Would you agree to marry a total stranger based only on their personality? Do you believe that you can fall in love with someone without actually seeing them in the flesh? If it’s a yes – and you’re actively dating – you may want to consider becoming a member of the Pod Squad and applying for Netflix series Love Is Blind: UK. Hosted by real-life married couple Emma and Matt Willis, the reality dating show aims to prove the old adage “love is blind.” Before you hit “Apply,” here’s what you need to know.
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Love Is Blind: UK is a dating show based on the original US series Love Is Blind. On the show, 30 heterosexual singletons, typically between ages 20 and 40, speed date in private pods, where they can speak to but not see each other. Those who make a connection they want to pursue to the point of proposal get to meet their future spouse in person. The aim of the show is for the couples to find true love in the form of a strong emotional connection, even though they can’t see or touch each other. Liberated from the pods, they meet face to face for the first time, where the show follows them as they navigate real-life romances with varying results.
The show’s pods are actually in Stockholm, Sweden. “The pods are designed so that all you’re focusing on are your emotions and your connections, and you’re not really even thinking about the fact that you’re in Atlanta, or Chicago, or LA, or wherever you are,” show creator Chris Coelen told Netflix’s Tudum blog. “It doesn’t matter if I put the pods in Timbuktu; they’re the same pods.”
One Season 1 contestant, Sabrina, told The Irish Sun you have no connection with the outside world and called the experience “intense.” Also, the weddings the shows culminate in are legally binding, so it’s important all prospective applicants take the process seriously.
The first step is to complete the application form and attach the requested photos and social media links. Applicants must be British citizens 18 years or older. Previous contestants have ranged from 26 to 37 years old, and included a hot funeral director, a Royal Marine, and a “human design coach” who let his spleen make decisions for him.
If you’re successful after the application stage, the team will contact you directly. The producers want to truly match people in the pods, so if you don’t get through, it may just be that they don’t feel your perfect partner is in their current prospective cohort.
Casting executive Cat Spooner, who has previously worked on Married at First Sight, runs the show’s 11-person casting team. “The most important thing is: Do they genuinely want to get married?” Spooner told Metro. A Love Is Blind contestant must be really ready to make that big commitment to marriage and be serious enough to want to walk down the aisle.”
She added that the team looks for authenticity. “We want people to take [people] that are authentically themselves and are coming to the show for genuine reasons,” she says. Another important quality is “being emotionally available,” Spooner adds. “The process encourages you to really dig deep, open up, and be vulnerable. When people can talk about their feelings and reflect on why they’re single and what they are looking for, it can really help them build connections in the pods – and connect with the audience too.” The casting team also “leaned into the regionality and humour of the British people.”
If all that sounds like you, why not give it a go? Check out our guides to help with application forms and casting: