''Girlfriends'' is a British

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

show presented by

Emma Willis Emma Louise Willis (née Griffiths; born 18 March 1976) is an English broadcaster. She is known for her television and radio work with Channel 5, BBC, ITV, and Heart FM.

that began airing on

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

in 2012. A second series was aired in autumn 2013, each series features three single young women looking for

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

Background

The ''Girlfriends'' reality TV series is based on a format developed by

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

's Keshet Media Group, first broadcast in Israel in October 2011. In the UK the format is produced by

Studio Lambert Studio Lambert is an independent British television production company based in London, Manchester and Los Angeles. It creates and produces scripted and unscripted programs for British and American broadcasters, cable networks and streaming platf ...

and broadcast by

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

's digital channel,

. An American version was aired briefly in July 2012 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, however was pulled from the schedule following low ratings for its first two episodes.

Plot

Three single women (the 'girlfriends') each try to find the ideal man, with 100 single men to choose from. The girlfriends share a large house for the duration of the series. The first part of the series is an audition format where the 100 men introduce themselves in turn to the three women in the house. The girlfriends decide between them whether either (or two, or all) of them would like to see the man again. They each choose a total of six men they would like to see again. The second part of the series sees the girlfriends go on dates with the men. The dates become longer, allowing the women the opportunity to decide who they want to visit for a 24-hour date in the man's home town and, finally, whether they want to invite any of the final dates back to their hometown to meet their parents. The 2012 and 2013 series were hosted by TV presenter,

Emma Willis Emma Louise Willis (née Griffiths; born 18 March 1976) is an English broadcaster. She is known for her television and radio work with Channel 5, BBC, ITV, and Heart FM.

The Girlfriends

Series 1

The three women looking for love in Series 1 were Laura, Amy and mother of one, Sarah. Laura ultimately chose a Frenchman called Ken. Amy chose 'cheeky' Charlie. Sarah Taylor chose footballer Danny Wisker, but admitted she never saw him again and discovered he had participated in other reality shows such as TOWIE.

Series 2

;Ruby Perry A 20-year-old from the

Bransholme Bransholme is an area and a housing estate on the north side of Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The name Bransholme comes from an old Scandinavian word meaning Brand's water meadow (''brand'' or ''brandt'' meant 'wild boa ...

area of Hull, who had spent the previous 12 months travelling around the world. ;Sophia Gowland A 23-year-old

business management Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

graduate and account manager from Hemlington,

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. ;Melissa Travis A 26-year-old

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

fan from

Sale, Greater Manchester Sale is a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Cheshire on the south bank of the River Mersey, south of Stretford, northeast of Altrincham, and southwest of Manchester. In 2011, it had a population of 134 ...

Reception

Viewing figures

The 2012 series of ''Girlfriends'' had an average viewing figures of 445,000 viewers (1.7% of the available total), with a peak of 552,000 for the final programme on 17 November.

Media criticism

Reaction from TV critics was generally mixed. Of the first series '' The Metro'' described it as "too ITV2 to yield classy results" and "felt pretty sleazy and not at all in line with the romantic vibe". Stuart Heritage in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' admitted that the series showed the viewer far more than any previous dating show, from "the first rush of infatuation othe indecision and jealousy and awkwardness that inevitably follows", but concluded that the girls have "too much choice. The audition round has conditioned them to nitpick, to always expect that something better is around the corner. Clearly this isn't the case for most of us. We don't all have 100 attractive would-be lovers prepared to backflip for our affections".

Transmissions

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Girlfriends 2012 British television series debuts 2013 British television series endings 2010s British reality television series 2010s British romance television series British dating and relationship reality television series English-language television shows ITV reality television shows International television series based on Israeli television series Television series by All3Media