0/5

Taken Out

There’s such a thing as a blind date, and such a thing as speed-dating. If Perfect Match was the television former, Taken Out is the latter.

In this thirty minute game show, thirty single women, mostly in their 20s, put themselves in contention for a chance to date a single guy.

As the host, James Kerley, tells us this is the first time anywhere in the world this show has been attempted (it’s apparently an overseas format tried first by TEN).

The premise is alarmingly simple. One guy tells us a bit about himself, all the girls get to decide if they want to keep competing for him or not. If not they press their buzzer and they are out. A la 1 v 100, their light goes out and we can see how many girls want to keep hearing more. There are a couple of filmed grabs that shed a little more info on our single, for better or for worse.

The game continues until there are two girls standing, until the guy chooses over them.

So like an impromptu exchange in a pub, the more you talk the more you increase or decrease in the love stakes.

Kerley chats to a few of the girls about why they decided to opt in or out of each round. As expected, some didn’t like his eyes / attitude / attire. The first single guy, Alex, admits he prefers to let his first date pay their own way, and he’s experienced in sex from the car to the dancefloor.

Given that the show is something of a first date, nobody is polite in this show, which presumably will be part of its charm. Most of the girls are surprisingly blase in dismissing Alex and his ‘man rig.’ Several are entirely charmless. “Shutup and take your top off, Alex,”  says one. Somehow I can’t see the 30 men (who will come later) getting away with commenting on a single woman’s bust-size in this timeslot.

Alex is equally complacent about his chances in romance, and in understanding the game format and eliminations. “What happens, do I go home by myself?” he asks. I had trouble understanding the point too.

Kerley is confident as host, sounding as punchy as an Austereo DJ. He’s very ‘matesy’ in delivery, not that there’s anything wrong with that. The whole first episode feels very laconically Australian with a lucky couple who aren’t really that fussed about winning. Maybe they didn’t feel like they had won?

By episode’s end when Alex wanders up the staircase with his lucky girl, she is replaced with a new girl off the bench, along with a new single male.

It appears we will also be witness later to a post-date analysis, one of the best elements of the long-running Perfect Match.

Taken Out has guitar music to fill the “think time” in between rounds. It’s the same riff over and over. Elsewhere, Rogue Traders is used as the show’s theme.

One of the shortcomings in the format is there isn’t enough at stake. If the girls buzz out it seems they just stick around for the next unsuspecting male. A game show needs good jeopardy, and preferably a last-minute twist. I suspect there is more drama happening at a Desperate & Dateless Ball than there is here.

TEN’s best chance at this working will be in the youthful audience seeing themselves, identifying with the opening lines and rejection we’ve all experienced at the local pub. Of course they could also just get off the couch and go and experience it for themselves instead.
Taken Out airs weeknights on TEN at 7pm.

28 Responses

  1. Very Disappointed they moved this to 6pm.

    Having Said That.What chance would TO have had If Nine had brought back Temptation at the start of the year.Most Likely NONE.

  2. Hi,
    I am really really annoyed that this dodgy makeshift show has replaced friends! Friends was the longest standing American sitcom, not to mention the best and bringing it back to TV was a great idea. The fact that friends gets replaced by rubbish like this, is just dispicable. Bring back friends please, and put “Taken Out” over Neighbours for christs sake.

  3. Also a suggestion if Ten gets desperate to keep interest in the show in a few weeks time – have a gay/lesbian week.

    Tacky I know, but will get viewers in for sure, as well as its fair share of media coverage.

  4. One change i’d suggest is they need to stop slotting in the dates at randon parts of the show, often not even on the same night.

    If you missed an ep or two, when they show the date from a previous night, you don’t have the same connection as if you had see how the progressed to that date – ie: was that guy such a loser/tosser that she was only one of a couple left after his package was shown, or was it much more competitve?

  5. the concept of the show is watchable, although they need to change the format and make it less predictable……ratings havef allen to the 600K not much longer left…………..

  6. All the people whinging here are just upset because they themselves, are frustrated middle aged people. Their dating days are long over, and girls don’t look at them anymore, so they take a defensive stance by calling show “tacky” and “immature”.

    Cheers up guys, like it or not – everything is based on first impressions, and there’s no way in hell any of you will ever change that. And at least the ladies are honest, instead of spouting some (untrue) garbage like “hmmm (even though you’re ugly) you probably have a great personality”.

  7. Now that I have watched three episodes, I think it is an alright show. Definitely better viewing than Friends, 2.5 Men and H&A. James Kerney is a pretty good host, probably because he can better relate to the contestants than some other hosts. For all those people who want it axed, I reckon Ten will give it at least two weeks, to see how well the one woman, thirty guys parts do. When I first saw the show, I was disappointed how it was abit slower than I thought. To jazz it up abit, they could play some audio to the 30 people of the 1 person about their name, age and profession. The 30 vote as per usual, some say no but then the person walks out and some feel sorry for themselves by turning their light off. I could go on but I won’t for now.

  8. Worst show ever. Please finish off Friends, Channel Ten. Alike to Yasmin’s Getting Married, please axe within the first week 🙂

    Yours sincerely,

    A disgruntled Channel Ten viewer

  9. I cannot believe this show has not been axed already after the first episode. It seems the channel 10 execs have now put horny, pimply faced teenagers on work experience in charge of their programming. This is the pinnicle of cheap, crude, tacky and immature garbage not even worthy of my compost heap.

  10. Please, let this show be axed by the end of the week. It’s impossible to believe that someone at TEN thought this was a good idea! Even my teenaged niece thinks it’s crap!

  11. LoL, absolute trash. cheap, nasty aussie trash for bogans and westies. The “girls” are all shallow and pathetic moles and the guys are real losers. 2 minutes of this show was enough for me before i wanted to commit ritual suicide. yasmins getting married all ova again for channel ten. these people will be single for life. it’s back to 2 and a half men from 2 and a half minutes of total channel 10 crap.

  12. This show was absolutely awful in every way. The set, the music, the girls and the low budget production made it unbearable to watch. It had no clear beginning, middle and end and the only way they could keep an audience watching was by plonking ad breaks in the middle of a sequence. The values it is promoting make me sick and I don’t see why the girls on the show are in the position to judge the guys in such a superficial and cruel way when if it was the other way around there would be outrage. I hope people from other countries don’t see this as a reflection on Australian culture and people, because that would be incredibly embarrasing.

  13. Well, having seen two episodes of this one, my thoughts:

    1. It’s pretty bad, but it’s not Channel Nine bad. Can you imagine what a train wreck this would be in the hands of Nine? Actually, it’d probably be “Celebrity Taken Out” in that case.

    2. Despite its badness, it’s no worse for today’s audiences than Perfect match was way back then. I am still waiting for a contestant to say they’re into “watersports and raging”, as was the custom back in the day. Of course, these days the new version of “raging” is “I’m a bit of a party girl”. As for watersports? Err, never mind 🙂

    3. If the vacuous, shallow, selfish attitudes of the women they’ve gotten on this show so far is any indicator of the “dating scene” these days, I shudder to think of what the future holds for the human race 🙂

    4. It didn’t have Fatty Vautin in a silver spandex jumpsuit. Nine could learn from this.

  14. Pleasantly suprised that the show is viewable. I wasn’t going to view it but stumbled upon it this evening. It’s unfortunate to see nice girls being rejected over the girls with mediocre personalities. Hope they don’t take it personally. The only flaw I find in the show is that it is mostly based on first impressions of the contestants. The show is somewhat light-hearted, fun and in my opinion is better than Big Brother. It’s good to see something like this on TV even though it’s a bit of a rehashing of Perfect Match.

  15. We had a few laughs watching last night’s first show. I too thought the host did a great job. he looked a bit uncomfortable craning his neck around to the front to see the girl’s names before he asked them a question. I think he would be better standing at the front with the guy.

    Another thing they will have to be a little careful of is the degree of sexual innuendo etc in the 7pm timeslot. Then again it has to go there to attract the demographic they are after.

    At least it’s not a repeat and at least it is Australian – so we will watch it for a while until the format gets boring. This could be reasonably soon.

    Will they follow up on the couples?

  16. Wow! I never expected to like this show but I was pleasantly surprised. James Kerley is a brilliant host and he was what made the show great for me. I’d seen a bit of his work on Foxtel but he is perfectly suited to this show. He interacted really well with everyone and thought of some cracking funnies right on the spot.

    There were a couple of cringeworthy moments like when the girls came out and high-fived each other or winked at the camera but luckily that didn’t last long. The first bloke was a bit of a tool when he bragged about having sex in the nightclub, on the dancefloor and in the toilets but he got punished for that by having more girls reject him. Apart from those moments, I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit, so I enjoyed it.

    I think this could work and it’s good to see something original.

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