Students on the prowl for love can now find that special someone with television viewers tuned in. With the popularity of shows like Blind Date, The Dating Game, and Love Connection, it seems only appropriate that Tufts should have its very own dating game show - Jumbo Love Match, which can be seen daily on Tufts University Television (TUTV) at 9 p.m. and midnight.
Co-hosts juniors Jesse Levey and Alethea Pieters began the show, hoping that it would boost the dating scene at Tufts. "I noticed on the Tufts campus specifically there's never really any dating going on. Everyone goes to frat parties and ends up meeting people there, but then it's just random hook-ups," Pieters said. "Hopefully, [the show] will start a dating phenomenon and [students will] go back to old-fashioned dating."
In addition to helping the dating scene, Levey and Pieters also hope to entertain their fellow students in the process. "People seem to like the show, they think it's pretty funny," Pieters said, although finding contestants proves to be challenging. "It's pretty difficult to get people to do it. They get scared about it, but no one should be scared, it's all fun."
In each episode, two main contestants choose between three bachelors or three bachelorettes. Levey and Pieters then send them out on a date in Davis Square. Funding all these dates turned out to be a snap - restaurants in Davis agreed to exchange free meals for advertising on Jumbo Love Match. "We're trying to promote Davis Square, too," Pieters said.
The couples are then not allowed to speak to each other after the date, but must come on the show to spill the beans. At the show's end, the couples report whether the date was a "Jumbo love match" or a "Jumbo love scratch."
So far, Pieters and Levey have set up six couples in three shows, with the goal of sending out two new couples a week - with no love connections so far. "Unfortunately, we have not made any matches. We've made friendships, though," Pieters said hopefully.
Senior Fred Mo appeared on the show's first episode and found the experience enjoyable. "It was fun; it was different," he said.
Mo has achieved campus notoriety after the show's airing. "I know that a lot of people have been watching [the show]," he said, adding that he thought "no one watched TUTV," but the show's topic seems to attract curious viewers.
