Love Connection is back on Fox

“Dating has become a bit of a forgotten art,” says Rob Wade, the head of alternative programming at Fox. “This, in a way, is teaching some of the younger people watching what it used to be like. You didn't spend your nights swiping right, you actually had to go out there and spend a few evenings with a few different people and find out the wrinkles.”

To be sure, the bygone rituals of courtship also rarely included television cameras. But there’s no denying the digital age has redefined the quest for romance — swiping through online dating profiles and texting opening lines is a passive effort that can be done in the same time it takes to cue up Netflix or place a filter on an Instagram photo (and it’s highly likely it’s happening in between doing all those things.)

“Love Connection,” though, thrives on human connection, not a WiFi connection.

A reboot of the classic game show had been shopped around for some time. The current iteration, a co-production between original producers Telepictures Productions and Warner Horizon Television, has one of the biggest names in TV’s reality dating universe behind it: Mike Fleiss, the creator of ABC’s hit dating competition, “The Bachelor.” The show’s other executive producers are Martin Hilton ("The Bachelor"), James Breen ("So You Think You Can Dance") and Jason Ehrlich ("The Bachelor").

“I always had a soft spot for that show,” says Fleiss, who had become friends with the show’s late creator Eric Lieber and credits “Love Connection” with planting the seed for him to venture into the romance TV space.

“I remember it being simple and effective,” he adds. “And I remember wanting to find out what happened on those dates, the he said-she said of it all. It was intriguing.”

The producers all credit Cohen, who had wanted to resurrect the show years ago when he was in charge of programming at Bravo, for his knack at getting the dirt — after all, he’s the kind of guy who asks guests on his late-night show which celebrity aroused him or her in youth.

“He has a great ease with people,” says Mike Darnell, the president of unscripted and alternative programming at Warner Bros. “People feel safe with him. They open up and they feel like he’s not judging them.”

But Cohen is under contract with NBCUniversal and, thus, had to go up the ladder to get the OK to do the show.

“I jumped at the chance to do the show,” says Cohen, whose New York-based late-night Bravo show, “Watch What Happens Live,” is filming a week of shows in Los Angeles in the lead-up to the game show’s premiere.

“I just remember laughing and being amazed by the people that went on these dates,” he says.”The headline is: It still totally works. Hearing about first dates, it’s as interesting today as it ever was.”

Click to expand...

Fakeem said:

I expect to get flamed for saying this, but I just can't accept an openly gay man hosting a game show that promotes only "straight" love connections. I seriously think Andy would and should complain if they don't allow same-sex couples on the show. This is the new normal. I doubt millennials would care as long as the episodes were interesting.

Click to expand...

johnnya2k6 said:

Actually, the 1998 reboot with Pat Bullard was the last time Love Connection was on the spotlight.

Oh, and uh...didn't Fox attempt to fight LC with the syndicated "Studs" in the early '90s (near the end of the original run)?

Click to expand...