A Washingtonian is creating a D.C. quarantine version of "Love Is Blind" and is looking for participants like you to figure out if love truly is blind. 

The world fell in love with Love Is Blind—a reality dating show that created a social experiment to test if love truly is blind. After hours of watching couples fall in and out of love, we all wanted more, and it looks like we’re about to get it. The social experiment is now coming to life in Washington, D.C., as one Washingtonian sets out to answer the question that has plagued us all.

The D.C. project is expected to launch on March 25 by Beth Comack, a 27-year-old NoMa resident who owns her own marketing company and helps couples meet through her dating series, Pitch a Friend. Since many of Cormack’s marketing clients are in the restaurant and hospitality industry, her business has taken a dive during the coronavirus crisis, so she’s now looking for an innovative way to get back in business.  

“I threw a pity party for myself for three days, and I was like, well, I have to adapt to this new situation,” Cormack said. “This virtual way of life is kind of like the reality right now for an unforeseen future.”

Now, that virtual way of life Cormack refers to is the day-to-day life of social isolation. Just like in the Netflix show, Love Is Blind, dating during the age of coronavirus restricts us to talking without actually seeing each other. So why not create a show about it?  

In Love is Blind, single men and women enter isolation pods where they date other singles without ever seeing them. All they have to go on is the sound of their date’s voice and the words coming out of their mouth as each interaction is stripped of all stereotypes and assumptions. After finding someone they connect with in the pods, the couples get engaged and enter the real world to test if love truly is blind.

In today’s dating world, the spread of the coronavirus has already created social isolation pods for us—our own homes. Cormack realized this is the perfect opportunity and therefore decided to make a quarantine version of the show for the District. Called DC Is Blind, the show will work entirely from home as couples fall in love while practicing social distancing.

How It’s Going to Work

DC Is Blind will have two quarantine pods for two different seasons. There will be a quarantine pod for heterosexual partners and another for LGBTQA+ partners called the “Queer-entine pod.” Each person will be paired up on phone dates, which will be monitored by Cormack in order to ensure no one reveals anything about their physical qualities or any specific identifiers (such as last names) that would allow their partner to search for them online.

All the phone calls will be recorded and then uploaded onto a private Facebook group for viewers to watch. The Facebook group has already been made, and viewers can join here for a $5 fee paid via Venmo to @dcisblind.

Participants in the social experiment will also film solo confessionals of themselves, just like the Netflix show, which will also be available for viewers to see. The Facebook group will only include non-participants, in order to keep everyone’s identity and feelings private (for the time being).

The social experiment will last one week and end on April 1. On that day, participants will decide if they want to be together and ask their partner to be their “quarantine bae.” Cormack will then reveal what each person looks like and see if they ultimately still want to meet. She has said that if the two want to meet up in real life after the state of emergencies are lifted, she will use a portion of the show’s proceeds to buy the couple a gift card for dinner.

The first show will focus on heterosexual couples while the queer-entine pods will commence on April 2.

How You Can Participate

DC Is Blind is reaching out to the community to find participants for the social experiment and is currently accepting applications for the quarantine pods. You can apply via their Google docs form here and click on whichever season you would like to be on. The application asks the applicant’s name, how they identify, availability, Instagram handle, and which Love Is Blind character they most identify with—are you more of a sassy Gigi or a calm and collected Cameron? Applicants will also create and submit a one-minute video of themselves to [email protected] to see if they can cut it on DC Is Blind.

When thinking of what to include in your video, you might want to listen to what Cormack had to say about choosing participants.

“I’m trying to hype these people as local celebrities and create characters out of them, because that’s why Love is Blind works,” said Cormack. “Everyone has a persona, and you get to know them as people.”

So, do you think you have what it takes to be a participant? Apply now and we hope to see you prove that love truly is blind!