Irish net arranges Blind Date

An Irish broadcaster is making a local version of US format The Dating Game with fledgling Belfast-based production firm Stellify Media.

Ireland’s TV3 has ordered the 8×60′ show, provisionally titled Blind Date, from Stellify, a joint-venture backed by Sony Pictures Television (SPT) that will produce alongside TV3’s in-house production arm 3Studios.

The show is a contemporary adaptation of SPT-owned format The Dating Game and has been slated to air later this year.

The format offers lovelorn singletons the chance to meet their soul mate through a series of probing questions and daring challenges, all while separated by a wall, eventually getting the chance to go on holiday with their chosen partner.

It marks the first major commission for Stellify, which was established earlier this year by Kieran Doherty and Matt Worthy with SPT to produce entertainment formats for UK broadcasters.

Doherty and Worthy’s previous credits include the BBC1 quiz format Secret Fortune and reality gameshow format Take the Money & Run, which aired on ABC in the US in 2011.

The Dating Game first aired in the US on ABC in 1965 and inspired numerous other series in the dating genre, including Blind Date, which originally ran on ITV in the UK between 1985 and 2003.