Entertainment

John Legend’s New Reality Show Is The Musical Dating Competition You've Been Waiting For

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People are divided on believing in the concept of love at first sight, but if John Legend has his way, you’ll start believing in love at first song very soon. John Legend is producing a new musical reality show titled Love At First Song, based on the hit Vietnamese TV show of the same name, and it sounds absolutely fascinating. Think of it as The Bachelor meets American Idol, which is no coincidence considering who else is on board.

Legend’s production company Get Lifted Film Co. is teaming up with former American Idol producer Simon Lythgoe to bring Love At First Song to the U.S., as reported by Deadline. The show is marketed as a “hybrid music/dating competition” and aims to create couples by pairing two singers together for romantic duets. Single singers will “virtually” rehearse songs, then join each other in person to reveal themselves and their potential chemistry during a live performance.

“These couples then live together, practice together, perform and compete together, but may swap partners in every episode — for love or music,” Deadline wrote. There's no word yet on if the show will feature celebrity judges, but it does sound like the perfect opportunity to put American Idol veterans and lovable frenemies Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell on a panel together — just saying.

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“Having worked on some of the biggest reality singing competitions in the world like American Idol and Popstars, this is the first format I’ve seen in a decade that’s a unique hybrid having all the right ingredients to be a huge international success,” Lythgoe said in a statement. “And more importantly, Love at First Song has the potential to launch the next great duo like Tim & Faith, Sonny & Cher, or Jay-Z & Beyoncé.”

The show was an immediate success in its native Vietnam upon its premiere in January 2018, ranking at number one in its time slot and increasing overall ratings for its network, VTV3, according to Music-Asia. And the decision to bring it stateside follows in the footsteps of The Masked Singer, another hit Asian TV show that ended up being a huge ratings success when it was brought to the U.S.

Love at First Song is really the best of two great genres: performance and dating, as contestants literally fall in love and make heartbreaking decisions during their duets,” fellow producers Tom Forman and Jenny Daly said in a statement. “It’s the perfect format to come from a love song legend like John, plus a producer like Simon with a proven record of launching both hit shows and huge acts.”

This is not Legend’s first foray into reality competition. The soul singer is the newest coach on The Voice Season 16, and he’s aiming to add the winning trophy to his large collection of awards, which most notably includes the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). And with his penchant for creating love songs that you wish your significant other had the genius to write, his involvement in Love At First Song seems like a match made in heaven. We look forward to seeing if any of these couples have as much chemistry as him and Chrissy Teigen.