. John.

Fox openly acknowledged The Choice's similarities to The Voice in a commercial broadcast during Wednesday night's American Idol performance show.

"Four celebrities. Blind auditions.  Spinning chairs.  But it's not what you think," the network stated in the brief teaser promo.

Last month, Fox also announced it will premiere Take Me Out, a new dating show which will feature non-celebrity bachelors attempting to impress a group of 30 beautiful women, on Thursday, June 7 at 8PM ET/PT.

"I think there's a big hole in the dating show world," Darnell told EW. "There hasn't been a new hit since The Bachelor, and there hasn't been an in-studio one that's worked since The Dating Game 30 years ago. I was thinking about how to do a blind-date show without using a wall or blindfolds, and the spinning chairs seemed like a great way to do it."

CBS and NBC both appear to share Darnell's opinion that the reality dating show genre is ripe for a new broadcast network hit, as they have both also recently announced new projects in the space. 

Earlier this year, CBS announced plans to air 3, a new "myth-breaking" reality dating series that will chronicle three women's attempt to find love, this summer.  The show will represent the network's first reality dating series since Simon Cowell's Cupid nine years ago.

In addition, NBC -- which launched Love in the Wild last summer and will debut the show's second season with a two-hour premiere that will air directly against Take Me Out and The Choice on June 7 -- also recently ordered Ready for Love.

Announced last month and produced by actress Eva Longoria, Ready for Love will premiere next winter and star three successful bachelors looking for love with the help of matchmakers and social media.
About The Author: Steven Rogers

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS