The 15 Weirdest Reality Dating Shows Ever Made, Ranked

Think The Bachelor but with cows, manure, and an actual test of whether love can bloom in the countryside. Various versions exist worldwide, but they all follow the same premise: Women compete for a farmer’s heart and prove they can handle farm life. It’s The Simple Life meets reality dating—go stream it immediately. Pro tip: The Dutch version, Boer Zoekt Een Vrouw, is the one to watch.

Before the neon-lit pods of Love Is Blind, there was Dating in the Dark. Contestants went on dates in total darkness, getting to know each other without seeing their partner. They say that your other senses are heightened in the dark, like smell or touch, and maybe this includes your pheromones. When the lights finally turned on, they decided if they still wanted to date. Somehow, it felt even more brutal than Love Is Blind.

We all know love can be a trap, but this show took it literally—eliminated contestants weren’t just rejected; they were dropped through a trapdoor. It was The Bachelor meets Wile E. Coyote. The plot twist: Half the women weren’t even single, and the bachelor had to figure out who was genuinely looking for love. Add a British manor, the countryside, and plenty of drama, and you got pure chaotic gold. David went full Knives Out when trying to find out who was there for the cash prize instead of his heart, and the women created a toxic environment as they tried to suss it out amongst themselves.

In Joe Millionaire, a selection of women dated a man they thought was a millionaire and hoped to be chosen. However, he was actually broke…yikes. Wait, there was another twist. If they fell in love anyway, they got a cash prize.

To find contestants who were unaware of the first show for Season 2, the producers went to Europe and cast 14 English-speaking European women from the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden. They were told it was a show about European women interacting with American men on an island somewhere.

A 2022 revival featured two bachelors, one a working-class man and the other a secret millionaire, and women did not know which was which. So, is it about love or just playing the game? Jury’s still out.

Now this show was similar to Joe Millionaire in some respects, as it was a beauty pageant-style show where women competed to marry a mystery millionaire. It was supposed to be a Cinderella story—but turned into a scandal.

Both the feminist National Organization for Women (NOW) and the conservative Media Research Center (MRC) condemned the program. This would’ve been enough controversy for any show, but things took a turn for the worst. The supposed millionaire, Rick Rockwell, had exaggerated his wealth and had a restraining order from an ex. Fox brushed it off, but the winner, Darva Conger, regretted the whole thing and annulled the marriage.

Meeting the parents is a big step in any relationship, but Date My Mom flipped the traditional timeline. Contestants dated a mom first, then picked a suitor based on their impression of her and how she portrayed her child. Awkward? Absolutely. The dates ranged from lunch to cheerleading lessons, car washes, and even tattoos. Not only did the suitor need to impress mom, but you had to hope the suitor wasn’t scared off by your mom! This show had too many what ifs. What if they ended up liking mom better? Or your mom painted an inaccurate picture of you? Oof.

Before Tinder, people judged potential dates by swiping. Here? They judged them by their bedrooms. Contestants judged potential dates based only on their bedrooms—rummaging through their stuff before even meeting them. All photographs were removed or covered. Literally, this might be our worst nightmare, as they could open your nightstand drawer—yeah, you know the one. But Room Raiders must’ve been decent because Zac Efron appeared on it when he was 17 (pre-High School Musical). He waved around a condom and some handcuffs he found in one contestant’s bedroom. Now that’s a man we’d invite to explore our bedroom.

We’re big fans of The Ultimatum here at Swooon, as there’s just a ridiculous amount of drama when couples with a loaded history are involved, but we can never quite wrap our heads around how they date other people to decide if they should be together. Well, they may have gotten the idea from Singletown, which used that aspect without the whole ultimatum purpose of it all.

In Singletown, couples temporarily broke up to date other people while their exes watched it all happen. Absolute emotional carnage. Five pairs took a “single summer” to party, flirt, and inevitably get jealous. Singletown was a wild mix of emotional chaos and reality TV gold. The show was also hosted by Emily Atack — Rivals fans, take note! Oh, and it was on HBO!

Netflix didn’t quite land with this blind love experiment, where contestants wore extensive animal prosthetics to appear like monsters and date each other. The show was meant to focus on personality, but it’s hard to flirt when your date looks like a demonic rabbit. They could be the funniest person in the world, but horns are a definite ick. We’ll stick to Love Is Blind, thanks. It’s worth noting that Kariselle Snow on this show went on to star in Perfect Match Season 1 and got engaged to Joey Sasso. The pair called it off, and she is now rumored to be dating Love Is Blind’s Damian Powers, so she found her way to LIB in the end!

Have you noticed that most of the shows on this list only feature one season? It’s almost like they were too weird to get renewed…interesting. Many couples struggle when they move in together, as that forced proximity seems better suited to our favourite romance novels. Others even face such hurdles on their first trip together. That’s why Chains of Love was such an audacious concept, as one person was physically chained to four potential dates for four days, eliminating them one by one. No escape, no privacy—just awkward bathroom situations.

Forget Love Is Blind—this show makes sure attraction is very visible. A daunting moment of any burgeoning relationship is when you first get naked together. On Naked Attraction, that moment happens immediately, as contestants choose a date based on their naked body, which is revealed bit by bit, starting from the feet up. The final twist? The chooser also strips down. Contestants know exactly what they’re signing up for—props to them for their courage!

There have been many complaints about the full frontal nudity of the show, but the British broadcasting watchdog Ofcom said nothing breached their rules: The show was purely a dating show and did not contain any sexual activity. When it premiered in the U.S. on Max in 2023, the show received another wave of backlash. Currently, fans are waiting to see if the show will be renewed.

Back in 2014, Prince Harry had yet to meet the love of his life, Meghan Markle, and become the subject of a myriad of Netflix documentaries and various podcast deals. So 12 American women signed up to compete for the love of Prince Harry. Surprised that a member of the British royal family would agree to do such a show? Well, that’s because he didn’t. The women were unknowingly dating Matthew Hicks, a Prince Harry lookalike, and thought he was the real deal.

Due to the controversy surrounding the deception, only four episodes were aired, although the other four were available online. The women have since spoken out about how they thought they had signed up for Dream Date and were constantly being gaslit into believing that Matthew was Harry. Unsurprisingly, no fairytale romance emerged—but hey, we now know Harry does have a thing for American women.

The women like their men young, and the men are on the hunt for a cougar. The twist? They’re dating each other’s moms and sons, which they quickly realize. Does this stop them? Nope! They even go for some hardcore PDA in front of each other. Not only are we confronted by big age-gap relationships, but we get to see some toxic boy mom energy. One particularly shocking moment in the TLC series included a mom revealing she had sex with her son’s best friend, which he didn’t take well. Then they decided to shift the premise slightly for Season 2, where single women were pursued by younger men and their fathers.

We still can’t believe this show was ever greenlit. This was the original plot twist to inspire all future plot twists. A bunch of men competed for a beautiful model’s heart until there was only one winner. Then there was a big reveal: Miriam was a transgender woman. Keep in mind that this was 2003, when people were far less open-minded than nowadays—even though we still have a long way to go. The show was widely criticized for its exploitative “twist.” Miriam was eventually celebrated as the first openly transgender reality television star and went on to partake in Big Brother Australia in 2004. She was a real trailblazer, but this show would never be made today—and rightly so!

This felt like the weirdest dating show because there was a 50% chance she would leave without a date at all. A sexy single woman had to work out which of the male contestants were straight and which were gay so she could find the love of her life. If she picked a straight guy, they both won money. If she picked a gay guy, he’d take all the money. At one point, contestants even tried to out each other.

Playing It Straight was part of Fox’s attempt to capitalize on a rising interest in LGBTQ-themed reality television shows—because why bother with an actual queer dating show? We’re guessing the 2012 revamp didn’t quite work out since it only lasted for another season, but hey—at least they got Jameela Jamil and Alan Carr to host.