Meet the Parents (2)
Synopsis
Ask your date's parents anything.
There's a picker, and three potential dates. Questions are answered, and a decision is made.
The picker has her questions...But how is this different from Blind Date? Simple: the questions are put to the prospective date's parents. Mother and father might spill the beans on their offspring's relationship history, their crush on Justin Bieber, and childhood stories to make anyone cringe.
Though the potential dates are watching, they are in a locked room, away from the debate. The date is allowed one call to speak to their parents and influence their answers.
Once the picker has finished grilling the parents, they make their decision. And, in true Blind Date style, they first get to meet the ones they turned down.
With questions that tend to the embarrassing, the potential dates are going to cringe and hide behind the sofa. If it gets too much, they can call up their parents and plead with them not to tell a certain tale.
The dates are hidden away.After all the questions are up, the picker chooses a date, which happens at once. They're whisked off to a restaurant. They're filmed, his parents eavesdrop on the conversation, and crash the date.
Meet the Parents is all done in good humour: the tales are embarrassing without ever being risque. By turns, it's romance and schadenfreude. The show knows it's a slightly daft endeavour, and never takes itself at all seriously. Holly Willoughby keeps a firm grip on the show, and it's edited at a good pace.
The show is a spiritual heir to Blind Date, and is refreshingly different from the more smutty Take Me Out.
Inventor
Devised by Joe Mace, Sam Crack, Peter Howell
Title music
Theme by Audiofreaks
Trivia
Sponsored by the "Seksy" watch.
The first series went out at 7pm Saturday, before The X Factor and opposite Strictly Come Dancing.
Web links
@MeetTheParents, but they were @ITVDatingShow for the first few weeks of transmission.
