would you let your parentS pick your SpouSe?
T HE newest twist on dating shows has singles looking for love in an old-fashioned way: by having their parents select their future spouses.
The four people who agreed to get “Married by Mom and Dad” (premiering Sunday at 9:30 p.m. on TLC) aren’t from cultures in which arranged marriages are common — they’re just burned out from the modern dating scene.
“I was done with it,” says LAbased participant Mitch Sargent, 30. “At this point, everybody has so much baggage. That’s kind of what [the point of the show] was — we’re going to commit right away; anything in the past, who cares?”
Each set of parents sorted through dozens of producerprovided candidate profiles before narrowing them down to three to interview in person.
It was a welcome change for Christina Rollyson, 33, who was cheated on in a past relationship. Her dad and stepmom focused on finding a man in Charleston, S.C., with Christian values who would be faithful to her. “Sometimes you end up dating someone you’re attracted to, and you don’t think about all the marriage aspects,” says Rollyson. “This was the reverse: Let’s make sure we’re aligned, then let the attraction happen.”
Not all parents are eager to have so much control.
Says Sargent’s father, Charlie: “I [told Mitch], ‘I’m going to do my best, but you can’t hold me responsible for how it turns out, because this is about you and her in the long run, not me.’”