MTV’s saucy and absolutely chaotic series Are You The One? is one of the best dating reality shows I’ve seen, hands down. And I have seen A LOT (and I mean A LOT). It’s like Love Island mixed with Married at First Sight, but better. And that is why it needs to come to Australia ASAP, that is, if it isn’t already in the works right now. But I will get into that later.
Are You The One? (not to be confused with equally incredible Chinese dating show If You Are The One) takes a bunch of single twenty-somethings and puts them on a tropical island with one mission: to find their perfect match and win a million dollars. The catch? There are only two ways to figure it out: go into the Truth Booth, or pair correctly at the matching ceremony.
The show is a hot mess, because the ‘matches’ are pre-determined by a group of experts that are ~somewhat~ more competent than the ones on MAFS. It gets messy because people end up making genuine connections with people who don’t end up being their match. But that’s the best part.
The producers also get the contestants insanely drunk practically every night. Some shit always goes down and if you thought throwing a drink on MAFS was bad, then wait till you see someone smash a window.
What I love about Are You The One? is that the earlier seasons pre-date influencer culture and you can tell people are just going on for a good time. But the later seasons also have its perks, like mother-fking inclusivity!!!! Season eight saw 16 hot sexually fluid singles try to find their perfect match. So basically, there were no gender limitations, ‘the one’ could be nonbinary, transmasculine, pansexual etc.
FINALLY! A non cis-hetero dating show. The Bachelor could NEVER.
Is Are You The One? coming to Australia?
Short answer: we don’t know. Long answer: I’ve done some detective work and I think it very well could be.
Exhibit A: The mysterious email.
Last month, a mysterious email popped up in people’s inboxes asking for singles to apply for a new dating show coming to Sydney. At first the rumour was that this show was Too Hot Too Handle. However, a Netflix spokesperson has since confirmed that the email is in no way connected to the series. It also can’t be Too Hot To Handle because production is underway right now, and it’s being filmed in Turks and Caicos (just south of the US).
So why do I think this new mystery show is my fave reality show Are You The One? The email said the show focusses on finding “love matches for each of the suitors.” HELLO! MATCHES! It also said it will be an “inclusive dating experience.” And we know that in the later seasons of the show, they have contestants with different sexualities/genders.
Exhibit B: Netflix.
Don’t you think it’s a tiny bit suspicious that a show which has been around since 2014 has only now come to Australian Netflix?
If they are intending to film soon, then now is the perfect time to build the hype and get everyone in Australia to binge the US series before it airs in Aus. Very, very clever. But not as clever as me, obviously.
If I’m correct here, then the show is coming to Aus. And while I LOVE the US version, those accents do get really annoying after a while. So bring on the Aussie version, I say.
