16 Addictive Reality Dating TV Shows To Dive Into After The Kids Go To Bed

There’s no shortage of binge-worthy dating shows on Netflix these days — Love is Blind is now going on its sixth season, which features the show’s first single mom. Eligible singles enter “the pods,” booths in which you can hear one another but not see each other. When two contestants get engaged (yep, they really propose to one another), they meet face-to-face for the first time. All the couples go on a big honeymoon together where they get to know each other (and all the other people they dated) before heading home to plan their weddings, meet families, have massive fights, et cetera.

You can stream Love is Blind on Netflix.

Like children, it’s impossible to pick a favorite reality dating show, but for most avid watchers of the genre, Love Island reigns supreme. A group of young, single, violently hot people move into a multimillion dollar tropical villa intending to have an amazing summer and maybe fall in love.

Of course, there are surprise twists: games designed to expose the contestants’ darkest secrets and reddest flags, and new singles entering the villa. Near the end of the show, they split up all the happy couples and send them to Casa Amor, a new house full of somehow even hotter people, to test the players’ loyalty to their new loves.

You can stream past seasons of Love Island U.S. on Netflix and Peacock. Love Island U.K.’s previous nine seasons are available on Hulu.

The classic. The OG. The one about which entire books (yep, plural) have been written. One eligible man dates 30 eligible women, and through weeks of romantic (and sometimes purposefully weird) dates and international travel, he’s meant to find his new fiancé. There are so many seasons of The Bachelor available to stream — 28 to be exact — with a plethora of meme-able moments from each one.

Each installment promises to be “the most dramatic season yet,” and they’re usually not exaggerating. But perhaps the most fun in watching this franchise is considering just how heavy-handed the producers must be to get some of these reactions from normally stable human beings.

You can watch The Bachelor on ABC or stream it on Hulu.

What started as a spin-off of The Bachelor has taken on a life of its own. The newest season of The Bachelorette premiered in June 2023 on ABC. In it, Bachelorette Charity dates a pool of 30 men from around the U.S. to find her other half, who will hopefully propose at the finale. As always, it’ll be a bumpy ride. You can read the cast bios to predict who will win her heart, and even start a bracket with your friends.

You can watch The Bachelorette on ABC or stream it on Hulu.

If you’re looking for shows like Love Island, you need to try Bachelor in Paradise. Single men and women descend a staircase onto a beach in Mexico, where they’ll spend all day, every day for three weeks trying to find love. There’s always at least one love triangle. And, this spin-off gets bonus points for being a little self-aware and leaning hard into being cheesy.

You’ll enjoy it most if you watch both Bachelor and Bachelorette, because all of the cast members are contestants from past seasons, but you can still get into the drama on the sand without 100% of the backstory. The most recent season of the show aired in the fall of 2023, bringing the series up to nine seasons.

You can watch Bachelor In Paradise on ABC or stream it on Hulu.

We’re almost done with all of this franchise’s spin-offs, I promise. The Golden Bachelor stars Gerry Turner, age 71, the oldest Bachelor in history. He dates a pool of eligible women 65 and up, and it’s one of the more heart-warming reality shows you can watch. These contestants have all lived full lives and, instead of dabbling in petty drama, they dive deep into grieving lost spouses, finding love again, and more.

The Golden Bachelorette is next on the docket, with its very first season airing in the fall of 2024.

In this series, couples arrive after one partner has issued the other an ultimatum: get married, or get out. The couples temporarily split up and date amongst each other. Each person chooses a new trial marriage partner from the dating pool and they move in together for three weeks. After that, they rejoin their original partner for three weeks, and ultimately decide whether they’ll leave engaged or single...or maybe, with someone else entirely.

You can stream The Ultimatum and The Ultimatum: Queer Love on Netflix.

If you’re looking for shows like The Ultimatum, queue up Temptation Island next. Four couples who are at some sort of crossroads in their relationship split up and move into mansions with sexy singles who are there to find love with them. They couples have no contact during their stay, but they do get a weekly peek at their partner’s worst behavior in the other house. At the end, they decide whether to leave together, separately, or with someone new. Bonus: this show also has arguably the best host in all of reality TV, Mark Walberg (no, not the actor from Boston).

You can watch new episodes of Temptation Island on USA and stream it on Peacock.

Three women arrive in paradise to date 24 single men and find their person. The catch: half of them are nice guys and half are F boys trying to fool them. You see, if the women pair up with a nice guy, the couple splits $100,000. If they choose an F boy, he keeps it all, and she goes home heartbroken. This show is special because it knows it’s ridiculous and plays into the schtick (which is why comedian Nikki Glaser is the perfect host).

Rent FBoy Island on Amazon Prime or stream it on the CW.

More hot people in tropical mansions? Coming right up. Netflix’s Too Hot To Handle dupes a bunch of singles into moving into a big ol’ house under the guise of dating each other and just having a summer to remember. After 24 hours of canoodling, they’re informed that there’s a cash prize of $100,000 on the line, and every act of physical intimacy docks money from the total. Will the group put emotional connection (and big money) over their physical desires? (Generally...no.)

You can find Too Hot To Handle on Netflix.

If you grew up loving The Real World, you’ll be pleased to know that Are You The One? is an MTV show that really feels like an MTV show. Here’s the deal: a fancy dating algorithm determines which contestants are perfect matches for one another. The singles enter the house and must date around and guess who their match is. At the end of each week, they’ll test how many matches they’ve unlocked. If they can do it within the timeframe of the show, they unlock a massive cash prize. The drama here: almost no one ever agrees on exactly who the matches are, and housemates are always trying to break each other up.

You can stream Are You The One? on Paramount+ and watch it on MTV.

Contestants from Netflix’s other dating shows (and even non-dating reality shows, like The Circle) move in together, couple up, and compete in challenges. The most successful ones earn the power to break up other couples and send them on dates with new singles. Everyone is constantly matching up with someone new in order to find the person they’re most compatible with and be crowned The Match in the finale.

You can watch Perfect Match on Netflix.

This show starts with the usual concept: single people, big fancy house, palm trees and sandy beaches. But in Dated & Related, each contestant brings their sibling with them, who has the ability to act like a wing person or a complete saboteur. There is a $100,000 prize involved (as is the going rate for Netflix, you’ve probably noticed by now) for the couple left standing at the end.

You can stream Dated & Related on Netflix.

Married At First Sight is many, many seasons deep, so clearly it has been hooking viewers for years. The premise: expert matchmakers pair up couples who have never met before, and the first time they ever see each other is at their wedding. Over the next few weeks, they take a honeymoon and live life as husband and wife. At the end of the experiment, they have to decide whether they’ll stay lawfully wed, or break it off ASAP.

You can stream Married At First Sight on Lifetime, Netflix, and Hulu.

One of the few reality dating shows not filmed on or near a beach, Farmer Wants A Wife is different from other dating shows in more ways than one. Each season, an eligible bachelor (indeed, a real working farmer) would date a pool of 10 single women from big cities to find his future spouse. The show debuted on the CW in 2008 and just got a reboot from Fox in 2023, which sees four farmers searching for love in one season.

You can stream Farmer Wants A Wife on Hulu.

Remember when TLC stood for The Learning Channel? Well now they make MILF Manor, in which single women ages 40 to 60 sign up to date single men in their 20s while living in a luxury villa. The surprise twist is that their sons are part of the dating pool, and, well, things quickly devolve from there. This show is not for the faint of heart or quick to cringe, but if you love mess, by god you’ll find it here.

You can stream MILF Manor on Discovery+.