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- <text id=91TT1866>
- <title>
- Aug. 19, 1991: Hunks and Cheese Balls
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Aug. 19, 1991 Hostages:Why Now? Who's Next?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- TELEVISION, Page 62
- Hunks and Cheese Balls
- </hdr><body>
- <p>Studs puts a racy new twist on the dating game
- </p>
- <p> Meet Darren, a 23-year-old yacht-club manager with tousled
- blond hair and a cute British accent. You might call him a
- dream date. But then, you haven't met his main rival: Nico, 19,
- a bodyguard with slicked-back hair, a macho manner and a size 18
- shoe. "Great lips--fit perfectly with mine," drools one of
- three women who went on a date with Nico. Says another: "If he
- had kissed my neck, I would've lost control." For Darren,
- however, the postdate comments run from "He looked like he just
- woke up" to a grumbly "He paid the check, I left the tip." And
- when the women are asked which of the two is more likely to fall
- asleep after sex, guess whom they pick? Sorry, Darren.
- </p>
- <p> Brace yourself for Studs. This relationship game show--a sort of hormone-injected version of Love Connection--is
- currently syndicated on only 17 stations, but ratings are
- soaring. (In Washington the show beat all three late-night local
- newscasts for two weeks in July.) The premise: two hunky
- bachelors are sent on dates with the same three women. All five
- then come on the show, and the guys try to guess what the gals
- said about them. The comments range from titillating ("I loved
- the way he sucked my pinky") to taunting ("He was a class-A
- cheese ball"). Either way, the studio audience whoops and
- screeches in voyeuristic glee.
- </p>
- <p> Prodded by host Mark DeCarlo, the show revels in double
- entendres but primly stops short of going all the way. "Mine was
- harder, but his was bigger," says Kathi about Michael. Turns out
- (wink, wink) she's comparing their biceps. "There's kind of an
- arbitrary line that we can't cross," says executive producer
- Howard Schultz. "We don't try to hit the nail on the head." Be
- thankful for small favors.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-