A Pride and Prejudice-Inspired Reality Dating Show Is Currently Casting Contestants
If your main takeaway from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is that modern dating should have more chaperoned strolls and stolen glances from across the ballroom, have we got the reality TV show for you.
As Variety reports, NBC’s Peacock is developing a dating show inspired by the Regency period of Austen’s classic novels. Pride and Prejudice: An Experiment in Romance will follow a group of dashing bachelors as they vie for the hand of one lovely lady posted up in a bucolic castle. “From carriage rides and boat rides on the lake to archery and handwritten letters to communicate, they will be immersed in a time-traveling quest for love,” the description reads.
It also mentions that the suitors “will have to win the heart of the heroine and her court,” which implies that there might at least be some ladies-in-waiting involved, too. Maybe they’ll even get to fill their own dancing cards with the names of eligible admirers. The show will be produced by Endemol Shine North America, the company behind Big Brother, MasterChef, and a number of other popular reality series.
The search is currently underway to cast the perfect participants. Any single person who’s at least 21 years old is invited to apply, though there are a number of other requirements; for example, you have to provide links to your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok accounts. You also have to answer quite a few personal questions (“Describe your dating history. What is the longest relationship you have been in? The shortest? Explain.”) and submit a 20-second video explaining “why you are ready to find love in an unprecedented way.”
Filming is “tentatively scheduled” for August 23 through October 8. If you’re a hopeless romantic who’s available during that time and eager to prove that chivalry isn’t dead, you can fill out the application here.
[h/t Variety]