Blind Date (American game show)

Did You Know?

• In the radio version, two men each had about two minutes to explain their best points to one woman by telephone.
• Media critic Jack Gould wrote in The New York Times that Blind Date did not seem very real, citing a forced and contrived nature.
• The radio show was originally designed to entertain servicemen at the Army Radio Technical Training School in Sioux Falls.

Television version

Six men, typically servicemen or college students and called the Hunters, competed for dates with three unseen women known as the Hunted. The men and women conversed by telephone, and the women selected a date based on voice and prepared questions. The audience determined the winning couple by applause, and that couple received an expense-paid night on the town, which on the premiere episode included an invitation to the Stork Club, five dollars in pocket money, and a chaperoned ride home. Losers received a kiss from Francis, fifteen dollars in cash, and tickets to a popular local theater production. Each woman was paid fifty dollars for appearing. In 1953 the format changed: viewers wrote to the show requesting a date with a type of person or for a special event.

Broadcast history

Blind Date began as a radio show called G.I. Blind Date, created by Joe Floyd, Cliff Gill, and Vera Thomson as between-movie entertainment at the Hollywood Theatre in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The first broadcast was on KELO radio in January 1943. Floyd sold the idea to NBC radio, where it first aired July 8, 1943, hosted by Arlene Francis. The television version originally aired on ABC from May 5, 1949, to September 20, 1951, then moved to NBC from June 7 to July 15, 1952, and finally ran on DuMont (as Your Big Moment) from May 19 to September 15, 1953. Francis hosted the ABC and NBC versions; Melvyn Douglas hosted the DuMont version but was replaced after the third show by Jan Murray.