14 DAY TRIAL // Channel 4 is currently under serious fire online for its upcoming show, “Undateables.” While the name might not say much at first sight, it's a show about people with various disabilities, looking to find a date and, hopefully, their soul mate.
The idea of the show in itself might not be that offensive had it featured slightly mis-adjusted people, voices online say. The network's choice of a name also bothers.
As the Daily Mail reports, people in the Twitterverse and elsewhere online (including on YouTube, where the trailer below was also made available) are saying the network has reached a new low with “Undateables.”
The series features several people with various disabilities, from the mildest to the most severe, turning to producers for help, in the hope that they might find a partner.
Their new “adventure” is documented by the cameras.
We're to believe they've already tried everything else, and have come to the conclusion that no one wants anything to do with them.
The show is compared to a “Victorian freak show” and has sparked a very intense debate on the lengths TV producers would go to for ratings, as the Mail also points out.
Most commenters are worried that this is a new low in television: taking disabled people and exposing them to ridicule by portraying them in a negative light.
“First Playing it Straight, now The Undateables when is Channel 4 going to realise how offensive their shows are getting?” one user says on Twitter.
BBC news show Have I Got News For You agrees, saying, “Titanic director James Cameron enters the record books by reaching the lowest point on Earth, until Channel 4’s Undateables on Tuesday.”
Attacked from all sides for its new show, Channel 4 is fighting back: the show will not exploit these people, who might already be forced to battle discrimination in their daily lives.
“The title is a reflection of society’s own perceptions and intended to challenge stereotypes and encourage debate,” a spokesperson for the network says in a statement for the Mail.
“The Undateables is an uplifting and moving three-part series which is about the universal quest for love and people will judge for themselves when they see it,” adds the rep.
Those who've seen the trailers are still not convinced, but they will most likely be so once the new show premieres on April 3.
