Better Date Than Never starts next month

“There is much [dating] Shows that really focus on super hot, super confident, good looking people,” says Cian O’Clery, one of the producers of Better date than never. “And I really wanted to see more real people represented.”

O’Clery admitting he would never make the cut The bachelor or island of love, has shape in this space. He was also a producer on both local seasons of love in the spectrum, as well as the current US version. (And it was his work on Employable I that gave him the idea in the first place.)

“We asked ourselves, ‘How could we expand a presence in the dating space that has a purpose but still appeals to an audience that’s still fun and feels like an ABC show,'” he says. “Because I’ve felt it personally — I look at these shows and I think no one would ever want to date me. I think it affects how people think about themselves.”

Although there is a lot in common with DNA love in the spectrumemphasizes O’Clery Better date than never is quite a show of its own, and finding a real variety of people—and then other people to date them—was a challenge.

“It’s not easy, especially if you don’t specify who you’re looking for,” he says. There isn’t a Facebook group for people who want to date for the first time, at least not at this point in time. “So we just started spreading the word wherever we could, from picking specific communities to general casting calls on social media, university groups, in all sorts of ways.”

The team then began figuring out who they wanted on the show. “A lot of it is about who comes through the door,” says O’Clery. “You just want to end up with a nice group of people who feel different.”

One of the first to walk through the door was Charles, a 27-year-old international student who recently came out as gay and found the dating apps a little daunting. He’d been to Mardi Gras with some friends from college and then came across a Mardi Gras Facebook group where he’d seen the casting call for the show.

“You know, after Mardi Gras, there’s a bit of post-Mardi Gras blues,” he explains. “I got to the end of Mardi Gras and I was like, ‘I want this.'” A show looking for people from all backgrounds who’ve never been together before? “I thought: This could be my first step on this path.”