TAMPA — Are the Chads and Brads of Ybor City and SoHo not cutting it anymore in the romance department? Are you one more dating app fish picture away from flinging your phone into the Hillsborough River? Are you ready to find the love of your life (or at least enough Instagram followers to launch a respectable influencer career)?
If you answered yes to any of the questions, it’s time to get in the pods.
After three exponentially messy seasons of “Love is Blind,” Netflix is trudging forward with its “social experiment” of a dating show in Tampa, a notably great place to find love.
A quick “Love is Blind” primer, for those who have not yet melted their brain with hours of reality TV:
If cast, participants will date in soundproof “pods” for a week, talking to potential love connections through a wall without ever seeing them. Couples must get engaged to advance in the process and actually see their new boo in person. There is a 15-minute reveal, then the couples are whisked off for a weeklong trip in a stunning, tropical location. Surprise! All of the other pod people they dated will be there, too. Then, after a few weeks of living together “in the real life” with their betrothed, couples must walk down the aisle in front of their friends and family for an actual, legal wedding. Sound fun?
A casting director recently posted a link to apply in Charlotte, North Carolina; Washington, D.C. and Tampa via social media. The 76 questions range from typical dating app fodder (Do you have any hobbies? Deal-breakers? Children from a previous marriage?) to things your nosy aunt will ask at Thanksgiving dinner next week (Why do you think you are single?)
There is room to leave a 15-second video explaining why you’re prepared to find love through a wall. And even though the show never fails to remind us that this is a test to see if people can discover love sight unseen, producers still want to know if you’re hot enough for Netflix. Be prepared to submit a full body shot and a face photo that follows standard Tinder etiquette — no sunglasses or hats, please!
To shoot your shot, visit loveisblind.castingcrane.com. Applicants, beware: There’s no guarantees the woman on the other side of the pod won’t be the same one who ghosted you at Armature Works. But hey, anything to get off the apps, right?