“Farmer is looking for a wife” & Co.
These dating shows are cult
“Bauer sucht Frau” is a successful show today, just like “Herzblatt” was for 18 years.
© TVNOW / Guido Engels / imago stock&people
From October 10th, farmers will once again be looking for love in “Bauer sucht Frau”. These dating formats have also been around for a long time.
Farmers have been looking for a woman for 17 years on “Bauer sucht Frau” (also on RTL+) the great love. Inka Bause (53) has moderated the format since season one. Now the 18th season starts on October 10th. In 17 years of “Bauer sucht Frau” some cult moments emerged and some farmers are still with their loved ones today.
“Farmer is looking for a wife”
The cult couple who searched and found each other will probably remain Narumol (57) and Josef (61) from season five. In 2010, the two married and, in addition to Narumol’s little daughter from a previous marriage, she also gave birth to their daughter Jorafina. The couple is still happy today and takes part in various TV formats.
The format is so successful that since 2019 farmers who do not live in Germany have also had the chance to find love. The fifth season of “Bauer sucht Frau International” has now been announced. In three years of the dating show, the potential ladies and gentlemen traveled to countries such as Australia, Canada, Namibia and New Zealand.
“The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”
One of the best-known dating formats on German television is probably “The Bachelor” and its female counterpart “The Bachelorette”. Since 2003, viewers have been watching a bachelor as he finally finds the supposedly right one from a group of women over several episodes. In the very first season, Marcel Maderitsch tried his luck. In the final he chose the then 22-year-old Juliane Ziegler. However, he later began a relationship with the runner-up.
The broadcast of a second season lasted nine years, but was a complete success with Bachelor Paul Janke (41). Since then, the show has run for ten more seasons. The bachelors were: Jan Kralitschka, Christian Tews, Oliver Sanne, Leonard Freier, Sebastian Pannek, Daniel Völz, Andrej Mangold, Sebastian Preuss, Niko Griesert and Dominik Stuckmann.
“The Bachelorette” has also been a successful dating format since 2004. In the first season, model Monica Ivancan (45) was looking for the right one. As with the male counterpart, it also took nine years to broadcast a second season, at that time Anna Hofbauer (34) was looking for her dream man. She found him in Marvin Albrecht. The relationship lasted three years. These women were also looking for their great love in other seasons: Alisa Persch, Jessica Paszka, Nadine Klein, Gerda Lewis, Melissa Damilia, Maxime Herbord and Sharon Battiste.
Some of them may no longer be with their chosen ones, but have found happiness within the “Bachelor”/”Bachelorette” cosmos. Sebastian Pannek (36) is married to Angelina Pannek (30), with whom he has two children. She was a participant in the season with Christian Tews (42) and even finished second. And “Bachelorette” Jessica Paszka (32) also found happiness in a former “Bachelorette” candidate: Johannes Haller (34), the runner-up in her season. Today the couple is married and has a daughter together.
“Love Island” and “Prince Charming”
In the “Love Island” format, the participants move into a villa for almost three weeks and, at best, form couples. If you stay alone, you have to go. The winning couple will receive 50,000 euros. In Germany, RTLzwei shows the dome show, which received two seasons for the first time in 2021 and originally comes from Great Britain. The eighth season has already been announced for 2023.
For singles who are looking for love in the same sex, there has been a separate format with “Prince Charming” since 2019. The concept is similar to “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”. In season one, Nicolas Puschmann (31) chose Lars Tönsfeuerborn (32), in the second season Alex Schäfer distributed the ties and looked for Mr. Right. Season three was contested by Kim Tränka and in the current fourth season Fabian Fuchs is looking for happiness in love. “Princess Charming” has been the female counterpart to the show since 2021.
The pioneers of dating shows: “Herzblatt” and “Only love counts”
Although no longer on television today, it is probably one of the longest-running dating shows in Germany: with one interruption, the show “Herzblatt” ran for 17 years from 1987 to 2005 and had a total of seven presenters.
The concept was simple: one man and one woman were allowed to choose their sweetheart from three candidates per show. A survey with answers that are as interesting as possible should make the decision easier. The catch: the questioners and the interviewees were separated by a wall. If the heart leaf was selected, the newly formed couple saw each other for the first time. The prize at the end: a helicopter flight and a journey together.
In 18 years of broadcast, 926 “heart leaf” couples were found. Two of them even got married. Rudi Carrell (1934-2006) led through the first show, followed in 1993 by Rainhard Fendrich (67). After that, Hera Lind (64), Christian Clerici (56), Pierre Geisensetter (50) and Jörg Pilawa (57) also moderated the show. Alexander Mazza (49) moderated the last episodes from June 5, 2005 to October 23, 2005.
From 1993 to 2011, Kai Pflaume (55) was the armor on German television on “Only Love Counts”. Strictly speaking, the format may not be a dating show, but it still caused heartbreak moments and brought people together.
Kai Pflaume had his candidates’ love stories told to him in the studio. Among other things, it happened that someone was looking for their holiday flirt from a few years ago and was surprised by it on “Only Love Counts”. But there were also people who wanted to thank their partners or who were looking for missing family members. In 2011, after 18 years, the end of the format was sealed due to low viewership.