We here at Se Fija! don’t generally cover reality shows, even the good ones–and even the ones that, now and then, have Latinos involved. But Ready For Love, premiering tonight on NBC, deserves at least a little attention, for two reasons:
1) Eva Longoria is one of its creators and producers
2) Two of the “bachelors” at the center of the matchmaking competition are Latino
The concept is certainly reaching for the higher end of the market. It has ‘top’ matchmakers, a lovely, famous real-life married couple as hosts, and Ms. Longoria prominent in the promotions and present as one of the executive producers.
The two heart-throbs are simply too good to be true: Tim Lopez, 31, a member of the Grammy-nominated band The Plain White T’s, and Ernest Arguello, a millionaire housing magnate and the son of Cuban and Nicaraguan refugees. These are not just awesomely good-looking guys, but admirable people as well–exactly the kind of role models that young Latinos deserve, even in this context. We can only hope that the women competing for their attention (a group that includes at least a few Latinas, like Alba Reyes, Kristina Zapata, Alexis Rodriguez, and Lynsee Gonzales) will be a little more stable and a little less desperate than the women of the other predatory matchmaking shows.
Longoria insists they will be. “It’s so hard to meet anybody these days,” she’s said in a number of interviews. “It’s fun and it’s the way people are dating today.” She found herself involved as executive producer in a relationship show that’s “turned it on its head. It will really provide an entertaining way to tell a true love story using professional matchmakers,” and she promises to make it “entertaining, real, and raw.” Her hope, she says, is to have people “take away inspiration, motivation to find their match,” to appeal to “the hopeless romantic in themselves to find their compatible one.”
From a Latino perspective, Ready for Love could be a godsend or a train wreck. If it does, indeed, manage to become the classy and sensitive version of all those crass and strangely pathetic dating shows–The Voice instead of The Sing-Off—then everybody wins. If it descends into the usual uncomfortable craziness of Burning Love played straight, then everybody gets hurt. It seems unlikely, given Longoria’s savvy and track record, but one never knows. This is, after all, ‘reality.’
Ready for Love premieres Tuesday night in the best spot that NBC has to offer these days: 9P, right after The Voice.
