A contestant has said producers urged him to be more considerate when the girls came on the show
To celebrate Take Me Out’s 10th anniversary, the show flipped its typical gender roles and put women forward to compete for the attention of 30 men.
The show is not characterised by subtlety – see Mr Smoothie otherwise known as Take Me Out’s “cringiest ever contestant.” But in light of the #MeToo movement, a hashtag that became a damning anthology of sexual harassment and assault, producers felt the need to tell male participants to watch themselves.
Contestant Harry Berry told The Sun that he was instructed to give special treatment to celebrity guests Chloe Sims and Claudia Fragapane.
“We get briefed before the show,” he said.
“But before we knew who they were – we only found out when they come down in the lift – they did say to us, ‘the girls are quite nervous’ so they told us to be easy on them, compliment them.
“They said, ‘be yourselves because we picked you for a reason.’
“I think they were worried being a bit of a wolf pack type thing. Sort of the guys giving all the sexual innuendos. Especially with the whole Me Too thing going on at the moment.
“All the guys were really nice to them and trying to do up her confidence really.”
The show will return to its normal format with the Flirty Thirty after this special episode.
