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This is why Take Me Out felt so familiar

If you were feeling a sense of deja vu while watching Channel Seven’s newest reality TV dating offering last night, you are not alone.

While Take Me Out host Joel Creasey opened the show by touting it as “a dating show like no other”, many viewers were quick to point out it’s almost identical to another popular series, If You Are The One.

In fact, everything from the show’s concept, to its set, and even the opening credits, was similar to Chinese dating show If You Are The One, which airs in Australia on SBS, and at its peak was being watched by 50 million people every week in China.

But what many people may not have realised, is that If You Are The One isn’t actually the original version of this TV dating format, which sees 30 women standing behind buzzers, as single man after single man is paraded in front of them in an attempt to woo them into a date.

As it turns out, the concept actually started in Australia. Take Me Out is a recycled version of a dating show that bombed on Channel 10 a decade ago, News.com.au reports.

Back then it was called Taken Out, and it first aired in 2008 starring James Kerley as the host. Check it out in the video above.

<i>Taken Out </i>and first aired in 2008 <span>starring James Kerley as the host. </span>Photo: Taken out/Channel 10
Taken Out and first aired in 2008 starring James Kerley as the host. Photo: Taken out/Channel 10
Taken Out flunked after a few weeks on air. Photo: Taken out/Channel 10
Taken Out flunked after a few weeks on air. Photo: Taken out/Channel 10

It flunked in Australia after just a few weeks, but when the format was sold overseas by production company Fremantle Media, it took off in other countries like the Britain and China.

International versions of the show now exist in Ireland, Philippines, America, Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, Spain, Finland, Thailand, Germany, Italy, France, Malaysia, Taiwan, Canada (Quebec) and Lebanon.

Take me out aired on Channel 7 this week. Photo: Take me out/7Plus
Take me out aired on Channel 7 this week. Photo: Take me out/7Plus

Given its success overseas, we can see why the show has been revived in Australia again after all this time. And to add to its potential, the Aussie appetite for reality dating shows is the biggest it’s ever been.

To name a few current offerings: The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, Married at First Sight, Love Island, Seven Year Switch, Back with the Ex, Single Wives, all enjoy cult followings.

It seems we can’t get enough of watching ‘love’ blossom on TV.

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