Fox getting back to its gnarly reality show roots with "Let's make arranged marriages fun!" show

All of which is why we’re absolutely fascinated to see that Fox has decided to get back into the “marry a person you’ve never met” reality TV game, announcing today that it was embarking on a new TV “experiment” called Marriage Market. (“Experiments” were big back in the 2000s, too, presumably because the word translates as “It’s not our fault if this shit goes horrifically wrong.”) Hosted by comedian Whitney Cummings, the series starts with 100 singles, and then completely removes them from the dating process: Instead, their family members will meet, negotiate, and ultimately select who pairs up. Once an alleged match has been found, the lucky couple will be introduced and then engaged on the spot, and “From there, the couples and their families move in together, navigating real-life compatibility, big personalities, and even bigger expectations.”

Besides answering the question “What would The Circle be like if everybody had to let their dad do all the texting?” the series’ initial marketing also has a weird sort of retrograde vibe to it, billing itself as a dating show where “Mom and dad are in total control.” (Eliciting what we can only assume was a “Finally!” from the demographic of dating show fans annoyed they don’t have a final say in who their children sleep with or marry.) That goes right down to the show’s key art, viewable above, which shows a grown-ass woman being pushed around in a shopping trolley like a toddler/ham shank by her parents.

Marriage Market is set to debut this fall on Fox; network president Michael Thorn issued a statement with the news, calling the show—with no apparent trace of shame or irony—”one of the most extreme marketplace spectacles you’ve ever seen.”