Ranking of Reality Dating Shows

Twelve high school seniors move into a house together for a week and try to find a connection as they come of age. One of the best reality dating shows on Netflix, allowing viewers to really get to know these kids, who are mostly quite likeable. For once they didn't cast some over the top nut just to create drama. Besides the good dynamics among the kids, what I found interesting is it that it really illustrates the extent to which Korean high school seniors are still comparatively inexperienced when it comes to dating and relationships compared to their western counterparts (at least the way it was way back when I was in high school).

Several pairs of ex-couples, who initially keep their past relationship a secret, must live under one roof and decide whether to reunite with their ex or exchange them for new love. One of the most emotional and realistic dating shows to date. Differs from the "Heart Signal" formula in that they limit the role of the panel to being more spectators than participants. The storytelling, the cast, the production, and the twists lead to a roller-coaster of emotions. It helped that that in S2 they avoided casting recent breakups, though some became more interested in their ex after being thrown together years after any bitterness from their breakups had faded. Add in divided loyalties that came from the unusually close friendships and we got complex changing relationships to the end, with no need for the usual editing tricks to manufacture drama. As a bonus, at least 2 of the final couples were (are?) still together years later.

Five pairs of biological brothers and sisters share a house to assist each other in finding love, though no one can reveal who their sibling is. A hilarious, heartwarming, and chaotic reality show from the same producers as "EXchange", featuring siblings (rather than exes) interfering in each other's love lives (albeit with the best of intentions). Starts off as something of an unscripted family sitcom before evolving into romances and then ending up in pure drama. A great cast featuring a varied group of interesting people who (mostly) genuinely want to find love. The late drama comes thanks to an early fan favorite becoming a hated villain after ruining an inspiring love story in the most manipulative, attention seeking, and passive aggressive way possible. It doesn’t help that those final episodes are dragged out a bit too long. But the first 80% of the season offers the very best of Korean reality TV.

Ten young Japanese singles are dropped into Nice, France, for 10 days, relying on fate alone to find each other and fall in love, without any digital devices to ease communication. Part dating show, part travelogue, what makes this show stand out is a great cast you can root for, featuring a diverse array of likeable “real” people who do want to find love. It helps that they strive to give each one some emotional depth rather than editing to create villains or drama. A good example is fan favorite Nanami, who tries to maintain her awkward timorous smile even as she struggles with fears that she is incapable of loving or being loved due to a tough loveless childhood. Watching her agonize over suddenly finding herself the center of a love triangle she’s not equipped to handle makes the outcome of her story all the more rewarding. (The scene of her chain-smoking all night on her hotel balcony while agonizing over what to do is one of the most heart-wrenching things I've seen on one of these shows). Fortunately, they also give us needed levity in the ways these Gen Zers try to survive without their phones.

Single women and men live together for a month in a house in the suburbs of Beijing to find love, while a panel of "love experts" compete to predict the progress of relationships based on body language and other "heart signals". The best season so far of either the Chinese or the original Korean versions of "Heart Signal". Though this is still not one of my favorite formats, at least they have reduced some of the most annoying aspects of previous seasons. Most important is that they no longer introduce rules to maximize drama at the expense of encouraging the romantic connections between the participants. Of course it also helps that this time they picked a very good cast of attractive likeable people who are mostly in it for the right reasons, resulting in a number of couples you can really root for, at least two of which were (are?) still together years later.

Single women and men from around the Greater Bay Area live together for a month in a house in Shenzhen to find love, while a panel of "love experts" compete to predict the progress of relationships based on body language and other "heart signals". They managed to maintain the high standards achieved with S6 in terms of both the editing and storytelling, while continuing to be highly successful at forming both romantic and friendship connections. This includes another very good cast of attractive likeable people who are mostly in it for the right reasons. And like with S6, at least two couples were (are?) still together years later.

Stranded and ready to mingle, flirty singles search for love on a deserted island, they can only escape as couples for romantic date nights in paradise. S5 is easily the best so far, as they seemed to have learned from previous seasons. They cut back on the models/influencers in favor of a cast with a more diverse mix (the most popular post-show is a former high school cheer captain in Canada, turned 1st runner-up for Miss South Korea, turned computer engineering major carrying a 4.0 GPA at Carnegie Mellon). Though there was also the obligatory participant who brought the drama (a Korean-Aussie U. of Chicago grad student), at least she was more chaotic and impulsive than malicious.

Several pairs of ex-couples, who initially keep their past relationship a secret, must live under one roof and decide whether to reunite with their ex or find new love. The show had moved to a larger streamer (TVing) before S3, with a new director focused more on drama over romance. If the objective was to create more drama, they succeeded. S4 keeps getting crazier and crazier, with more plot twists than the three previous seasons combined. This led to legitimate complaints that the romantic and butterfly inducing moments were overshadowed by a lot of crying, blaming each other, borderline manipulation etc.. On the other hand, this season also managed to produce more couples than any other, including some of my favorites from the franchise. Furthermore, all that raw emotion felt at least as genuine, if not nearly as positive, as the more restrained reactions of previous casts.

Several pairs of ex-couples, who initially keep their past relationship a secret, must live under one roof and decide whether to reunite with their ex or find new love. Though a little slower and not quite up to the level of S2, S1 was still more than good enough to start a popular franchise. Cast included a good mixture of former couples, ranging from one who dated a decade earlier in high school in L.A. to couples who had dated for much shorter periods, but had broken up only a few months before the show. This gave us quite a variety in the degrees of attachment to their exes, leading to some interesting dynamics and results. One couple that got back together thanks to the show later got married. Biggest negative is that the final episodes are dragged out too much with long repetitive conversations and predictable outcomes.

Korean singles travel to Italy to live in the same house for one month in pursuit of love, marriage, and a shared future. Generally follows the "Heart Signal" formula, though with a couple of interesting innovations: (1) The use of the anonymous compatibility questionnaires to assist the singles in making initial connections, and (2) The singles were asked to have contract relationships each weekend in which they behaved as a trial boyfriend and girlfriend for 3 days. The first of these proved to be a bit of a dud, but the second was a more than a worthwhile addition that really added some interesting dynamics. Best of all, this season managed to produce two of my favorite couples from these shows. But the editing could have been tighter to avoid the show lagging, particularly in the early episodes.

Ten strangers vacation together in Bali. Some are out to find true love. Others are just in it for the money! In order to win US$50,000, money catchers have to try to identify a love catcher with whom to partner. The best thing about this show is that by adding a mystery element, they create an interesting new more complex dynamic, with significant added suspense as they build up until the love vs. money choices are revealed in the final episode. But this also means that the interactions among the participants seem highly manipulated and/or edited to maintain that suspense. When added to the shorter 8-day duration of the filming, we don't get the depth of the relationships of some other dating shows. The panel is also a complete waste of time. But this particular season did benefit greatly from a better cast, better editing, and from tweaks to the format that added even more uncertainty and suspense to the finale. Bali's gorgeous scenery also helped.

Ten mature over-30 singles live together for a month trying to find romance while celebrity panellists analyze their interactions and try to guess their objects of affection. The main positive about this show is the mature cast – relatively successful people who were generally comfortable with themselves and their lives, but who genuinely sought connections. They also respected each other by refusing to try to force something that wasn’t there, either for appearances sake or by being overly competitive the way a younger cast can be. The couples that did get together were solid and convincing and it's no surprise they managed to stay together for years after the show. The panel was also fairly good, as celebrity panels go, but a key negative is that it is given way too much airtime (30% to 40%) at the expense of delving deeper into the relationships in the house. Several potentially interesting storylines deserved more elaboration.

Six strangers (3 men and 3 women) agree to live together over the long-term in a house full of cameras in Tokyo, with the footage edited into short weekly episodes for broadcast. Netflix took over one of Japan's most popular scriptless reality shows and produced it continuously between 2015 and 2020, divided into 4 seasons, of which this is the first. Rather than isolating the participants for a short duration, they let them continue with their regular lives outside the house over months, while also allowing for the ongoing change-over of housemates as they replace those who eventually move out for personal or professional reasons. This season included 17 housemates in total between the ages of 18 and 29 with an average length of residence of 4 months each. The season improved dramatically once a couple of annoying initial housemates left, as the rest were much more likeable and interesting people you could root for. (This is the first Asian reality show we ever watched).

Ten divorced North America based Korean men and women move into a house in Cancun, ready to date, cohabitate and find love again. This show had some issues with pacing and editing, but worked primarily because of the cast, which adds some interesting new dynamics by being older with more life experience, including the trauma of a past divorce, and reflecting a mix of both Korean and American cultures. The panel was okay (not the best nor the worst), but at least they didn't get in the way as much as they do on some of these shows. In the end, this season also proved relatively successful at forming couples, some of which even lasted for awhile. Given the filming location, I do with they had included at least one person from Mexico's large Korean community in addition to all the Americans and Canadians.

Eight singles move into a large house together for a month to find love, while a panel of "love experts" compete to predict the progress of relationships based on body language and other "heart signals". The original Korean version of the show, which takes its general concept from the Japanese "Terrace House" by allowing the participants to continue with their jobs or studies while living together, but with innovations that establish a formula for Korean dating shows. This includes much longer episodes filmed over a much shorter period, establishing games to determine dates. and having the participants anonymously send a text to the person "that makes their heart flutter" each evening.  S3 started off slowly with several episodes focused on two women chasing the same guy. But things livened up considerably once new housemates were added mid-season. By the end I think I grew to appreciate the cast for keeping it real and being true to their feelings. The biggest negative is that the celebrity panel continued to be among the most annoying. One major improvement for S3 was that the final reunion episode filmed after the show aired does a much better job of catching up on the participants and how being on TV has affected their lives. They don’t try to disguise how the very limitations imposed by the show make it even harder for any couples to survive the immediate post-show period.

Several pairs of ex-couples, who initially keep their past relationship a secret, must live under one roof and decide whether to reunite with their ex or find new love. The first season produced by a larger streamer (TVing) with the new director who focused on drama over romance. Whether due to this or casting issues, most couples simply didn't click to the extent they had in previous seasons. In order to create more drama, they went back to casting more recent breakups and most seemed too hung up on their exes, even when their problems clearly remained unresolved (the exception being the reunited couple who later got married). But the cast was quite likeable as individuals and in a group setting, and S3 produced more true friendships that persisted well after the show, including most of the women vacationing together in the U.S. and elsewhere. Though disappointed at the final decisions of some participants, I still appreciate the way this format still allows a much deeper exploration of relationships.

Singles move into the Pink House, each carrying one lie about themselves. It was clear from the structure and casting that this show was going to be more about the drama than trying to generate any deep lasting romances, and in that, it was quite effective. The way the lies were handled helped create considerable suspense. The fact that some were much more serious than others meant that viewers could never be sure if any person’s lie was going to be a deal-breaker until it was eventually revealed. Some of the participants do not come off looking particularly good. Particularly detestable were a couple of the best looking guys who are the kind of smug smooth-talking womanizers who get off on manipulating women. Fortunately, the women seemed to figure this out relatively quickly (this group had more brains than half the women on Single's Inferno). I did end up feeling really sorry for one particular genuinely nice and classy woman who had been tricked into working briefly in the AV industry a decade earlier when she was very young.

Flirty singles search for love on a deserted island, they can only escape as couples for romantic date nights in paradise. The Korean dating reality show with the highest global ratings on Netflix. Though the overall concept takes more from similar western rather than Korean shows, it differs in interesting ways that reflect Korean culture, more conservative attitudes and with age and educational achievement given greater importance. Despite this, it is more focused on sexual attraction, quick hookups, and drama in comparison other Korean dating shows, even if not even close to what we get in the west. In addition to the usual quotient of models, S1 did include some impressively accomplished serious people. But in the end, it still seemed to consist mostly of people chasing fame rather than serious relationships.

Eight singles move into a large house together for a month to find love, while a panel of "love experts" compete to predict the progress of relationships based on body language and other "heart signals". The cast was mostly quite likeable, but this season suffered when too many of the women ended up chasing the same quiet dark handsome mysterious guy and it was too late by the time they figured out he was a complete dud. Plus, the painfully unfunny celebrity panel took up way too much screentime.

Single women and men live together for a month in a house in Shanghai to find love, while a panel of "love experts" compete to predict the progress of relationships based on body language and other "heart signals". Had many of the same problems as previous seasons of the Chinese version of this show - particularly the clear influence of the writers putting words into the mouths of contestants and the over the top distracting product placement - but at least they did tweak the format to encourage more coupling up of the participants. Most importantly, I found this cast to be much more likeable and that goes a long way. S5 was also unusually successful at forming couples, even if only two of them lasted well beyond the show.

Marriage-minded singles in Japan meet, date, and get engaged before ever setting eyes on each other. The Japanese version of the most successful Netflix reality dating franchise in which 30 men and women come together over the course of a little over a month, with the first two weeks being held in pods where the contestants can talk without being able to see each other. Those who get engaged move in together for 3 weeks before deciding whether to go through with the marriage. This Japanese version is perhaps the most calming and wholesome with the least drama and overdramatic edits. Unusually for this franchise, at least 2 of the couples were still happily married 4 years later, each with a child.

Flirty singles search for love on a deserted island, they can only escape as couples for romantic date nights in paradise. Lacked the novelty of the first season and ended up being overly focused on an overly bland and ridiculously indecisive piano major, who somehow became the obsession of 3 of the shallowest guys, when it wasn’t focused on a cocky / narcissistic guy and his predatory pursuit of the girl with the lowest self-esteem. As a result, several more interesting contestants were given too little screen time, none more so than the brilliant and funny Korean American Harvard premed student Nadine, who knew how to laugh at her own fish-out-of-water awkwardness and broken Korean, and genuinely seemed to care about the other girls. But at least S2 was never boring.

Six strangers (3 men and 3 women) agree to live together in a house full of cameras in Oahu, with the footage edited into short weekly episodes for broadcast. This 2nd Netflix season takes place in Hawaii featuring Japanese speakers with U.S. ties (half-Americans who grew up in Japan, Japanese who live in the U.S., etc.). Unfortunately, an annoying 29-year-old failed actor took over most of the season with his obsessive pursuit of “a love worth dying for”. He worked his way through most of the women before finally finding “the one” while constantly giving patronizing unwanted advice, until an equally self-centred former Miss Hawaii Island openly rebelled and the entire house fell apart. They did produce very successful alumni, including teens Nikki Niwa and Lauren Tsai, who used the show to become top Tokyo fashion models (with the later now a gifted Hollywood based artist, anime director, and actress).

A man and a woman are given a mysterious diary that foretells them falling in love, though they are complete strangers to each other. At least this show is honest in doing away with even the pretense of being "unscripted" by giving our couple a literal outline of a script to follow, albeit dressed up like an artfully illustrated diary. The only thing left to choice (one supposes) was whether to continue dating. What saves this first season and got it relatively high ratings is that the couple was not only extremely cute and likeable, but they managed to develop some real chemistry. clearly falling for each other by the last episode (confirmed when they got married a couple of years later). This genuineness offsets the occasional awkwardness of non-actors following instructions that don’t always come natural to them.

Ten strangers vacation together for 8 days on Jeju Island. Some are out to find true love. Others are just in it for the money! In order to win the US$50,000, money catchers have to try to identify a love catcher with whom to partner. This earlier season was not quite as good as later seasons as the producers had yet to fully refine the format. In retrospect, it seems even more manipulated, while the editing was a little more obvious about who was or wasn’t a money catcher. But despite all this, S2 did somehow produce one couple who are happily married some 8 years later, though this could be mostly a lucky accident given that the couple in question received much less screentime than others and the panel didn’t really expect much of them.

Six strangers agree to live together in a large house full of cameras in the Karuizawa woods of the Nagano prefecture in Japan, with the footage edited into short weekly episodes for broadcast. This 3rd Netflix season with a return to Japan and the type of casting seen in previous seasons prior to the not quite successful experiment in Hawaii. 19 different housemates ranging in ages from 19 to 31 share the cabin in groups of 6 over this extra long season, with an average length of residence of 15.5 weeks each. Includes a chef, 4 pro athletes, 2 musicians, and the usual assortment of students and models. For the first time it also includes (all too briefly) people with different sexualities. Unfortunately too many of these participants proved unlikable or uninteresting and the constant drama among the women didn't help.

Flirty singles search for love on a deserted island, they can only escape as couples for romantic date nights in paradise. The worst season prior to the completely unwatchable S4. There were no interesting games, no real challenges, no other meaningful activities. Most of the participants were not genuinely interested in anyone but themselves, despite which they seemed to have no personality whatsoever. This may be the reason why so much screentime was given to the one exception, a veteran Korean league pro-basketball player who set out to string along as many of the younger women as possible. He certainly had plenty of personality, coming to be widely considered the most annoying and insufferable person in the history of the show.

Follows 8 young adults who have recovered or are in the process of recovering from potentially fatal diseases and who are ready to begin seeking love again. I dare anybody to make it through the first episode without shedding tears, as our house guests take turns describing their long tortuous battles against disease in what feels mostly like a support group meeting. But after that they revert to a general format similar to other dating shows and it quickly becomes apparent that most of these people aren’t really ready to begin relationships after all. The short duration (only 7 days) and the innovative, but ultimately unproductive, mechanism they came up with to determine dates don’t help. The end result is that the show becomes overly focused on a very few participants, with most of the cast simply disappearing by mid-season.

Singles are thrown into the most outrageous blind dates imaginable. An anthology of short dating reality scenarios experimenting with innovative ways to introduce participants to each other. The scenarios included:

1. Two strangers share the same bed for 3 nights (in pajamas and with no physical contact)

2. Four strangers spend 3 nights in an isolated mountain cabin, where each participant is either the physical ideal or personality ideal of another participant, but not both.

3. Two strangers meet up on dates only after first getting drunk.

4. A group spend 5 days in a remote cabin while playing a social game called King of Hearts.

Only the first scenario seamed worth repeating (and produced a lasting couple). Not surprising given that the duration of the experiments was far too short to fully play out.

Singles live together for a month in a house to find love, while a panel of "love experts" compete to predict the progress of relationships based on body language and other "heart signals". The format of this early season hews particularly closely to the Korean original, but with several differences for the worse: (1) The participants (particularly the men) seemed more focused on competing with each other than in developing close or lasting friendships, let alone romances, leading to a lot less fun in the house, (2) Product placement is completely over the top, including frequent ads featuring the participants, and (3) The method for selecting the final critical dates seems almost designed to discourage any initial couplings. Almost everyone was disappointed either by who they were forced to date or by the lack of romantic interest from their date. Despite this, they did get one lasting couple out of this season. The problem is that I didn't really like them that much (though to the guy's credit, he was the only one to stay out of all the competitive B.S. between the other men). At least this panel was much more tolerable, even if they still took up too much screen time, as Chinese panels tend to do.

Perpetual singles who have never had a relationship live together for 9 days, getting makeovers and dating guidance while seeking real connections. The concept is quite fresh and it does cast everyday people rather than the usual rising models and influencers. Unfortunately it becomes overly focused on one guy and his struggle to decide between 3 girls, without really explaining why he picked the girl he did. Everyone else got something of a short shift, but then one problem with casting a bunch of socially awkward introverts and workaholics is that they don’t always make for good TV. As noted by one of the reviewers, the message that did come through is that Gen Z women tend to remain single by choice, while men are single because no one chose them - a big social problem faced by South Korea these days. In sum, a show for those who enjoy watching people get humiliated, but not those hoping for romantic outcomes.

Five pairs of ex-lovers live together in a luxury hotel for a month. Japanese adaptation of the Korean "EXchange" dating show, only greatly condensed to less than 8 hours of total runtime (compared to well over 40 hours for the original). As a result, it often seems more like a collection of choppy highlights from a reality show than the show itself. Furthermore, given the final decisions made by several of the participants, those highlights left a lot out even for the couples that got more screentime. It seemed clearly selectively edited to try to maintain some artificial suspense until the end. At least the cast was mostly quite likeable.

Perpetual singles who have never had a relationship live together for 9 days, getting makeovers and dating guidance while seeking real connections. The following quotes from reviews tell you most of what you need to know about this season: "… tortures innocent women by giving them awful men" "… has men lovebombing and abandoning women who are way out of their league."

The behavior of most of the men (and perhaps one of the women) was so repeatedly appalling (if often unintentionally) that even the panel were left staring in aghast amazement. In the words of another reviewer, "a train-wreck whose only value is watching a disaster enfold." Though clearly some viewers enjoy just that. They did try to rescue things with a full 5 episode after show, but it was a waste of time.

Seven young men and women board a pink minibus in search of true love. On a journey through Asia with strangers, their goal is to return to Japan as a couple. Netflix brings back an original hit Japanese reality show that ran from 1999 to 2009, during which time the wagon carried 188 travellers, resulting in 44 couples, 8 of whom eventually got married, producing 11 kids. Part travelogue, part romance, and part-drama, I just can’t get past how staged everything seems, the extent to which the commentators and graphics are over the top, and the constant annoying voice-over narration of everything that is going on. Don’t tell me what’s happening, show it to me! I never did get a feel for the personalities of most of the cast, and for the ones that did leave an impression, it was mostly negative.

A young woman must decide between two very different men while following the instructions given to them in a mysterious diary. A mess of a season which, to a much greater extent than Season 1, came off as a group of very amateurish non-actors trying to improvise (very awkwardly) based on the instructions given in the diary. Part of the reason is that though it felt like a genuine friendship did develop between the three participants, there was never any real romantic chemistry. It also doesn’t help that the instructions they received tended much more often towards the ridiculous.