Lights out, all out: Has Take Me Out run its course?

There was a time in my teenage years when I couldn’t imagine Saturday night TV without Take Me Out. I’d have eaten my takeaway and plonked myself in prime position on the sofa ready for its 6.30pm start. Seeing the girls strut to their podiums, hearing Paddy McGuinness make another awful joke, and grabbing the air every time the boy was told ‘the power is in your hands’ were things I’d come to know and love – but have we outgrown the ITV classic?

Even now, I’d happily sit down and watch an episode – which is quite a regular occurence considering ITV2 rerun it all the time. I may recognise the contestants and know exactly what’s to come, but I love being taken back a few years to when I’d first watched them. I remember walking into school on Monday morning and my friend and I would discuss the couples who’d been paired together that weekend – as you can tell, we were invested.

Despite it being an entertaining watch, it’s by no means as inclusive and representative as it could be. You may say ‘oh it’s only a lighthearted watch’, but surely you’d feel detached from a TV show if you couldn’t relate to or associate yourself with anyone you were watching. News flash: heterosexuality is not the only sexuality to exist, nor should it be treated as the ‘norm’ – even if this is what television leads you to believe.

11 series aired on our screens across nine years, yet they never thought to change things up. Although we haven’t seen a new episode since 2019 and there are no plans for that to change, I’m sure none of us would object to Take Me Out with a twist. Keeping the show’s same formality but welcoming contestants of different sexualities would be the much-needed step forward if the show were ever to return in today’s society.

But what if the men and women swapped places? We’d have finally seen the men take to the podiums and be put under the same scrutiny as the women were. There’s no denying it – despite the show diversifying the cast with women of different races, body shapes and nationalities, the same type of woman was picked week after week, and we could see it coming every time. Even if they’d already switched off their light and couldn’t be chosen, you could guarantee they’d have been written down as the boy’s ‘love at first light’.

Take Me Out may have been one of your guilty pleasures, but if the producers weren’t willing to empower and represent everyone, leaving it behind two years ago may have been a good thing after all.

As Paddy would say: lights out, all out.

Edited by Hannah Youds