The Love Experiment is a brand-new dating show based on a social experiment designed by Psychologist Dr. Arthur Aron back in the 1990s.
The experiment is built around 36 questions that are designed to lead to love. The idea is that a particular set of questions, each one promoting intimacy and testing compatibility, can create the right conditions for two people to fall head over heels.
The swoon-worthy experiment takes place in The Love lab – no frills, no distractions, just two people and 36 questions. As if that wasn't enough, the questions are then followed by a four-minute stare. Intense.
There are a total of eight couples in this new series, but will any of them go the distance?
Ahead of tonight's episode, we caught up with contributor Jason Garvey, a data center engineer and father of two from Clondalkin, to find out about his time on the show.
When we speak, Jason is in Tokyo, continuing a work trip that has already had him in Hong Kong and South Korea. These days, the 33-year-old says that his kids are his life and that he has come a long way since his time filming the show.
When he first applied, he explains, he was processing a bad breakup and was looking for a distraction as well as an opportunity to promote his podcast, The Did Ya Hear Show.
"I used to host a podcast and we did a Tinder episode on the podcast where we were swiping live on the show, and it turned out to be a very successful episode," he laughs. "It was crazy, some of the stuff we were saying, I'm laughing looking back at it now. We did that and then one of the lads from the podcast saw the call out [for The Love Experiment] and sent it to me."
"I said 'no, not a chance' but the ad came up again on social media so the lads sent it again and said, 'what's the worst that can happen? It's good exposure for the show and you might genuinely find someone'. So I said, f**k it, I was single three years and I hadn't been with anyone since her, not even a text message, so I decided it was time to move on. I decided to give it a bash."
At the time, Jason hadn't had so much as a coffee date since his break-up and decided going on the show could be a bit of a laugh as well as a step forward.
"I had been with my ex-partner for 15 years so my head was in a bad place at the time. I wasn't ready to move on so I didn't think it was fair to date somebody if I wasn't ready to move on," he explained.
"I knew nothing going into the show. I was told I would be handed cards that I would have to read and even at that, I was a bit skeptical because I'm not great at reading," he laughs.
On the show, Jason is paired up with Shannel Lynch, a 30-year-old mother of two from Dublin. Although she grew up fostered by a family member, she had a strong bond with her own mother, who had an untimely death when Shannel was in her 20s.
Within a very short amount of time, Jason says that he and Shannel were in the kind of conversations you might never have with people you've known for a lifetime.
"I found out so much about this girl in so little time," he agrees. "I didn't expect the questions that I got either. It got very deep, very quick. I was a bit caught off guard, but I'm an open book and I like being put on the spot and challenged."
"I'm kind of raging because at the start they asked me about my past and I got upset, and I thought. 'Jesus Christ, this is going to be like one of those X-Factor sob stories', do you know what I mean? I'd never been asked a question like that before so it caught me off guard. I was in a very vulnerable position at the time."
We can't give away too much about the show, and whether Jason and Shannel fell madly in love during those 36 questions, but we can reveal that Jason gives the process his seal of approval: "I definitely think the questions were good, you skip the bulls**t."
Tune into The Love Experiment on Thursday, 10th November at 9.35pm on RTÉ 2. Follow up on the rest of the series on RTÉ Player.
