13 Best Reality Dating Shows

When "The Bachelor" premiered on ABC in March 2002, it was a pioneering show. There were other dating shows from decades past that explored romance between real-life contestants, like "The Dating Game" and "Love Connection," but nothing that put those contestants in a long-form, modern reality TV format. "The Dating Game" was a game show as much as a dating show, while "The Bachelor" was more like turning "The Real World" into a show that focused exclusively on romance.

Since "The Bachelor" premiered, the show has spawned many offshoots within its own franchise, but it has also inspired alternatives from other networks and especially streamers like Netflix and Max. Nowadays, reality dating shows are everywhere. Audiences crave the opportunity to see real romantic connections play out between two people on screen and to find new heroes and villains to root for and against.

Unfortunately, most dating show couples have a low rate of success post-show, and it's well-established that many contestants participate in these shows for the wrong reasons. However, that doesn't stop the viewers from tuning in. In fact, guessing who is there for the right reasons has become part of the appeal. But what are the best reality dating shows on air right now? Read on to find out.

The producers behind "The Bachelor" franchise have long been maligned for their apparent unwillingness to cast participants older than 30. Rather than age up the contestants on their flagship shows ("The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette"), the franchise decided to pursue a new concept. Producers scoured the country for singles aged 60 and up and debuted "The Golden Bachelor" in 2023 with lead Gerry Turner. Turner approached his contestants with more respect and care than any regular bachelor in the past and audiences loved the positive, hopeful tilt of the show. It's a dating show, but it's also a show about people in their golden years trying to adjust to a new phase of life, one that has potential to be rewarding and blissful with the right encouragement and attitude. There has been one season each for "The Golden Bachelor" and "The Golden Bachelorette," and it will be exciting to see how both franchise installments continue to evolve.

Where to watch: Airs live on ABC, available to stream on Hulu

"Love Is Blind" was a near-instant hit for Netflix when it premiered in 2020. It's popularity was probably boosted by the fact that it arrived at the height of United States' quarantine procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the premise itself was always going to intrigue reality dating fans. Each season of "Love Is Blind" is set in a different city where fifteen single men and fifteen single women are chosen to participate. The contestants go through blind speed dating rounds where they can hear and talk to their potential matches but are not allowed to see them. Participants eventually narrow down their choices and one person per couple must propose marriage and be accepted in order to move onto the next phase, wherein the couples finally meet and have the chance to be physically intimate. After a few more official steps (meeting family, living together, planning a wedding etc.), contestants reach their wedding day and must decide whether or not to say "I do" at the altar. 

Where to watch: Netflix

"Love Island" began as a dating show in the United Kingdom, and thanks to increased availability of international entertainment, it became a bit of a phenomenon in the United States as well (here's how to watch "Love Island UK" in the United States). It became such a hit that CBS picked up a U.S. version for broadcast in 2019. The show wasn't particularly popular on CBS, but since moving to Peacock for Season 4 and beyond, it has become nearly as much a part of the Love Island conversation as the original version. In fact, the most recent season (Season 6) was considered a veritable sensation. Both shows follow roughly the same format. 4-6 men and 4-6 women (all of whom must be conventionally attractive by Greek god standards) arrive at a tropically-located villa and "couple up" with each other based on initial attraction. Those people continue to evolve and explore their relationships as more contestants — aka "Love Island" bombshells — arrive to create drama and tension.

Where to watch: "Love Island U.S." airs live and is available to stream on Peacock

"Single's Inferno" is actually as intense as it sounds. The show, produced and filmed in South Korea with South Korean contestants, follows a group of singles on an island called Inferno as they compete in challenges to win rewards and get to know each other better. On Inferno, the contestants are required to utilize survival tactics in order to stay fed and sheltered, similar to "Survivor." Unlike "Survivor," the participants have a chance to leave Inferno and spend the night in Paradise by coupling up. Contestants write the name of the person with whom they want to enjoy Paradise on a card, and if two singles write each other's names, they are allowed to enjoy a luxury hotel for the night. Obviously this makes for plenty of drama — what if a contestant writes someone's name down and that person picks someone else? As Korean reality TV has become more popular in the states, so has "Single's Inferno," and this could well be your next dating show addiction.

Where to watch: Netflix

"The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" always felt like a bit of a waste of attractive singles, given that only one person could end up with the lead and only one person could be chosen to be the lead of the next installment. It felt tidy, then, when ABC premiered "Bachelor in Paradise," a new spinoff in the franchise that brought many of those leftover singles to a romantic beach in Mexico. The premise of the show is pretty simple: a group of singles from the franchise's history arrive at a villa and explore connections with each other. As they go on dates and build relationships, more "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" alums arrive at the villa and stir things up. The show has seen its fair share of controversies over the years, as well as notable fluctuations in popularity, but it has still yielded some of the most fun reality TV content of the past decade and several genuine couples.

Where to watch: Airs live on ABC, available to stream on Hulu

"90 Day Fiancé" is not like the other shows on this list, which mainly feature a bunch of hot people crying and making out. This is more like doing some serious people-watching at a courthouse. The premise of the TLC series is pretty simple: it follows various international couples as the foreigner receives a K-1 visa as the fiancé of the other, a U.S. citizen. The visa allows the holder a period of 90 days before they are required to complete their nuptials and apply for a green card, and the show follows them for that 90-day period. Many "90 Day Fiancé" fans claim they have learned important lessons from the show, but most of the appeal comes from watching two people who have almost nothing in common decide to fight past many obstacles (things like culture shock, family disapproval, and financial realities) in order to make a life together. Unlike most other reality dating shows, "90 Day Fiancé" focuses on the harsh realities of long-term partnership and the many unglamorous issues that often come with it.

Where to watch: Airs live on TLC, available to stream on Hulu and Max

"The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On" is another Netflix series that seeks to combine reality TV dating with social experimentation. Hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey (who also host "Love Is Blind"), "The Ultimatum" takes couples who have been together for a long time and gives them eight weeks to decide whether they're going to get married or break up for good. Couples then separate and go through a three-week marriage simulation with someone they met through the show, and after that they return to their original partner for three weeks to see if they want to get married. Basically, "The Ultimatum" finds a couple that's on the rocks or in a rut and puts them through temptations and scenarios that they wouldn't be able to explore in real life. It's interesting to watch a dating show about couples who have already been together for a long time, as a big part of what feels unrealistic about reality TV dating shows is the short amount of time in which people are expected to make a deep connection.

Where to watch: Netflix

There is no other dating show quite like "Love on the Spectrum." The show, which is actually based on an Australian dating show with the same name, focuses on various single people who are on the Autism spectrum and their attempts to find love. "Love on the Spectrum" is more of a documentary-style dating show, where the story follows each participant throughout a portion of their regular lives and active attempts to find a long-term romantic partner. Both seasons of the show that have aired have received positive reviews, with Time magazine writing, "'Love on the Spectrum' has the potential to open minds, foster genuine empathy for its stars and maybe even spark interest in more autistic stories." In a world where onscreen representation remains largely insufficient, "Love on the Spectrum" manages to center underrepresented people in happy, uplifting stories.

Where to watch: Netflix

"Too Hot to Handle" is a United Kingdom-produced show, but its premise allows for a potentially global collection of contestants. All of the participants are conventionally attractive adults who, before their time on the show, focused primarily on physical intimate relationships and flings. The contestants are all brought to a house on a tropical beach where they are competing for the chance to win $100,000. The show is set up to facilitate connections between participants, but any time a couple engages physically (through kissing or sexual contact) or a participant pursues self-gratification, money is removed from the prize fund. The contestants are meant to tempt and be tempted, as that's where the entertainment value comes from, but the point of the show is to help people find emotionally healthy and long-lasting connections, something that will then help them to function better in the real world. There is no formal elimination process, but contestants are often kicked out or choose to leave throughout filming.

Where to watch: Netflix

There's only been one season of "The Boyfriend" so far, but as Japan's first-ever same-sex dating show, it's already made history. The show follows a group of nine gay men from Japan and East Asia. Together they live in a house called The Green Room, and every day one of them is chosen to work a coffee truck. That person is allowed to choose another participant to work with them so that they can enjoy quality time away from the others. The show also sends couples on real dates, but in order for a couple to receive that privilege, both members of the couple need to choose each other during a house vote. The show also offers some commentary from a panel of Japanese personalities like model, actress, and singer Megumi Yamano. Because the show's participants are living and working together for a summer, "The Boyfriend" leaves room for viewers to witness and enjoy friendships as well as romances. 

Where to watch: Netflix

"Married at First Sight" is about as high stakes as a dating show can get, largely because it's not really a dating show so much as it's a marriage show. A panel of experts (the panel has changed throughout the show's tenure, but is essentially made up of folks with expertise in psychology, sexology, and relationships) assembles 3-5 pairs whom they believe will be successful romantic partners. The couples agree to marry each other upon first meeting, enjoy a honeymoon together, and come back to live out the rest of the show's prescribed eight weeks as a married couple until the day they decide to either stay married or get a divorce. It's a pretty wild leap to ask of people and frankly not one that bears much fruit; statistics show that "Married at First Sight" has an overall success rating of about 16%. Perhaps the experts aren't as knowledgeable as they think they are? Despite this, it's still worth watching, if only for anthropological purposes.

Where to watch: Airs live on Lifetime, available to stream on Amazon Prime Video

Over the past ten years, Netflix has developed a healthy ecosystem of reality TV shows, especially those that focus on dating and love (many of which are included on this list). It makes sense that they would produce their own version of "Love Island: All Stars" or "Bachelor in Paradise," and it makes sense that it's more structured and competition-centered than either of those shows. "Perfect Match" takes participants from other Netflix reality television shows and houses them in a tropical villa (the go-to setting for dating shows nowadays), where they are meant to develop a romantic connection. The contestants operate as couples and participate in challenges that test their compatibility. The couples that win are granted a private date and the ability to choose new singles that will enter the villa. They are also allowed to decide whether those new singles will get a date with them or with another contestant. The contestants recouple every episode and those who are not chosen are eliminated. At the end of the show, one couple is chosen as the titular perfect match and are given an all-expenses paid vacation as a reward.

Where to watch: Netflix

The show that laid the foundation for modern reality dating shows back in the early 2000s is still airing today. At the time of this writing in 2025, ABC's "The Bachelor" is in its 29th season, and we've had 21 seasons of the spin-off "The Bachelorette," with Season 22 on the horizon (though there's nothing official on when the latter will return to air). That means as many as 50 men and women have gone through the process of being the titular bachelor or bachelorette in an attempt to find their one true love.

The formula is pretty simple: The producers of the show choose a lead — who is almost always plucked from the pool of rejects leftover from the previous season — then cast contestants from around the country to date said lead and pursue a romantic connection. The lead then slowly eliminates contestants until they get down to just four people, and then they visit their hometowns. Most of the time the show ends in an engagement between the lead and their chosen finalist, but that's become less and less strict as the show has evolved.

New life has been breathed into "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" following the departure of executive producer Mike Fleiss, who "left his mega-franchise after an investigation into allegations of racial discrimination was conducted by Warner Bros. TV," Variety reported. The popularity of recent leads like Charity Lawson, who became only the fourth woman of color to front "The Bachelorette" in Season 20, has changed the game and brought the franchise into a new era.

Where to watch: Airs live on ABC, available to stream on Hulu