Dating in the Dark Week 3, Reality Show Experiment on ABC Monday Nights

It's the third week now for the reality dating show experiment, Dating in the Dark on ABC Monday Nights. Each week the show has been just different enough to capture my interest and sometimes my scorn for the people on the show but week three was the most amazing episode of them all so far!

Dating in the Dark, week three, started out the same as the other two previous shows, three women and three men come to a very nice house to spend a couple of days living in separate wings of the house with absolutely no contact EXCEPT in a very dark room. The room is so dark that you can not even see your hand in front of your face. We, the audience, get to watch everything that happens in the dark room through the use of infrared cameras.

The three women and three men are introduced in the dark and they must get to know each other, again, in the dark. It's a slightly different premise for a dating show and it did hook my interest enough that I wanted to check it out. I've continued to watch the show because each episode is just different enough so that it does not feel like the same show over and over but with different people. You can read what I've written about Dating in the Dark, week one here and week two here.

Almost from the beginning of the week three episode of Dating in the Dark, the three women were the most interested in only one man, Chris. They all thought he was the most sensitive, the nicest, the most normal and the one with the most potential. They came to this conclusion by talking to all three men and then having the opportunity to go through each man's wallet and then having individual dates with each man. At one point, the women didn't even bother making individual dates with the other guys; they just wanted to date Chris.

Then, of course, the men had the opportunity to go through the women's purses and learned enough about the women that there was definitely some lack of interest in getting to know some of them any better. This was the first group of six people to have very little chemistry between the group members.

Finally, the show's host told each person who their perfect match was based on a questionnaire they had filled out before coming on the show and on the opinions of relationship experts and each woman still wanted Chris. So Chris had dates with and kissed all the women while the other two men sat in their room reading, eating and watching television. It was just amazing!

It did seem that there was some noticeable chemistry between Chris and the women and he said he enjoyed kissing them all. For the big reveal at the end of the show, each of the women ONLY wanted to see what Chris looked like. That left Chris in the enviable position of having three women to choose from but he was the most interested in only one of them.

During the big reveal, a light shines on one person at a time so they can't see anything which is good since some of the reactions of the men and the women are not positive when they see the person for the first time. And that's what happened in this case. As each woman saw Chris for the first time, each one was disappointed. Their biggest general complaint was that Chris looked far too young. And I admit, Chris was wearing a suit and tie and did look about sixteen but he was almost thirty years old! He was also cute in that sweet boy next door kind of way. Chris went out onto the balcony where you wait to see if the person you choose will come and meet you to continue dating or you will see the person walking away out the front door. There was one particular woman that Chris wanted to come to him but....

I was amazed that none of the women wanted to even continue to date Chris or get to know him better based solely on his youthful looks. It's not like the Dating in the Dark show is forcing the people to get married right then and there. There is no commitment that had to be made but each woman chose to walk away.

I came away from the show thinking all three women were foolish and I am being polite when I use that word. Each woman wanted Chris in the dark, cuddling and kissing him and then mooning and sighing over him when they talked about him later. But once they saw his youthful looks, they dumped him! I don't think there could possibly be a shallower group of women on the face of the planet, but I could be wrong. As I continue to watch Dating in the Dark each week, I will probably be proved wrong and that there really are shallower people out there.

ABC is changing the time of Dating in the Dark to Monday nights at 9PM instead of 10PM according to their website at ABC.com but check your local listings to make certain so you don't miss it. If you've missed watching Dating in the Dark, you can go to the ABC website and watch the three episodes for free.