Taken Out is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n television dating game show

Dating game show

Dating game shows are television game shows, some say reality game shows, that incorporate a dating system in the form of a game with clear rules. Human matchmaking is involved only in selecting the game's contestants - usually for amusement value as opposed to any concern for their happiness or...

 that was originally broadcast on Network Ten

Network Ten

Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

 between 1 September 2008 and 26 February 2009. The show was hosted by James Kerley

James Kerley

James Kerley is an Australian TV presenter and radio presenter on Nova FM.-Career:Kerley was a co-host on the Nickelodeon kids’ show Sarvo between 2004 and February 2007, alongside Tony Brockman and in his first year won the Sarvote kids’ choice award for favourite new host...

, a Foxtel

Foxtel

Foxtel is an Australian pay television company, operating cable, direct broadcast satellite television and IPTV services. It was formed in 1995 through a joint venture established between Telstra and News Corporation....

 television presenter who has hosted such shows as Cash Cab

Cash Cab

Cash Cab is a TV game show devised by Adam Wood that originated in the United Kingdom and has been licensed to television networks in numerous other countries...

and The Dave & Kerley Show

The Dave & Kerley Show

The Dave & Kerley Show is an Australian television series that airs on Channel [V]. It first began airing on 6 April 2008, and had a run of 13 episodes, finishing on 29 June 2008. It is hosted by Dave Lawson and James Kerley, who had previously hosted Nickelodeon's Sarvo together for two years from...

.

The format was developed by FremantleMedia

FremantleMedia

FremantleMedia, Ltd. is the content and production division of Bertelsmann's RTL Group, Europe's second largest TV, radio, and production company...

. Under the name Take Me Out the format has also aired in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. A British version

Take Me Out (game show)

Take Me Out is a television dating game show, hosted by Paddy McGuinness, that started airing on ITV1 in the United Kingdom and TV3 Ireland on 2 January 2010. It is based on the Original Australian TV show Taken Out. In September 2010, Irish broadcaster TV3 started broadcating an Irish version of...

 aired on 2 January 2010.

Format

Taken Out is primarily a studio-based show, with limited amounts of location-based material, that involves a single person who is introduced to thirty single people of the opposite sex which were revealed to them in the Taken Out arena. The show is split into two sections: The initial selection in the studio, and the two stage date. During the course of the game, the host presents information and videos about the single person and based upon this information, the thirty people periodically decide independently, if they should 'leave their light on' and stay in the game with the chance to date the single person or to 'turn their light out' and exclude themselves from the chance to date the person.

Initial selection

Note: The following is described with one single man being presented to thirty single women. The opposite (one single woman presented to thirty single men) also occurs.

Firstly, the women learnt a single piece of information about the single man which, along with his appearance, they used to decide whether they were interested or not. The women then judged and turned their lights off or on depending on their decision, however once they had turned their lights off, they couldn't change their minds. Then there would be a video of the single man shown, where they would describe their best features and qualities to try and keep as many women in the game as possible. The women then judged again. Next, a video by the single man's friend, family member, co worker or ex partner was shown. The women then decided again. Finally, if there were four or more women left with their lights on, the single man walked around the arena and personally met each remaining woman and either turn her light out or left her's on until there were only three women remaining. Then the single man asked a question to the three women, in which he then chose one woman to dismiss. This occurred again for the remaining two women. At the end the single man formally got asked if they would like to date the remaining woman or not. The first question was skipped if only two women are remaining and the single man still got to ask a question if only one woman was remaining before arriving at the question stage. If at any stage of the game all thirty women had turned their lights off, the game ended immediately and the single man left the show without a woman. During the whole process Kerley waked around the arena and chatted with different women asking for their opinions of the single man and why they had kept their light on or turned it off.

Dating process

After the initial selection is complete, a three stage dating process occurs. Firstly, the couple get to chat in private in a 'green room' at the studios in which they can get to know each other better in an uninfluenced environment. Next up, the couple meet for a date at a Melbourne restaurant, bar, massage parlour or other similar place. If either person is still interested in the other, there is an opportunity to attend a rendezvous at the Eureka Tower

Eureka Tower

Eureka Tower is a skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction began in August 2002 and the exterior completed on 1 June 2006. The plaza was finished in June 2006 and the building was officially opened on 11 October 2006...

 observation deck, where champagne and views of Melbourne at night await. This can often embarrassingly lead to only one person attending the rendezvous point. The latter two meetings are optional, however most attend the second stage. After all possible meetings, a final verdict is delivered. If either person wants the relationship to continue, they 'leave their light on' but if they wish for the relationship to end, they 'turn their light out'. This process is shown on the episode after the episode where their pairing was determined in the studio.

Broadcast

The show originally screened Monday to Friday in the 7 pm timeslot before it was moved to an earlier 6 pm timeslot after two weeks on air due to competition from other shows.. It was removed from schedules in its fourth week after screening 19 episodes, due to continuing mediocre ratings. Despite the axing, FremantleMedia continued to produce new episodes. In total, 65 episodes had been recorded.

On 12 January 2009, Taken Out silently returned to air at around midnight each morning, seven days a week. The remaining 46 episodes were shown in this fashion until the final recorded episode aired on 26 February 2009.

The show is currently airing on Australian subscription television channel Channel V

Channel V Australia

Channel [V] Australia is an Australian subscription television music channel, and also the newest Channel [V] channel. It is available on Foxtel, Optus TV and Austar satellite and cable services...

.

International Versions

Country	Name	Channel	Premiere	Host
Australia	Taken Out	Network Ten Network Ten Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...	1 September 2008	James Kerley James Kerley James Kerley is an Australian TV presenter and radio presenter on Nova FM.-Career:Kerley was a co-host on the Nickelodeon kids’ show Sarvo between 2004 and February 2007, alongside Tony Brockman and in his first year won the Sarvote kids’ choice award for favourite new host...
Chile	Elígeme Pick Me	Mega	24 March 2010	Luis Jara Luis Jara (singer) Luis Alberto Jara Cantillana is a Chilean singer, actor and TV host.- Soap operas :- Studio albums :* 1986: Ámame* 1988: Otra vez de cero* 1990: Inevitable* 1992: Un golpe de suerte...
Mainland China	我们约会吧 (male/female roles reverse)	Hunan TV	December 2009	何炅
Mainland China	非诚勿扰 Fei Cheng Wu Rao Fei Cheng Wu Rao Fei Cheng Wu Rao is a Chinese dating game show hosted by Meng Fei and Le Jia . It is produced by Jiangsu Television and taped in Nanjing. It was first broadcasted on January 15, 2010 and currently airs on weekend nights at 21:05 on Jiangsu Satellite TV...	Jiangsu TV	15 January 2010	孟非
Denmark	Dagens Mand Today's Man	TV2 TV 2 (Denmark) TV 2 is a publicly owned television station in Denmark based in Odense. The station began broadcasting on 1 October 1988, thereby ending the television monopoly previously exercised by the Danmarks Radio ....	17 September 2008	Pelle Hvenegaards
Finland	?	?	?	?
Flanders	Take Me Out	2BE 2BE 2BE may refer to:* 2BE Belfast, an Irish radio station* 2BE , a commercial TV channel in Flanders* 2BE , the former call sign of radio station 2EC in Bega, New South Wales, Australia...	15 December 2010	Gerrit De Cock
Indonesia	Take Me Out	Indosiar Indosiar Indosiar is a publicly owned national television station in Indonesia, and has been operating from West Jakarta since 1994. It was listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in 2004. Citibank Singapore has an 8.5 percent shareholding...	19 June 2009	Choky Sitohang and Yuanita Christiani
Indonesia	Take Him Out	Indosiar Indosiar Indosiar is a publicly owned national television station in Indonesia, and has been operating from West Jakarta since 1994. It was listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in 2004. Citibank Singapore has an 8.5 percent shareholding...	2 August 2009	Choky Sitohang and Yuanita Christiani
Indonesia	Take A Celebrity Out	Indosiar Indosiar Indosiar is a publicly owned national television station in Indonesia, and has been operating from West Jakarta since 1994. It was listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in 2004. Citibank Singapore has an 8.5 percent shareholding...	?	Choky Sitohang and Yuanita Christiani
Republic of Ireland	Take Me Out	TV3	15 September 2010	Ray Foley
Japan	Take Me Out	TBS Tokyo Broadcasting System , TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....	September 2009	?
Netherlands	Take Me Out	RTL 5 RTL 5 RTL 5 is the 2nd channel of the RTL Group in the Netherlands. The channel mainly broadcasts American films and hit series but also local productions including Jensen! and Holland's Next Top Model, a Dutch version of America's Next Top Model. RTL 5 recently started airing the Dutch version of...	9 March 2009	Eddy Zoëy
Norway	Dagens Mann Today's Man	TV3	September 2011	Hasse Hope
Philippines	Take Me Out Take Me Out (Philippine game show) Take Me Out! is a television dating game show hosted by Jay-R . The show is a version of Australian game show Taken Out created by FremantleMedia France....	GMA Network GMA Network GMA Network is a major commercial television & radio network in the Philippines. GMA Network is owned by GMA Network, Inc. a publicly listed company...	April 2010	Jay-R Jay-R Gaudencio Sillona III , who performs under the mononym Jay R, is a Filipino singer-songwriter, actor, record producer and model. In 2003, he released his debut album, Gameface, under Universal Records...
Spain	Elígeme Pick Me	Cuatro	?	Carlos Baute Carlos Baute Carlos Roberto Baute Jiménez , best known as Carlos Baute, is a Venezuelan singer and television host...
Sweden	Dagens man Man of the day	TV4 Plus TV4 Plus Sjuan is a sister channel of Swedish TV4, owned by TV4 AB. The main focus of the channel is on entertainment, sports and lifestyle programmes. The channel started as TV4 Plus in 2003 but changed name to Sjuan in September 2011....	September 2009	Carolina Gynning Carolina Gynning Carolina Gynning Nilsson is a Swedish model, actress and television host. Gynning became especially well-known to the public after winning Big Brother 2004, and has since become a television host for shows such as Dagens Man, Idol 2007 and Förkväll.-Early life:Gynning was born in Malmö but grew up...
Thailand	Take Me Out Thailand	Channel 3 Channel 3 (Thailand) Thailand Colour Television Channel 3 is a Thailand television channel. The headquarters are located in Bangkok, Thailand. The channel was established in 1970.The owner of the channel is BEC-TERO.- Ident :-Broadcast times:...	2 July 2011	Ketsetsawat Palakawong Na Ayutthaya, Patcharasri Benjamas
United Kingdom	Take Me Out Take Me Out (game show) Take Me Out is a television dating game show, hosted by Paddy McGuinness, that started airing on ITV1 in the United Kingdom and TV3 Ireland on 2 January 2010. It is based on the Original Australian TV show Taken Out. In September 2010, Irish broadcaster TV3 started broadcating an Irish version of...	ITV ITV ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...	2 January 2010	Paddy McGuinness Patrick McGuinness Patrick Joseph "Paddy" McGuinness is an English stand-up comedian, comedy actor, television personality and presenter. Born in Farnworth, Bolton, he is best known for his performances alongside comedian Peter Kay, and as the host of dating programme Take Me Out.-Early life:He attended Mount St....