Television Industry First Dates Introduction

Starter: Why do audiences watch reality TV shows? Discuss and make notes on the white boards.

Key terms:

Remit (to do with channel identity): 
The task or area of activity officially assigned to an individual or organization.

Here is a link to the Channel 4 Remit  which promotes amongst other things, diversity.

First Dates (Section A: Text) can be found at (Channel 4, Reality TV on Channel 4 Catch Up.)

The episode we will cover is at the following link:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/first-dates/on-demand/61921-024

First Dates is a British reality television show that has aired on Channel 4 since 20 June 2013. The show is narrated by Brian Protheroe.

1 Format
The show is filmed at the Paternoster Chop House restaurant in Central London, showing many people on dates, all of whom have not met each other before.
At the end of the date, the couples are interviewed together and asked whether they would like to see each other again.


2 Restaurant staff
The restaurant’s maitre d' Fred Sirieix offers pieces to camera on the nature of love, romance and dating.
CiCi Coleman, Laura Tott and Sam Conrad are the waiting staff. Merlin Griffiths is the barman.

3 Narrative. 
The programme starts with the voice-over of Brian Protheroe (male, reassuring, authoritative – these are stereotypical attributes that have been attached, historically to the male ‘voice of authority’ that is a convention of the documentary form).

4. Ads
The advertising surrounding and during First Dates is primarily though not exclusively aimed at women, for example, Belvita Breakfast Biscuits, Neutrogena Face Cream, Always Ultra Sanitary Pads etc.

Women are stereotypically thought to be more interested in romance and dating than men and the audience profile statistics do confirm this.

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Task 1:
Narrative – Make detailed notes on the narrative events and the order in which they are presented. Make note of what appear to be the most dramatic or significant moments in the narrative. Also make note of how each programme begins and ends (equilibrium).

Task 2:

Narrative Characters – Make detailed notes on the main characters (who they are, what part they play in the plot etc) and notes on the function of minor characters also, in the plots.

Analyse Narrative, Genre and Representation 

This has been put together for MS1 revision but is also useful for us.