Scripted series and talk shows are old hat for major Latino players like Eva Longoria and George Lopez; now we’re seeing both of them getting into reality programming and game shows–and for them both, it’s all about love.
NBC has just announced Ready for Love, a dating/relationship series that follows three men personally selected by Longoria, each given the opportunity to “find love, reality style.” Interestingly, two of the three men in question are Latino–Tim Lopez and Ernesto Arguello. You can see profiles of them both right here.
Longoria is the exec producer here, and looks to be the host and guiding personality. Much of the preliminary publicity is being driven by Facebook accounts, like NBCReadyForLove. Expect to see it sometime during the 2012-13 season, though probably not in the Fall premier line-up.
Meanwhile over on Fox, George Lopez will be hosting his own dating show, Take Me Out. This is more of a mass-market approach: “30 single women searching for a match and several bachelors who must make the ultimate first impression.” Wow, like we’ve never seen that before. Just how much of a Latino ‘spin’ this one will have is unclear, but the show itself is the Americanization of an internationally successful format, so this may be a little more open to color and multiculturalism than some of the other networks’ shows. (Have you ever notices that The Bachelor, in all its years on ABC, has never had a bachelor of color? Any color?) We’ll be able to judge for ourselves much sooner on this one: it’s set to premiere Thursday, July 7 at 8P on Fox.
Good thing or bad thing, crass or cool, at least Latinos are finally a part of this insanely lucrative branch of the biz.
