Singled Out Explained: A Guide to MTV’s 90s Dating Show and Its Hosts

Singled Out was an MTV dating game show that ran from June 1995 to May 1998, in which one contestant picked a date from a pool of 50 singles by eliminating them in rounds, mostly without seeing them. It was hosted by Chris Hardwick with Jenny McCarthy and, for roughly the final season and a half, Carmen Electra. This guide explains how the game worked, who hosted when, and how the format has been revived since.

Factual sections are sourced at the end. Paragraphs marked “Editor’s note” are our commentary.

The basics

• Network: MTV.
• Original run: June 5, 1995 to May 22, 1998.
• Created by: Burt Wheeler and Sharon Sussman.
• Produced by: MTV Productions, filmed at Empire Burbank Studios in Burbank, California.
• Episode length: about 22 minutes.
• Announcer: Royale Watkins.

Who hosted Singled Out?

Chris Hardwick and Jenny McCarthy (1995–97)

Chris Hardwick hosted throughout the original run. His original co-host, Jenny McCarthy, left in early 1997 to star in her own sitcom, Jenny.

Carmen Electra (1997–98)

When McCarthy left in early 1997 to star in her own sitcom, Jenny, Carmen Electra took over as co-host alongside Chris Hardwick and hosted the show’s last season and a half, through 1998. During the same 1997–98 season she was also in the main cast of Baywatch. Our career timeline places both jobs in context.

How the game worked

Each episode featured two games, one for each gender. In every game a single contestant, the “Picker”, tried to find a date among a “Dating Pool” of 50 people.

Round 1: narrowing down the pool

The Picker sat facing away from the Dating Pool, separated from it by a wall. They chose from six categories and eliminated one option at a time. Everyone in the pool who matched an eliminated option had to leave, in full view of the audience but not the Picker. The round continued until five to eight contestants remained. From season three, a “Golden Ticket” (a “Golden Lifesaver” at outdoor tapings) let the Picker rescue one eliminated contestant.

Round 2: “Keep ‘Em or Dump ‘Em”

The Picker asked dating questions or set small stunts, then decided whether to keep or dump each remaining contestant. Dumped contestants were marked with props. The round ended when three were kept, or all but three had been dumped.

Round 3: the race to the Picker

The wall separating the Picker from the pool was removed. The three finalists answered two-choice questions about the Picker’s preferences. Each correct match moved a finalist a step closer, and the first to reach the Picker won the date. Ties were settled with a final question.

The reveal

The winner and the Picker were placed back to back and then turned around to meet for the first time.

Mascots, merchandise and spin-offs

The show used recurring costumed characters, including “Bob the Angel”, his wife Roberta and their son Little Bob. It also produced tie-in merchandise in its peak years:

• A book, MTV’s Singled Out Guide to Dating (Pocket Books, 1996), by Lynn Harris and J.D. Heiman.
• A VHS release, Singled Out: The Dirt on the Dates! (1996).

Both are long out of print, so copies today come from the second-hand market. Our fan guides include a checklist for buying used media.

International versions

The format was licensed widely. Versions listed by Wikipedia include Singled Out on Channel 5 in the UK (1998–2001), Rykowisko on Polsat in Poland (1997–98), Sommer sucht Sprosse on Sat.1 in Germany (1997), Party Uartig on TV3 in Denmark (1995), Kiss & Tell on MTV Italia (2006–08) and Xaveco on SBT in Brazil, which has run in several stretches since 1996.

The revivals

S1NGLED OUT on YouTube (2018)

A seven-episode revival launched on YouTube in November 2018, hosted by Justina Valentine and Conceited. It updated the pool to 25 contestants in the studio (“IRL”) and 25 represented only by selfies (“URL”), some of whom could be “catfish” using stock photos.

Quibi (2020)

MTV Studios announced a deal with the short-form streaming service Quibi in June 2019 to reboot Singled Out, and the new version premiered on April 6, 2020, hosted by Keke Palmer and Joel Kim Booster.

Can you watch Singled Out today?

Availability changes over time and by country, so check a current listings service. In the sources we used we found no complete-series home-video release of the original MTV run; the 1996 VHS was a single tie-in tape. Clips circulate online, but their rights status varies.

Why Singled Out is remembered

Editor’s note: The show’s appeal was its speed and spectacle: fifty people on stage, a running elimination and a big reveal, all in about twenty minutes. To us it is a snapshot of mid-90s MTV youth television, and it gave several hosts, Electra among them, national exposure early in their careers. For more on that period, see our 90s pop culture guide and TV appearances guide.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Singled Out” (run dates, creators, production, hosts, format, merchandise, international versions, revivals). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singled_Out
2. TV Insider, “Carmen Electra” (biography: took over Singled Out co-hosting in spring 1997). tvinsider.com
3. Los Angeles Times, “Warhol’s Theory Doesn’t Suit Singled-Out CSUN Buddies”, December 13, 1995. latimes.com
4. The Futon Critic, “MTV Studios and Quibi sign deal to reimagine iconic franchises ‘Punk’d’ and ‘Singled Out'”, June 4, 2019. thefutoncritic.com
5. The Futon Critic, “MTV Studios and Quibi tap Keke Palmer to host ‘Singled Out'”, December 13, 2019. thefutoncritic.com
6. Wikipedia, “Carmen Electra” (co-hosting dates, Baywatch overlap). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Electra