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All dating shows exploit the tension between inner and outer beauty, but two new ones make a point of it. “More to Love,” which premieres tonight on Fox, is a high-body-mass-index version of “The Bachelor,” with 330-pound, 26-year-old real estate investor Luke Conley winnowing a field of 20 “plus-size” women to find a Match Made on Television. (Indeed, it shares an executive producer with “The Bachelor,” Mike Fleiss.) “Dating in the Dark,” which began on ABC last week and airs Monday nights, puts three men and three women into a pitch-black room to take appearance out of the picture entirely.Hosted by plus-size supermodel Emme, “More to Love” adds an extra layer of pathos to the genre’s usual Harlequin hearts and flowers, its candlelit rooms, poolside chats and painfully drawn out ritual eliminations. There are years of tears unleashed here, as many — though not all — of the women recount their isolation, loneliness and dreams of being loved as they are. (Feelings known, of course, to viewers of all proportions.) Danielle has “never had a second date,” Melissa has never been on a date at all. Most seem less bothered by their weight — all but a couple top 200 pounds — than by a world that shuns them for it.
That the series has been made at all testifies to the fact that most dating shows — most TV shows — feature people who fit the latest definition of hotness. We may praise the inner person, but we are nevertheless continually encouraged (and perhaps wired) to worship the conventionally attractive surface.