Ready For a First Date?

First dates are a romantic aspect of courtship. Sitting at a fancy restaurant, you’re eager to impress your date, talk about yourself and attempt to eat something while your tummy is about to burst at the seams from nervousness.

Britain’s Channel 4 capitalised on this adorable/horrible experience by creating ‘First Dates’, which has been airing since 2013. The venue was always Paternoster Chop House Restaurant in London where couples were filmed (with over 42 cameras and over 70 crew members) for hours in a day. There have been 12 seasons of the show so far, and now there’s a South African version!

With the help of BBC Lifestyle, ‘First Dates South Africa’ came to life and features maître d’ Batsile Ramasodi, Travis Kuhn, (who is South Africa’s Bartending Accolades and Recognition Awards bartender of the year) and the waiting trio Ash Daniel, Joey Mathe and Tamara Lesabe.

Set in the city of gold, Johannesburg, the team is responsible for catching all the reactions you can think of on camera as a diverse set of couples have their first dates.

The setting is simple and sweet while the food is simply mouth-watering, but will the couples leave the restaurant with a warm feeling or completely shut down any hopes for a second date? It’s a romantic comedy, in reality. Yes, you’ll cringe and most probably root for certain pairs, but as you know, love is one of the most unpredictable things in the world and you can’t always get what you want. And that’s what makes this show interesting: ‘First Dates’ is African, hilarious and everything you need when you’ve got a day off and you need reassurance that love is not hopeless.

But here’s some behind the scenes info: Rapid Blue, the company which produced the show, said it took about 20 people to create the set and about four weeks to “design, build and make-over the ‘First Dates SA’ restaurant” in Greenside.

About 30 cameras are placed discreetly in the restaurant and episodes are strenuously edited (which takes about 140 hours for one episode seeing as the producers have to sift through so much content to create the show). Also, about 70 people were “needed on set every day to film the series”.

Entries opened in April and allowed South Africans over 18 to experience love on a different platform. The show premiered on Wednesday, 16 October, and is set to represent the “diversity, passions and interests” of the modern audience in southern Africa.

Catch ‘First Dates South Africa’ on DStv’s BBC Lifestyle (channel 174) on Fridays at 21h00, with repeats on Saturdays and Sundays.

– @MickeyNekomba on social media