Singles make waves
New reality series The Real Love Boat sends some of Australia’s most eligible singles on the romantic voyage of a lifetime. Host Darren McMullen tells Siobhan Duck why it isn’t all smooth sailing
DIWAS JUST REALLY GOING AFTER THE CONTESTANTS, MAKING SURE THEY WERE ALL HERE FOR THE RIGHT REASONS
ARREN McMullen has never been afraid to rock the boat.
Which is why, as host of Channel 10’s latest dating series The Real Love Boat, McMullen had no interest in going into his high seas TV adventure as Osher Günsberg 2.0.
Unlike Günsberg – who only suavely oversees rose ceremonies on The Bachelor and its various spin-offs without getting bogged down in any of the romantic drama – McMullen threw himself wholeheartedly into the whole messy business of looking for love on TV.
“I think it’s what makes the show very different,” he says of this tumultuous new dating show which sees 12 singles wooing each other whilst cruising the Mediterranean.
“I mean, you’ll never see
Osher going nuts at one of the Bachelors. It’s real and I think people respond to authenticity nowadays more than ever, and
I think the great thing about the show is we did make something really different where it wasn’t just glitzy and glamorous or a safe description of what a relationship is like. It’s warts and all and I like that.”
From The Bachelor franchise to Love Island, Married at First
Sight, Farmer Wants a Wife and
Beauty and the Geek, there’s no shortage of dating shows on the box. As a result, some viewers have understandably become more cynical about the motivations of the contestants. Are they really there to find the one? Or are they simply there to get their 15 minutes of fame and a swag of Instagram followers in the process?
Sensing that viewers might be suffering from dating show fatigue, McMullen wanted The Real Love Boat to feel less glossy and manufactured than the rest and so, in addition to showing raw emotion, he also pushed for the bloopers to be left into the final cut.
“We wanted to break that fourth wall and let the audience in on the mistakes, which is why you’ll see a cat walking across [the set during a key moment],” he says.
“We had to push for a lot of that stuff to stay in at first, but I think everyone’s on the same page now.”
The result is a show which feels like it doesn’t take itself as seriously as some of its competitors. But make no bones about it, that doesn’t mean that the quest for love isn’t the real deal. In fact, The Real Love Boat has already created genuine matches at sea that have continued once the contestants returned to Australian shores.
McMullen can take some credit for that. Over the course of the show, his role expanded from host to impromptu dating coach and counsellor when he found himself overseeing a dinner for the 12 contestants.
Once he’d taken his place at the table, McMullen found himself interrogating the lovelorn passengers about their motivations.
“I had come straight off Celebrity Apprentice and so I was used to getting berated by Lord Sugar every day,” he says with a wry laugh.
“I think I brought some of that Apprentice energy with me. I was just really going after the contestants, making sure they were all here for the right reasons. Letting them know that I wasn’t going to take any s---. I wasn’t going to hear any lies.
“I told them that the second I thought they were selling me a red herring.
I would sniff it out. And I would know they’re lying. And if they were going to do that, they might as well pack their bags and leave the ship.
“I think the producers rather enjoyed that chat. So, from then on, I did the rest of the Captain’s Table [dinners].”
McMullen says the contestants were initially shocked by his toughlove approach to hosting, but believes it eventually forced them to become far more genuine and candid about the process.
“I think a lot of them had just been on autopilot with their answers, saying stuff like: ‘I really like this girl, we are meant to be together,’” he says.
“And I would just say: ‘I don’t even think you believe your own bulls---. You are talking s---!’Talk to me like a real person.
“Why do you deserve to go on this destination date over another this couple? And I don’t want to hear your stock-standard answer.’ So, it kind of threw them off and they then very open and honest answers. I think it just kind of laid down the gauntlet.”
McMullen, of course, practiced what he preached on the show. In telling the contestants he expected honesty, he also opened up to them about his own tumultuous romantic history.
“I was vulnerable, and I was open and honest with everybody on there,” he says.
“I think they saw me laying myself bare and being really upfront about my past relationships and the situations I’ve been in, and it gave them permission to do the same.”
He suspects now though, that some of the contestants – who are largely in their mid-20s – weren’t really mature enough to share the kind of intimacy needed to find their forever person.
It’s a situation that McMullen understands all too well, acknowledging that when he was younger, he also made some bad choices that resulted in the breakdown of his relationships.
“But, you know, I try not to be too hard on myself,” he says.
“You have to realise you are human and that you have a lot of growth to do and hopefully not make the same mistakes again in the future.
“I think I’m in a place in my life where I can wear my heart on my sleeve and say I’ve messed a lot of relationships up. Although some of them weren’t necessarily a good fit, some of them probably were and, through my own immaturity and my own f---ups essentially, I’ve kind of killed what could have been a phenomenal relationship.
“I wear that, and I own that and all I can do is learn from those mistakes and be a better person than before.”
The Real Love Boat, starts Wednesday, October 5, 7.30pm, 10 and streaming, 10 Play