Late Night TV
Still up, and just watched an hour-plus of late night TV, flipping through channels before landing on MTV and the show Next.
Premise is pretty simple, along the lines of other dating shows. One person has five potential dates sitting in a van, and goes out with them one by one, with the option to cast them off at any time with one word: 'next.' For every minute a date lasts, they earn a dollar. If one catches the dater's eye, they'll ultimately get a choice: the money, or a second date.
It wasn't the concept behind the show that stunned me, but the fact that they were pairing up hetero and homo sexual couples, with MF, MM, and FF matches all represented within the hour. That's new to me. While I've seen 'inadvertent' same-sex hookups on shows like 'The Fifth Wheel,' I've never seen a dating show that intentionally set up like matches (or at least a dating show that didn't play it all up with a gag-like twist, AKA Bravo's Boy Meets Boy).
Now, I haven't had cable for four years, and haven't really watched with any frequency since the summer of 2003, but can't recall same-sex relationships receiving this sort of acceptance on tv in the past. More indicators of a very-recent cultural shift in the states over the past 2-5 years...
That's my observation.
Premise is pretty simple, along the lines of other dating shows. One person has five potential dates sitting in a van, and goes out with them one by one, with the option to cast them off at any time with one word: 'next.' For every minute a date lasts, they earn a dollar. If one catches the dater's eye, they'll ultimately get a choice: the money, or a second date.
It wasn't the concept behind the show that stunned me, but the fact that they were pairing up hetero and homo sexual couples, with MF, MM, and FF matches all represented within the hour. That's new to me. While I've seen 'inadvertent' same-sex hookups on shows like 'The Fifth Wheel,' I've never seen a dating show that intentionally set up like matches (or at least a dating show that didn't play it all up with a gag-like twist, AKA Bravo's Boy Meets Boy).
Now, I haven't had cable for four years, and haven't really watched with any frequency since the summer of 2003, but can't recall same-sex relationships receiving this sort of acceptance on tv in the past. More indicators of a very-recent cultural shift in the states over the past 2-5 years...
That's my observation.
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