If you’ve ever been bored and scrolling through channels, chances are you would have come across First Dates Australia. It’s an addictive watch that always ends in you recognising at least one person and thanking the heavens that you never ended up going on a date with them. Just me? OK, moving on.
One contestant however has slammed the show for framing her in a rather unsavoury light.
While watching her episode air, Sydney strip club manager and businesswoman Dana Rae discovered the bartenders on First Dates Australia made some rather mean-spirited comments about her behind her back.
“I just felt the waiters were unfairly mean to me and tried to show me in a bad light,” Rae told Pedestrian.TV.
“Channel Ten made this big deal on their Instagram and on the show about how the waiters/waitresses were there to be a ‘friendly face to guide you with those first date jitters,’
“I didn’t realise mine were making fun of me and talking about me behind my back when all I was doing was drinking my drink and waiting for my date.”
The bartenders of First Dates Australia making quippy comments is kind of the show’s shtick, but usually they just make little lighthearted jokes and get on with their day.
“Is she just smiling to herself?” said one of the bartenders on the show.
“She’s pretty intimidating,” said another.
Friends, aren’t you supposed to provide us with some easygoing entertainment while we watch these (mostly) awkward dates transpire? A televised situation this absurd doesn’t need to be sprinkled with critical comments. I’m here to see people spill wine while laughing.
Rae took to TikTok to express how she felt seeing these negative comments broadcast on national television.
@baby_bardot
“The irony of me saying in the episode how I would like to be with someone who has no judgement of appearances and how open-mindedness is key for me as I’m often judged unfairly on my appearance, then it going directly to the waitress looking at me and nastily saying ‘is she just smiling to herself?… she is pretty intimidating,’ as if to mock me and make me look stupid,” Rae told Pedestrian.TV
“Of course I was smiling to myself, I was nervously being filmed for TV, as well as wondering what my date might be like. I don’t understand how intimidating I could be sitting there smiling.
“I just feel like in this day and age women should be supporting each other and lifting each other up, not making fun of each other, especially when I wasn’t doing anything to warrant nasty comments.”
It’s a pretty scummy move to put someone in a negative light just to craft some fake narrative for a show, especially from a program as low-stakes as this.
Pedestrian.TV has reached out to Channel Ten for comment.
