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The Best Reality TV Dating Shows To Fill The 'Love Is Blind' Gap In Your Heart

If you’ve been feeling a little down in the dumps, bored, and starving for drama recently, you’re likely suffering from post-Love Is Blind depression. The condition is to be expected after such an enraging and enthralling sixth chapter of the brilliant Netflix creation. I’ll admit… my days and nights feel sort of empty without villains like Trevor, Jeramey, and Clay giving me intense bouts of anxiety. Sure, I keep up with the main characters on TikTok and Insta, but it just isn’t the same. I miss the scripted drama and the completely out-of-context fights of it all.

Fortunately for us, I’m solution-oriented when I want to be. I simply can’t take the symptoms of this illness any longer (having too much time with my own thoughts, watching the reunion on repeat, getting back on the dating apps, etc.), so I’m taking action. We live in a world with endless reality dating shows to binge — it’s just very hard work to make a decision and get invested in one or a few. Well, I’ve put in the blood, sweat, and tears, so here are all my Love Is Blind replacement recs.

Couple To Throuple

'Couple To Throuple' Season 1
Image Credit: Getty

Whoever came up with this masterpiece should win some kind of award. In Couple to Throuple, four couples who have no experience with polyamory venture to a tropical resort to experiment with adding a third. Then of course, the couples must made the biggest decision of their lives… will they commit to a throuple forever or go home in their same old typical relationships? There’s thrill, there’s spice, there’s modernity.

Married At First Sight

Honestly, this show has kind of the same energy as Love is Blind. Except instead of getting married after talking to each other from behind a wall a few times, you just get married right away. So-called “experts” pair people up, and they get to know each other after exchanging vows. It always goes completely perfectly as you can imagine. (Lies.) Wanna know a true story? My grandmother actually told me to go on this show. I’ve never felt so offended in my life.

Love Island

'Love Island' Cast
Image Credit: Getty

A classic! A no-brainer! A bunch of singles gather in a gorgeous villa and attempt to find love and/or fame. Although the circumstances are more normal than Love Is Blind, I’d argue that this show is even more chaotic. Plus British accents elevate everything. Love Island will keep you busy for quite a while the show first aired in 2015, and there are also American and Australian versions to enjoy. Best of luck.

FBoy Island 

As a Love is Blind fan, you’re already an expert on fuckboys, so you’re highly qualified to binge this Max high art. On FBoy Island, three women embark on a journey to identify the nice guys and the fuckboys out of a group of 24 men. Yes, I also have my suspicions about self-proclaimed nice guys, but all in all, this is undeniably a recipe for dating reality TV success.

The Ultimatum

'The Ultimatum' Cast
Image Credit: Netflix

If you enjoy the Love is Blind “social experiment” premise (lmfao it’s not an experiment anymore), then you might also wanna go through the steps of the scientific process via The Ultimatum. She’s not like the other shows because the contestants are already in relationships. In fact, they’re seriously considering marriage. On this show, they either gotta get married or split forever and move on with another cast member. (Are they gonna get arrested if they get back together after the show or something?)

Milf Manor

What can I say… it was a guilty pleasure at one point. In this glorious creation, older women find love with men in their twenties, but there’s a twist: the men are actually their sons. Soooo, sons and mothers have to watch each other date age inappropriate people. All the drama and discomfort goes down in a beautiful villa in Mexico. You got some scenery, some romance, and a lot of Sigmund Freud.

Are You The One? 

Another scientific experiment! I just love reality shows’ dedication to stem. Are You The One? involves a super mathematical matchmaking algorithm and a bunch of contestants attempting to figure out their so-called “perfect matches.” And there’s more than just love and fame at stake — there’s a $1 million cash prize. But I’m sure people only go on to make a special connection.

Ilana Frost
Ilana Frost
Ilana Frost is an entertainment writer at Betches. As a teenage girl in her twenties, she spends her time stanning Olivia Rodrigo, baking cakes for award shows, and refusing to ever leave her Reputation era.