By Michael Maloney
If you’ve ever wanted to date a celebrity, now’s your chance to find out what that might be like.
Starting this Monday, ABC is bringing us The Celebrity Dating Game, a star-studded version of the original game/dating show The Dating Game, hosted by Jim Lange, which ran from 1965-86.
This new version, which features two celebrities per episode looking to find a date, is hosted by Grammy winner Michael Bolton (“How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”) and actress and singer-songwriter Zooey Deschanel (New Girl).
The series offers a fun look at dating in the modern world, featuring celebrity singles from the world of entertainment as they search for romance and compatibility.
This celebrity version is a bit different from the original program, as it plays on Bolton’s musical talents. He’ll sing clues as to who the celebrities are. Bolton will do this by performing some of his well-known hits, substituting key lyrics that serve as hints to the celebrity’s identity.
Bolton, who also serves as the show’s executive producer, chatted with us, offering a preview of the show.
You’ve got to have a pretty good sense of humor to parody your own songs.
Michael Bolton: My manager and I had been pitching and developing shows since the Jack Sparrow [music video] viral experience [on Saturday Night Live], which was ginormous. When this show came along, I thought, “How can I have fun with it?” The thing is, it has to be funny. If it’s not, I go back and say, “I’m not feeling this one.” The teams at ABC and Sony are great to work with. I don’t want to jinx this, but there hasn’t been one negative aspect to this show.
Can you give an example of a lyric that is adjusted for the show?
Yes. In the case of Hannah Brown [The Bachelorette, Dancing With the Stars], I used part of the song “I Found Someone,” which I had written for Cher. That was an important song in my career. It took a little while to get used to a lyric change … “I found someone … she’s from Tuscaloosa …”
What’s it like working with Zooey?
I knew her work from New Girl and was a fan. She’s so adorable and cute, and she’s also really in control of her craft and her work. In a lot of ways, she’s doing the heavy lifting on the hosting while I’m singing and chiming in during the dialogue. She’s got a lot of responsibility but she handles it all so seemingly effortlessly. She lights up the stage.
The original Dating Game had contestants who went on to become big stars including Steve Martin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Farrah Fawcett and John Ritter. Are there any familiar faces in the pool of contenders?
I don’t know about that tweak of the show. It’s kind of cool that there’s one celebrity that everyone knows and the other people [aka the contenders] are civilians. We might start getting calls from agents and managers [for future seasons] who think this show would be good for their clients.
The celebrities and contestants won’t be able to see each other during questioning — which should make the choices interesting as many tend to go for physical appearance.
Yes. This is interesting because we have some sincere people who want a great person in their life. Sometimes, a celebrity picks somebody and I’m like, “Ahhh … maybe they didn’t hear that last answer well enough?”