Channel 5 to revive Blind Date

I'm not sold on it. Something doesn't seem right. It's not the set though which I like.

Table Tennis for the second date. Yep the budget is low.

The only other theory I have is that with the high turnover of filming shows, they wanted to rush the dates quickly to get the VT complete and the contestants back.

Think Paul should be calling them "our..... From" It's not bad but the dates are pants.

That's a good point actually, but surely they could fly to somewhere in Europe at least?

Ironic that the contestants who didn't get to play to fill the slots went to Europe!

Wow 1.8m for Blind Date, exceptional for C5, especially on a Saturday. BBC1's Pitch Battle was only just ahead with 2m.

I'm not surprised by that figure considering the history of the format, the host and the advertising push they've been giving it.

They will be very happy with it.

I think that's exactly the reason. Also some of the resulting VTs may be more fun as a result.

Only just slightly behind a bigger budget BBC1 summer filler. Impressive. If Blind Date can keep up the momentum, it should be recommissioned.

I've just caught up on Blind Date. I found Paul to be very natural in the role of host adding little bits of added humour, and it was a nice touch to add an opening monologue referencing Cilla.

I'm not a fan of the set, as has been said it does feel very dark. I like the circle design but more colour is needed around them bar black. I wonder if it was used to try and make it feel bigger. The worst part of the set is the sofa area which just feels like an after thought and doesn't fit with the rest of the design at all.

I agree about the dates being cheap in comparison to the old version, though as said it could be due to timing restraints, plus it's more realistic for a first date than a holiday. It'll be interesting to see the first proper films of the series.

How did the old blind date do it? Surely they recorded more than one per week. Did they film the picks and then return to film the returners later matching Cilla's outfits?

There's a piece in Broadcast about the new series where they say they deliberately went for "quirky, funny dates" because they thought it would be more amusing on screen and they also felt that there wasn't much to do on the exotic dates then just them taking their clothes off, oiling each other up and massaging each other, which they thought would be a bit sleazy for a pre-watershed slot. And the aim of the series is to be nice and silly, not overtly sexy.

There are a few themed editions in this series, including one where everyone has their dogs with them.