Paddy McGuinness - could he be any more Irish?

"Oh, pfft, yeah, he's from Bolton," my friend Liam stated when we were watching Take Me Out - ITV1's new and improved Blind Date. Our beloved Cilla has now been replaced by dapper comedian Paddy McGuinness but they have the same "match-maker" quality - friendly, funny and understanding.

Growing up in the Blind Date generation, I was drawn to Take Me Out as soon as it came out, to fill my Saturday night void for love-devoid men and women, dancing the line between romance and cheese, getting set up, and being shipped off somewhere for peculiarly-themed dates.

It's kind of interesting from a biological point of view though. As in the majority of mating systems in birds and mammals, the male is bold and bright and has to be all-singing-all-dancing to impress the choosy females. Take Me Out's boys have to show their appearance, their personality and some impressive tricks to make a group of 30 ladies keep their light on so that he might get a date. Not that I am watching it with a view to conduct studies to see who's attracted to who, but it just struck me that this is strangely reminiscent of what my university lecturers call courtship displays.

So the ladies get three rounds in which to decide of the displaying male is an adequate specimen. First round is basically his appearance. The guy comes down the "love lift" circles in front of all the women and then says hello to them and where he's from. Blatantly just the "check me out in my glad rags, ladies" portion.

Then, his friends and family give a little snippet about him - job, personality, temperament, habits - like a show of what he can provide. And finally, my favourite - the party trick! The male can show his incredible genetic gifts for a magnificent display in hopes that the female will want to procreate with him... We're not quite at procreation station on Take Me Out, but it's a similar principle - look at this amazing thing I can do, don't you want me on your arm?

In turn, if a guy finishes all three rounds with some women still with their lights on, he has to select two within the space of about a minute; it's all about first impressions and any snippets of personality they may have caught from them when they chat to Paddy. But then he gets the chance to ask a revealing question, which will tell him exactly what he needs to know to make the perfect choice. And the question?

If I went clay-pigeon shooting, what would you wear to distract me?
What's your guilty pleasure?
If you had your own perfume, what would you call it and why?

That's not exactly tell-tale stuff, but at least they get the opportunity to ask. So generally it goes to show you that just like in the animal kingdom, women are pickier and choosier than men when it comes to having dates. Not always, but often.

To be honest, whilst a huge part of me loves the whole thing, but my heart does race a little when I see the line of girls turn into a rejecting red wall. It must take a whole bag of courage to go on this show and be thrown to the wolves for judgement. It's equally awful when a girl continuously leaves her light on in hopes of being picked for a date, only to be turned off time and time again. But the guys are lucky. Should they fail to court any women, they get some Paddy love.

And after a season and a half of watching the show, all I want is for Paddy McGuinness to take me to the Isle of Fernandos...