Australian dating reality television just got a whole lot more diverse.
Okay, so this is technically a web-series, but we’ll let that one slide. A new reality dating show for young bisexual Aussies just hit our internet screens, and it aims to both find love and some actual bi representation.
Called What’s Your Flava?, the show is part dating show, part Come Dine With Me, all cute. You have four pairs of people – some of whom are roommates, some of whom are friends, and others who just met for the show – getting into a rotating dinner party. One pair goes to another pair’s house for entrees, then the next house for dinner, and then the cooks decide who they’d like to have dessert with.
“The original concept required us to find an original and fun way to approach a dating show,” Adam Boys, one of the creators of the show and a senior student at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“My very first instinct was that we needed to include sexual diversity in our piece. This was at the time when Australia’s plebiscite regarding same-sex marriage was at the forefront of people’s minds. Young people from within the community (LGBTQIA+) were feeling the weight of this divisive survey and we had this privileged opportunity to connect with them and give them a strong voice, while doing something new with the genre of reality dating TV.”
They tapped a number of young, single, and bi Aussies living in Australia to dip their toes and tastebuds into the Australian dating scene.
In Episode 1 – called ‘All Bi Myself‘ – we meet Evie, 18, and her cooking partner Billy, 23, both film students; Deli, a 21-year-old who works in retail, and his new housemate Steph, 21, a uni student; brand new acquaintances Leia, 20, and Ren, 21, both uni students, and friends Skyler, 18, a uni student, and Sarah, 21, a bartender.
“So Deli has a type, and it’s like, white bread,” says Steph in the first episode.
“It’s not true,” responds Deli. He pauses. “It’s kind of true.”
“No toasting, no butter, just plain white bread,” continues Steph. “Like Troy Sivan white bread.”
“You know what?” concedes Deli. “I blame it on their jawline. Most white guys have perfect jawlines.”
Adam told P.TV that representation of the bi community was just as important to the creators (which included AFTRS students Oliver Levi Malouf and Patrick Zoener, as well as himself) as making a successful dating show.
“We found that a lot of bisexual people aren’t even represented properly in their own communities,” he said. “One of our participants told us, ‘If you’re a guy, you’re gay, and if you’re a girl, you’re straight’. We really wanted to represent sexually diverse Aussies as they are.”
The first episode is online right the hell now and you can watch it below. Or – if you don’t have FIVE SIMPLE MINUTES to watch an episode, you can watch the trailer even further below.
