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Kiss Bang Love: US TV show tests whether people can find love based on a blindfolded first kiss

Each episode follows a man or a woman as they kiss 10 potential matches

Roisin O'Connor
Friday 30 December 2016 13:01 GMT
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Kiss Bang Love Trailer

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A new TV series will see blindfolded strangers kissing one another to see if they fall in love.

The rather dubiously-titled Kiss Bang Love premieres on FYI next week in the US and tests how much you can tell about a potential partner just by kissing, the New York Post reports.

Versions of the show have already been aired in Australia and Europe. While similar shows like TLC's Love at First Kiss and the viral short film First Kiss have explored 'first kiss chemistry', Kiss Bang Love claims to be the first one which removes the sense of sight.

It is serving as the official 'kiss sponsor' of New Years Eve and will be displayed on LED screens around Times Square during celebrations in New York.

Sam Dean, an executive producer on the series, said: "The blindfold is to cut out all the distractions of being in a [TV] studio and the preconceptions as soon as we see someone, so that we can assess solely on the chemistry of that first kiss - to see how the chemistry then competes once the blindfold comes off."

Each episode will follow a man or a woman as they meet 10 potential matches (screened by producers to assess certain compatibility factors), who are narrowed down to five whom the 'kisser' then meets without the blindfold. They then select two to go on a deciding date with.

In 2014 the short film First Kiss by amateur filmmaker Tatia Plieva went viral and received praise for its touching portrayal of the nerves and laughter the moment can bring, only to turn out to be a marketing ploy by a clothing company.

Strangers were supposedly paired off and given no instruction other than to kiss one another, with the moments before proving just as interesting as the kiss itself.

The video spawned dozens of others that looked at similar themes of 'first' moments or doing certain things for the first times.

However it emerged that the video was a covert way of boosting clothes sales for the brand Wren Studio, with a cast comprised mostly of professional actors, singers and models.

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