'Blind Date' New Series Switches Gears, 'Aiming Itself Towards Older Viewers'

‘Blind Date’ bosses have reportedly made a change in their approach to the upcoming reboot, and will now be aiming the show towards “older viewers”.

While Channel 5 has already confirmed that the new series will go into production this week, The Sun has claimed bosses are already tweaking their initial ideas for the show.

The newspaper has reported that in a bid to appeal to their new target audience, they’ve ditched plans to air the show on Friday nights, and instead air it on Sunday evenings. 

An insider told The Sun: “The show has changed direction from its original plans.

“It was first aimed at a young audience for a Friday night slot, but after signing Paul [O’Grady] it switched to Sunday nights and is now being aimed at an older audience.”

The newspaper also claimed that Vicky Pattison had been dropped from the show as part of their new plans, though HuffPost UK has learned that her involvement was only ever speculation.

The new reports come after Melanie Sykes was confirmed to serving as the show’s voiceover, taking over from Graham ‘Our Graham’ Skidmore, who appeared on the original series for more than a decade.

Melanie will be helping the new batch of contestants make their final decisions, by giving the all-important recap at the end of each round, as well as introducing Paul at the beginning of each show.

‘Blind Date’ will begin production this week, according to Channel 5, with the new series thought to be staying true to the original, while also throwing in some modern touches, including the involvement of LGBT+ contestants for the first time.

The late Cilla Black’s eldest son, Robert, recently gave the show his blessing, adding he felt his mum’s best friend Paul O’Grady was definitely the right man for the gig.