A Date Instead of a Rose

By: Olivia Aragon

In typical Christian university fashion, George Fox University (GFU) attempted to make some couples in their annual dating game on Friday, Jan. 28.

Standard practice for “The Bachelor/Bachelorette” at GFU consists of choosing two bachelors and two bachelorettes. Each Bachelor and Bachelorette has five contestants competing for their heart. Three elimination rounds take place. In the first round, the bachelor(ette)s gather information about the contestant; this year, the contestants played get-to-know-you games such as “Never Have I Ever,” “Two Truths and a Lie,” and “Would You Rather?” After the first round, the bachelor or bachelorette chose one contestant to leave the game.

In the second round, contestants competed to quickly finish an activity; whoever finished last was eliminated. Contestants stacked cups, finished puzzles, named songs, and kept a balloon up in the air. This round eliminated another contestant. Two contestants remained.

The last round was performance-oriented, judged according to a subjective assessment by the bachelor or bachelorette. This year, the contestants were pitted against each other to find who could put together the best outfit, write the best poem, dance the best, or make the best sculpture. After the final round, the bachelor or bachelorette chose between the final two contestants to go on a date with.

Watching this Dating Game unfold was entertaining. Although the pickup lines were cheesy and one too many contestants thought they were smooth, it all accumulated into an engaging spectacle. The audience definitely experienced some second-hand embarrassment, but it was all part of the fun.

I would change one aspect of the setup. The first round was quite disorganized. Although I understand they intended for the activities in each bachelor and bachelorette competition to be different, as an audience member I felt the first round should have stayed in question-and-answer format. The variety was confusing from both an audience and a contestant perspective.

The contestants had just as much fun as the audience. Freshman Nursing major Stefani Peden won a date with the first bachelor on the dating show. Peden rated her experience on the show an eight out of ten. The only reason it was not a ten out of ten, she said, was because of how nervous she was.

Ironically, her decision to go on the show was determined by losing a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with one of her friends. Peden ended up winning the bachelor’s hand even though she believed she wouldn’t make it past the first or second round.

To those possibly considering joining in on the fun for next year’s dating show, Peden said, “Just do it because it’s not as bad as it seems. And just have fun with it.”