Longtime friends Jared Eddy and Knox Brashier aren’t old enough to remember the original run of “The Dating Game,” but the 20-somethings have the decades-old show in mind for their upcoming dating challenge for Chattanooga-area singles.
Eddy, 25, and Brashier, 20, are producers and hosts of Offline Encounters, meant to bring singles off dating apps for a Q&A-style blind date in front of a live audience. They’ve scheduled the first encounter for Feb. 12 at the Ringgold Depot.
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Eddy says the show is part singles matchup, part improv comedy. The format is similar to the television series, which ran on ABC for eight seasons from 1965 to 1973 and as recently as 2021 in syndication and revivals.
“There’ll be one person asking questions and three to five contestants on the other side of the curtain answering,” says Eddy of the local experience. “It’s like one person blind-dating five people. They don’t know who’s behind the curtain. They don’t know their name or their occupation. They base it on whose answer they like best.”
IF YOU GO
— What: Offline Encounters: The Dating Show
— When: 7:30-9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12
— Where: Ringgold Depot, 155 Depot St., Ringgold, Ga.
— Tickets: $5 audience; casting is still open
— Purchase: At the door or sites.google.com/view/offlineencounters/home
A casting application will serve as each contestant’s dating profile to help Eddy and Brashier put contestants with seeming compatibility together onstage. The main player will ask a series of questions of the potential matches to see how their answers measure up.
When the rounds of questioning end, the bachelor or bachelorette will choose a match from the would-be suitors with the goal of following up with a one-on-one date. Contestants who aren’t picked would be able to try again at a later encounter. In a twist, there’s also a chance that a passed-over contestant could be picked up by an interested audience member.
Eddy says he’ll help the questioner move through the rounds while Brashier, on the other side of the curtain, interacts with the potential matches.
They’ve already assembled a list of questions aimed at provoking entertaining responses. They expect to do two iterations in their first encounter: one with a man choosing among female contestants and another with a woman choosing among male contestants.
“Our biggest hurdle (for the first show) is getting people to sign up,” Eddy says. “We need people with a little bravery to do it. It’s a live comedy-show setting, and it’s something that hasn’t been done here before.”
Similar stage shows combining matchmaking and comedy, such as Love Is Live and UpDating, are common in larger cities, and UpDating is touring nationally to sellout crowds.
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Eddy says the first show will target the 20-to-29 crowd “because it’s people we know.”
That demographic is also among the age groups experiencing the most fatigue with dating apps, according to a Forbes Health survey released in September. Of those polled, 80% of millennials (roughly ages 29 to 44) and 79% of Gen Z (the older range of ages 13 to 28) say they’re feeling burned out by dating apps and are looking for ways to meet people in real life.
Eventually, Eddy says, they’d like to expand Offline Encounters’ age groups, such as a “golden edition for ages 50 and up” as well as to nonheterosexual matches.
(READ MORE: These ‘golden’ daters in Chattanooga show that it’s never too late to find love)
“We’d love to open it up more after this first one,” he says.
Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.