It has long been wondered whether love is truly blind, and ITV’s latest commission, Blind Matchmakers, which starts tonight (18th November), really puts that to the test. Unlike the famous Netflix show 'Love Is Blind,' this new dating reality show, which marks the start of Disability History Month in the UK, enlists the expert opinions of three matchmakers who are blind and tasked with helping contestants, who are also visually impaired, navigate the world of dating.
Unlike other reality TV dating programmes that have taken a more surface-level, superficial approach to ‘blind dating’, Blind Matchmakers takes things a step further by focusing on the non-sighted aspects of dating on the part of the matchmakers, as well as the contestants. Because their matchmaking is entirely auditory and intuitive, and they can’t see their clients, they rely on voice, personality, confidence, sense of humour, etc.
What is really exciting about the premise of the show is that from the outset, the panel of matchmakers is shown to be incredibly diverse, from the visually impaired Welsh drag queen Venetia Blind to Joy Addo, who also represents Black motherhood. I had the opportunity to speak with the show’s award-winning producer, Jessica Mitchell, to learn about her conception of the show.
A conversation about love and attraction with a blind rapper on a different show sparked Jessica's curiosity about what it's like to date as a blind person. During the development stage of the show, Jessica had met and spoken with 100 blind people from around the world, including Claire Sisk. Claire, the third matchmaker and main presenter, is a self-proclaimed matchmaking expert, as well as a presenter and disability advocate.
Following dozens of conversations with single blind people and those who were partnered, Jessica quickly realised that blind people were rarely listened to, especially when the topic came to dating. Jessica stated that it was important that media industry workers like herself are “giving people the platform to do what they would like to do.” Jessica, whose production company is called Different Productions, focuses on producing inclusive programming, such as a music show centred around the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. She also advises disabled people looking to get into the media industry that they should “find [their] talent and double down.”
So much of what we know and think about dating, relationships, romance and love is centred around the visual aspects of a person, leading to a presumption that those who are visually impaired would not have an opinion and would just accept what they are given. An erroneous assumption that I have discussed in my own work with my advocacy and awareness platform, The Triple Cripples, because we understand the expectation is often that disabled people should be ‘grateful’ for getting any attention at all. By placing three wonderfully diverse blind people as dating experts, Jessica and the show encourage us as the audience to recognise that there is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to be gained from disabled people. And it also banishes any notion of judging someone by how they appear.
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Initially, participants meet with the matchmaking panel and discuss their love lives to date and why they are now seeking the guidance of the experts. The hosts deliberate and set about creating dating pairs, or trios, that they think should go on a date and explore further. The contests, both for the sighted and the visually impaired, rely on their other senses to get to know one another and give the matchmakers a chance to start pairing based on chemistry.
One of the contestants is a musician and online content creator, Kitty Willow Hinde. During the meeting with the matchmakers, we learn that Kitty became blind at 19, a few weeks after meeting her ex-boyfriend, so she is still figuring out how to navigate her new life and is hoping to meet someone to share that journey with her. Kitty’s openness and vulnerability with the panellists pays off as she is set up on a date with musicians, MOBI1 and YJ.
From the outset of the double date, Kitty and MOBI1 have a better rapport and chemistry, and Kitty assertively requests to continue the date with MOBI1 only. This was one of my favourite parts of the episode, as it is vitally important to witness a disabled person, especially a woman, express a wish and desire and have it met. Kitty’s date was by far the most promising throughout the show as she was able to connect with MOBI1 on their shared love of music and how their creative outlets enabled them to process their own traumas. Prior to rapping, MOBI1 was an aircraft technician and survived flash burns to his face. This traumatic experience led to his redundancy but opened the door to new musical and perhaps romantic possibilities.
Kitty’s confidence also shone through when I caught up with her over Zoom, cracking jokes and regaling me with terrible puns, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It took some time for her to get to this position following difficult childhood experiences. Kitty stated, “When I was in secondary school, everyone knew I was gonna lose my sight. The council would try and set me up on dates with blind kids or blind people a bit older than me and so I could socialise with them…I have a very distinct memory of them being shells of themselves, essentially. Very quiet people, very shy, very, you know…I remember being like, ‘Oh, my God, I'm like a drama queen!’ I want spotlights and microphones, and can I not have that with the blind thing? Do they not go together?”
Kitty’s lived experience highlights why programmes like Blind Matchmakers are useful in combating negative stereotypes about dating with a disability, but also life in general. The programme clearly demonstrates that these two things can and do go together.
Speaking about her time on the show, Kitty’s excitement was evident: “I rock up on set, there's Venetia, blind drag queen. Blind pregnant woman. Go her! Blind people who have managed to make their identity coexist with their disability, and they just both exist at the same time, which were moments in my life I didn't think were possible. As I don't think I'd ever get there. But these were confident people, funny people, people working in TV and music and social media and, you know, those industries I'm interested in. And it was, no pun intended, eye-opening, you know.”
I’d often look in the mirror and question: what do they see that is so bad?
When I asked her what she would tell younger Kitty, she replied: “Make people see you.” Those short four words were so powerful as they serve as not only a call to action, but as a reminder about the ways disabled people are seen and, in turn, how we see ourselves. Being disabled is often laden with navigating prejudiced ideas that people have about you and those like you. These same assumptions can sometimes make it onto our screens and into our minds.
The UK’s Disability History Month, which runs annually from 20th November to 20th December, is a much-needed intervention that not only speaks to myriad obstacles faced by disabled people but also highlights the many contributions that disabled people have made to society and the arts throughout the years. The telling of different kinds of stories about disability and disabled people is what makes the concept of Blind Matchmakers so unexpected and exciting. The show joins a host of programming that forms part of ITV’s 2025 Fresh Cuts, premiering shows as part of their diversity showcasing and spending. It is one thing to raise awareness, but it is another thing entirely to support that awareness raising with financial and institutional support, and in its fourth year, ITV shows no signs of stopping this vital initiative.
Though it may still be up for debate whether love really is blind, what has been made clear is that there is an appetite, both in front of and behind the camera, for more and varied disability representation. I look forward to more media coverage and programmes that make people see disability and showcase the wealth of talent that exists within the disability community.
Blind Matchmakers is on ITV1 from November 18th and ITV X.
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