With the news that ‘middle aged’ Love Island is on the way and already has a name –The Romance Retreat, FYI – fans are getting curious about what the new format will actually entail. Single parents have been ‘nominated by their grown-up children’, with ITV specifying that the child must be 18 years or over when applications close at the end of March. Which leads us to think that young influencer types will be just as big a part of the new show as the original Love Island.
One format we hope it ISN’T taking inspiration from is TLC’s MILF Manor, which is being described as the ‘most disgusting dating show’ ever. If you need a reminder, MILF stands for mother I’d like to f**k, and the show follows a cast of glamorous women in their 40s and 50s on the hunt for love, accompanied by their, presumably mortified, sons.
Why would anyone sign up to this show?
In one horrifying scene the mums, blindfolded, are tasked with literally feeling up the lineup of young dudes and correctly identifying their own son.
One person wrote on Twitter, ‘MILF Manor being the single most demented sick and twisted television show put in television in the past 20 years… omg I will be SEATED for every episode.’
‘Everyone involved with MILF Manor is going straight to hell,’ said another, with a third tweeting, ‘MILF Manor is on another level – it’s teetering on the edge of what’s acceptable and it makes me feel sick…but if you catch me watching it every week, no you didn’t.’
Another fumed: 'TLC's new show MILF Manor is as disgusting a show as I have ever seen.'
The ‘shock twist’ of the series comes when it’s revealed the hot moms are actually dating… each other’s sons.
It’s true that controversy is a sure way to attract viewers but, and call us old fashioned, there’s nothing sexy about giving parenting and dating the same airtime, is there? Fashioning older women as ‘forbidden fruit’ for their slimy teenaged sons isn’t exactly the stuff great telly is made of.