The 15 Most Ridiculous Dating Shows

Let's face it, dating shows can be entertaining. Sure, dating in real life is hard, and we can all share that sentiment, but, as with all reality shows, there's simply something undeniably enjoyable about watching people make complete fools of themselves on television. And when it comes to matters of the heart, you can be sure that people will always be at their craziest.

In the race to be the most unique or different dating series though, some of these shows go above and beyond in their craziness, whether it's through the concept itself or in the people the producers have chosen to be apart of the cast.

In honor of the premiere of the new CBS dating competition 3, in which three women simultaneously date the same eligible bachelors to see who they've got the most chemistry with, we've compiled a list of The 15 Most Ridiculous Dating Shows. Trust us, there was no shortage of material from which to choose.

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Written by Tanya Ghahremani (@tanyaghahremani)

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Ryan Seacrest can seldom do wrong when it comes to reality television; his gigantic bank account can attest to that fact. But even the great ones sometimes have shitty, shitty ideas. In Seacrest's case, look no further than Momma’s Boys.

The show only aired on NBC for one season in 2008, and it was fashioned much like the network's other big reality dating show, The Bachelor, except in this one, there were three successful guys and a whopping 32 single women vying for their affections. Oh, and also, the boys’ mothers all lived in the same house as the women, and consistently worked to spy on the contestants and influence their son’s decisions. "Overbearing" doesn’t even begin to cover it.

This concept didn’t turn out terribly well, especially considering the fact that one of the mothers was both completely racist and anti-semitic, to the point where she told the producers, on camera, “I cannot have a black one; I can’t have an Asian one; I can’t have a fat-butt girl. No! No Jewish girl! No way, no way! I cannot stand them! I’m sorry, but I can’t handle them. It has to be a white girl.”

Not exactly the stuff romantic dreams are made of.

If you’re not an avid viewer of the Game Show Network, the Jerry Springer-hosted Baggage may not have even crossed your radar until just this past year when it was mentioned in an episode of Girls.

In the scene, Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) summarizes the show quite accurately to Hannah (Lena Dunham): “OK, so, there are three contestants, today they’re girls, and this guy Danny is looking for love, and they each have three suitcases, a little one, a medium one, and a big one, and then they have like, their secret baggage, and they reveal it, and if it’s super freaky, he eliminates them.”

Yes, basically, that is the show, and while it makes for rather entertaining television, it’s not exactly the best concept for a series about dating when you think about long-term commitment. What’s left for these people to find out about each other once they’re actually dating? Musical interests, film preferences, and eating habits? Yawn.

Another self-explanatory title: Basically, contestants on this show were newlyweds, each episode had four couples competing against once another. Each contestant was asked questions about their spouse with their spouse sitting right next to them, and each correctly answered question earned the respective participant points. In the end, whichever couple with the most points won some prize that was sufficient for the '60s, like home appliances or furniture.

More often than not, though, The Newlywed Game just provided an insight into how little recently married folks really knew about their spouses, which was visible to both the audience and the newlyweds themselves. As if the divorce rate wasn't high enough already.

Date My Mom was exactly what it sounded like: Contestants went out on dates not with the person that they’re competing to be with, but instead, with that person’s mom. They were then asked to make a decision on if they wanted to date that person based only on that date, though not once did they see the possible object of their affections.

The principles brought forth by will.i.am’s “I Got It From My Mama” have never applied more to life situations. But seriously, does this even count as a dating show? Overbearing mothers like the ones in Momma’s Boys are one thing, but this seems a little too dysfunctional even for our strange tastes.

In this miniatured riff on The Bachelor, the male suitor in question only stood about 4’5” because, as Fox put it in their promotional materials, “Good things come in small packages.” Amongst the contestants vying for his affections were women of shorter stature themselves, as well as ladies of “average” height.

And that was the whole point of the show: “Can a little guy find love?” It’s no surprise that The Littlest Bachelor was pulled after only two episodes, mostly due to low ratings and public outcry about its, you know, stupidity.

They say love is blind, but Dating in the Dark took that sentiment a bit too literally. Based on a Dutch show of the same name, the moronic ABC program featured six men and six women placed into separate wings of a single house who were each only allowed to interact with a member of the opposite sex inside a pitch-black room.

Dating in the Dark was sort of like weird variation of "Seven Minutes in Heaven," only with cameras and a production crew nearby. After the contestants got to sufficiently know one another, they were each revealed to their potential suitor, forcing a decision as to whether they still wanted to pursue a relationship after seeing how the other person looks. Which wasn't superficial at all, of course.

Similar to The Dating Show, but much more complicated, episodes of Studs featured two men who went out on a date with three women, then afterwards posed questions to them about their night out. Each correct answer would earn them a giant heart, and then in the end, each lady would choose one of the fellas – labeling him their “stud” to go out with again.

And then the men would be asked to correctly guess which woman chose them, and if they answered correctly, their prize would be an all-expenses date. If both “studs” chose correctly, then the one with the most giant hearts would win the date. Got all that?

Yeah, dating is hard enough without the Studs rulebook.

A spinoff of The Bachelor, The Bachelor Pad took rejected contestants from both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, put them all in a house, and dangled a cash prize of $250,000 over their heads.

There isn’t really much to say about this one except the following: Any reality show that promotes contestants hurling paint-filled eggs at those they find unattractive isn’t exactly one we feel that any sustainable relationships are going to be coming out of any time soon. Stay classy, guys.

Temptation Island just might be the most pointless concept for a reality dating show ever. In it, a bunch of couples are placed on an island with some hot singles, and they are then prompted with the challenge to stay faithful to their significant other or have a steamy island affair with one of the singles. By choosing the latter option, they'd undoubtedly earn more screen-time.

The phrase “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” comes to mind, but it's only more like, “If you’re still a couple, don’t go on a dating show where temptation will be placed right under your nose for the sole purpose of giving people like us things to watch on a boring weekday night.” True love is dead.

Now, see, if it was more like MILF Island (from 30 Rock), that’d be a different story.

Change of Heart is yet another dating show that has no use at all when it comes to helping people find long-lasting relationships. Yet, on second thought, couldn't that be said about any reality dating show?

On the popular syndicated series, both members of a couple are paired up with different singles and sent out on dates; afterwards, they had to make a decision of whether or not to stay with their significant other or confess to, you guessed it, a “change of heart.”

Though it was often times hilarious to see a couple who each had different answers (like the unfortunate one above, starring rapper Game, pre-fame), we can’t imagine that a couple who has to put their relationship to a test like this has any business being together in the first place.

This show can be pinpointed as the first reality dating show, and for that reason alone, it earns a spot here. It's because of The Dating Game that every single other show on this list exists; hell, it’s because of this series that this list itself exists. So, yes, we blame everything that’s ever gone wrong in our lives on this show.

The concept was pretty simple: Contestants would question three potential suitors sight unseen, and, in the end, choose one based off of the answers. They would then be allowed to see who they chose as well as the two they turned down, a.k.a., that which could have been.

The only redeeming quality about The Dating Game, perhaps, was the fact that often times you could almost see the disappointment percolating on the face of the contestant when they saw how much hotter the other suitors were than the one they picked. What a way to start a relationship!

Maintaining a friendship with an ex after a break-up is tough enough, but allowing your former lover to have even a smidgen of influence over your next relationship? That's what we call a bad situation.

Somehow, someone out there working for Fox Reality thought that it’d be a great concept for a reality show, and so it happened. EX-treme Dating featured two people sent out on a blind date, with one of the contestants wearing an earpiece that connected them to their date’s ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, who was elsewhere watching a live feed of the date. Which really just takes the whole concept of third wheel to a whole new level.

Next used a varied form of speed-dating to help its contestants find love—"varied" in the sense that it was probably the dumbest thing on television in a long time. In the show, one person would be presented with the opportunity to go on five blind dates, but they could only meet the next person by permanently eliminating each contestant they were presented with on the spot.

If they did in fact meet someone they hit it off with, the date would begin, and it would be timed for as long as it takes for the person to decide whether or not they want to go out with their date again. They would then be presented with the proposition of either going on a second date or taking a cash prize in the amount of the time they'd already spent together.

Sure, Next posed an age-old question of "love or money," but when it comes to a show that's produced for, and airs on, MTV, a channel whose target audience is comprised of teenagers in their early twenties, the answer is always going to be obvious: money. And the 15 seconds of fame they received was just the cherry on top.

While Parental Control was undoubtedly scripted as hell (behold, non-believers), it's purely the concept that earns the MTV time-killer a spot on this list.

Next featured parents who disapproved of either their son’s or daughter’s choice in significant other, to the point where they felt it necessary to appear on reality television to choose a new person for their kid to date. The parents interviewed a group of potential suitors and each chose one; then, their kid was to go out on a date with each of the picks while the parents stayed back with the aforementioned significant other to watch the progress unfold on camera.

In the end, the son or daughter is presented with a choice: Pick one of the parents’ approved dates, or stay with their significant other. Usually, the eliminated parties had some terribly cheesy and bitter parting comment once they were rejected. While this made for fairly amusing television, the likelihood that it made for any fairly long-lasting relationships strikes us as ranging from slim to none.

The concept of Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? was innocent enough—think The Bachelor, only the eligible dude is a multi-millionaire. This, and the fact that you could practically see the dollar signs popping up behind the eyes of the women competing for his affections, was basically the only difference.

No, what made Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionare so awful was its aftermath. As it turned out, the man, Rick Rockwell, wasn't even a multi-millionaire; in reality, he was only worth about $2 million, and his last name wasn’t even Rockwell. Additionally, he had failed to inform producers that his ex-girlfriend filed a restraining order against him due to allegations domestic violence.

A background check certainly wouldn’t have hurt.