A Cork woman has revealed what it’s really like to appear on a reality TV dating show.
Maeve Barrett, from Donoughmore, has lifted the lid about her experience on TG4’s new dating show, Aperitíf.
Maeve and her friend applied to the show for a laugh, and when she got the call to appear on the show, she was excited. “It was really cool. It’s always fun to get the call to go on TV.”
The show was filmed in the Iveagh Garden Hotel, which involved Maeve going up to Dublin for the day. “All I had to do was bring myself.”
The show works slightly differently to other dating shows like First Dates, Maeve explains. On Aperitíf, there is one main dater, who is joined by three datees who switch during the three courses: a starter, a main and dessert. “I ended up being some fella’s dessert, which was great craic. It was all very natural, off the cuff vibes.
“You walked into the restaurant, meet the date, and just have a conversation. We had about 25 minutes to get to know them. At the very end, they picked their favourite date, and it was up to the datee to decide whether they wanted a second date.”
Maeve says it was tough going last, as she felt she had to make a good impression early on. “They have already seen two other people so I had to try and stand out. It was a fun challenge on the day.”
Maeve is excited to see herself on screen, but she feels like she spent a good portion of the date talking about how great Cork is. “There’s probably worse things I could say. Your man was from Tipperary, and I kept saying what a great place Cork is to be,” she laughs.
Overall, the experience felt quite natural, despite it being an unnatural situation, Maeve says.
“It was interesting to be the person in front of the camera. We didn’t see much of the producers while filming was taking place. They had cameras on the wall and people holding cameras, but overall it was very natural.
“There were also people keeping an eye on the dates to make sure they went well and they give the dates prompts if they needed them.”
Maeve’s family were surprised that she entered the show. “My mam and dad are like, ‘Out of sight, out of mind’. My younger sister is mortified. A clip of me talking about my worst first date story is doing the rounds.
“In the clip I talk about a date where the man’s mam came in to meet me,” she explains. Her date’s mother went on to ask her about her university degree and qualifications, and later sent her son a ‘thumbs up’ to say she approved. “That clip appeared on my sister’s TikTok ‘For You’ page.”
The dating show is in Irish, and Maeve has her parents to thank for her fluency. While she didn’t grow up in the Gaeltacht, they always made sure the family spoke Irish at home. “They loved Irish and we would have used it an awful lot growing up.
“We’d always say ‘tar anseo’, ‘dún an doras’, we were never strangers to the Irish language. It made learning Irish in school easier as we were already using it in an informal, casual way. We would go to the Gaeltacht every summer and we’d make the effort to speak Irish there too.”
Maeve also credits her sixth class teacher for teaching her all the verbs, adding that Irish has opened up so many doors for her.
You can watch Maeve’s episode of Apertíf on TG4 at 9:30pm tonight. The show airs every Wednesday at 9:30pm, with the last episode airing on 4th November.
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