Zooey Deschanel and Michael Bolton are teaming up for a new version of The Dating Game for ABC, but according to the crazy unpredictability of modern life, it will have some twists. First, it will be called The Celebrity Dating Game, which means that celebrities will be involved in dating, and Michael Bolton will also be … singing “special” parodies for some reason. This comes from Deadline, which doesn’t really explain what’s going on or why it’s happening, but a likely possibility is that ABC asked Bolton to co-host a new version of The Dating Game, and he – always the joke, given “Jack Sparrow” and his Big Sexy Sexy Valentine’s Day on Netflix – came back with the idea that you should do song parodies every episode. So, assuming he was joking or would give up and just be a normal co-host, ABC agreed. The next thing you know, ABC is doing The Celebrity Dating Game with Zooey Deschanel performing and Michael Bolton doing parodies.
Anyway, the basic structure of the The Dating Game is that a single person asks questions and presents hypothetical scenarios for an invisible panel of other single people, but it is not clear how many of the people involved in this new version will be celebrities. Is it a normal person asking a panel of unseen celebrities? A celebrity presenting hypothetical dating scenarios for normal invisible people? Celebrities talking to celebrities? That would be ridiculous, but celebrities tend to date celebrities, so it would make sense not to waste your time getting them to talk to – ugh –normal.
Deadline it doesn’t say when the eight-episode series will open, but it seems like the kind of thing that would be relatively easy to do during the COVID days.