Hearts on the line
For nearly 20 years, Blind Date ran as one of the most popular shows on British TV and now Julia Morris is the host of the latest Australian version. She tells DANIELLE McGRANE what to expect.
Julia Morris picked up something pretty important from her time in the jungle. “Thank God for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! because that taught me not to reveal anything to the contestants because they obsess over it,” she said.
It’s advice she’s taken with her to her current gig hosting the Australian version
classic British TV show Blind Date.
In the show, one person asks three potential suitors questions and chooses who to date based purely on their answers. They don’t get to see their date until they’ve already made the choice. But Morris has had to learn to bite her tongue on several occasions.
“The hardest thing for me was trying not to hint,” she said.
“There were a couple of times where I was just like, For the love of God, please pick number three!’ and I tried to use my mind-jedi to make them pick a good match, but whenever I did my mind-jedi they never picked the person I wanted them to.”
But that’s where Morris’s all important I’m A Celebrity training came in, and she reminded her self not to interrupt the process.
“I learnt to let it happen naturally but dear Lord, standing beside them when they’re picking someone I feel like they’re not going to connect with, that’s frustrating. But you’ve just got to let it play out because I think it’s good that not all of them are winners or proper connections because there’s also a lot of laughter in connections that don’t quite make it,” she said.
In every game, there are some genuinely good matches for the suitors, people who have been found to have a lot in common. It’s just up to the contestants to seek them out.
“There are people there who have an awful lot in common, so it’s not as hitand-miss as it can sometimes look. So when they didn’t pick them and didn’t get on with the person they did pick, that was pretty hardcore,” she said.
“But it didn’t happen too often and there were some amazing connections.”
The show was a stalwart of Saturday-night programming in Britain for nearly 20 years in the ’80s and ’90s. The host Cilla Black became a household name and even Morris can remember watching the original show when she lived in the UK.
“My husband is Welsh and we wouldn’t even go out on a Saturday night without watching it,” she said.
When the opportunity came along to bring the show back to the small screen, Morris jumped at the chance. Even though there are quite a few dating shows on TV, she knew there weren’t any quite like Blind Date.
“I feel like on a lot of the TV shows now everyone is so polished. Contestants on shows these days seem to know what to say and I feel like they’re quite savvy,” she said.
“But our contestants aren’t on this show looking to launch their website or new training business, I feel like they’re actually looking for love and I think that’s what made it really exciting.
“We’ve got a group of septegenarians and they’ve said, ‘I’ve had the big love of my lifetime, now I’d like to find a companion’.
“And we’re really proud of our single-sex games, boys choosing boys and girls choosing girls, it’s been a long time coming. It’s something we’re really proud of and we had genuine connections,” she said.
For the show itself, it has stuck closely to the original format, which puts Morris in the driving seat for all the fun.
“It will definitely have some great warmth and more than enough laughs,” she said.
Blind Date Tomorrow, 7.30pm on Ten