''Age of Love'' is an American reality TV dating series that ran for one season in Summer 2007. The show featured 30-year-old Australian tennis star

Mark Philippoussis Mark Anthony Philippoussis ( ; born 7 November 1976) is an Australian former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent. Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Australia in 1999 and 2003, wi ...

as he looked for love among a group of women ranging in age from their early 20s to their late 40s. Hosted by

Mark Consuelos Mark Andrew Consuelos (; born March 30, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Mateo Santos on the ABC soap opera ''All My Children'' (1995–2001; 2010) and as Hiram Lodge on The CW drama '' Riverdale'' (2017–2021) ...

, the series aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, premiered on Monday, June 18, 2007. The last episode aired on August 6, 2007, in which 25-year-old Amanda Salinas was chosen as the winner.

Format

The contestants were divided in two age groups. The "kittens" were the women in their 20s, while the "

cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

" were the women in their late 30s to late 40s. Each week Philippoussis would accompany one or two of the women on a private date, and at the end of each episode would ask all but one of the women if they would continue to see him. The rejected woman would be eliminated; this continued each week until just one remained. For the show's season finale, the final three contestants flew to Philippoussis' hometown of Melbourne, Australia to meet his family.

Contestants

Kittens

* Megan was chosen to be in Final 3 and on to the finale. On the finale, the girls and Mark had to take a plane to Australia to meet Mark's family. Megan was terrified of flying and refused to go on the plane, thereby eliminating herself from the competition.

Cougars

* Maria was shown in Episodes 4 and 6 as thinking of leaving. On Episode 7, when Mark asked Maria to stay, Maria told Mark she thought it wouldn't work out, which resulted in Maria eliminating herself.

Call-out order

: The contestant is in her 40s. : The contestant is in her 20s. : The contestant won the competition. : The contestant was eliminated by Mark. : The contestant decided to quit the competition. : The contestant was automatically eliminated as her

fear of flying Fear of flying is a fear of being on an airplane, or other flying vehicle, such as a helicopter, while in flight. It is also referred to as flying anxiety, flying phobia, flight phobia, aviophobia, aerophobia, or pteromechanophobia (although a ...

prevented her from going to Australia for the finale.

Criticism

Critics noted Philippoussis was closer in age to the twenties than the forties. He was only three to nine years older than the "kittens", while nine to 18 years younger than all of the "cougars".

Outcome

After the last episode of the show, Philippoussis refused to comment on the outcome of the relationship, stating that he was "concentrating on tennis". However, in a radio interview which aired on November 28 in Australia, he did state he was "currently single", and in February 2008 had been seen with model

Siobhan Parekh Siobhán is a female given name of Irish origin. The most common anglicisations are Siobhan (identical to the Irish spelling but omitting the acute accent over the 'a'), Shevaun and Shivaun. A now uncommon spelling variant is Siubhán. It is de ...

. It was announced on October 26, 2009 that Philippousis was engaged to actress

Jennifer Esposito Jennifer Esposito is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the feature films '' Summer of Sam'' (1999), ''Don't Say a Word'' (2001), ''Welcome to Collinwood'' (2002), as well as ''Crash'' and ''Taxi'' (both 2004). She has also appe ...

, but had split by August 2010. In 2009 it was revealed that Salinas and Philippoussis had stayed together for five months after meeting on the show. They split amicably in September 2007.

International broadcasters

The opening episode of Age Of Love in Australia, screening at 8:30pm in NSW, ACT and QLD, and at 9:30pm in other states, only managed to rate 849,000 mainland capital city viewers, rating behind both Channel Nine and ABC. Two weeks later, it was moved to a later timeslot of 10:30pm as ratings dropped to 545,000 viewers. The rights for the show in the UK were snapped up by E4, the digital channel from

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

and is shown as part of their "No-Brainers" season along with other American reality TV shows like

The Simple Life ''The Simple Life'' is an American reality television series starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. It depicts the two wealthy socialites, as they struggle to do manual, low-paying jobs such as cleaning rooms, farm work, serving meals in fast ...

and

Beauty and the Geek ''Beauty and the Geek'' is an American reality television series that premiered on The WB on June 1, 2005. It has been advertised as "The Ultimate Social Experiment" and is produced by Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and J.D. Roth. The show's ti ...

References

External links

Official Website (via Internet Archive)''Age of Love'' on BuddyTV''Age of Love'' on Reality TV World
at '' Variety.com''
''I'm really in love, says Amanda'' on News.com.auEpisode clips from ''Age of Love''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Age Of Love (Tv Series) 2000s American reality television series 2007 American television series debuts 2007 American television series endings Television shows set in Los Angeles American dating and relationship reality television series NBC original programming