VH1 Tough Love

From LoveToKnow Reality-TV

VH1 Tough Love is a dating reality show with a twist; instead of simply hooking up a bunch of singles and seeing what happens, women who are unlucky in love receive intense training and counseling from Steve Ward, a professional matchmaker.

VH1 has many popular reality shows.

It's Not You, It's Me

The women featured on this show come from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. Although they are all attractive, some of them don't realize their appeal while others are far too aware of their sexiness and use it to their advantage.

It is Steve's job to not only match these women with appropriate suitors, but to also get to the bottom of why these ladies have not been lucky in love in the first place. Whether it is being far too picky or far too anxious to get married, these women can benefit from the professional experiences of Steve.

The Cast

The people featured on this show include professional matchmakers, the women who move into the house and a host of potential boyfriends.

Steve and JoAnn Ward are a mother-son team of matchmakers. Although JoAnn serves as a consultant on the show, it is Steve who does the majority of the work. Steve has an impressive professional record as a matchmaker.
Abiola, 32
Arian, 27
Jacklyn, 23
Jessa, 28
Jody, 38
Natasha, 28
Stasha, 33
Taylor, 26

There are plenty of bumps in the beginning as this colorful cast of characters attempts to ease into living together. Right away, Taylor clashes with just about everyone, but it is Arian who proves to be the biggest troublemaker of the bunch. As the matchmaker, Steve has to endure plenty of arguments from the cast of women who seem determined to keep running their love lives as they always have despite their lack of success.

VH1 Tough Love Format

Each episode of VH1 Tough Love includes a group activity as well as group counseling. The group activity varies from walking in front of men to find out what the men candidly think of the women's appearances to doing a sexy photo shoot that is reviewed by a panel of men.

Group therapy is a review of the activities of the day. All of the women sit in on this session. Steve presents various film clips of situations he wants to talk about and the entire group discusses what was done well and what could be improved on in the future.

One woman is singled out as having done the best for the day and one woman is put into the "hot seat" because of something she did (or didn't do) that earned her the title of having done the poorest job. Not all of the women take kindly to being put into the "hot seat," and although Steve has valid points to make more than one woman has become argumentative or even walked away from the situation in a huff. Although he tries to be as kind and diplomatic as possible, it becomes glaringly obvious during this segment that there are just some things that these women don't want to hear.

Connections

The ultimate goal for these women is to meet the man of their dreams and enjoy a fulfilling relationship. Women who make connections with certain men on the show get to spend special one-on-one time with these men while the other women still participate in the group activities where they learn additional skills and meet new men.

It is an ongoing process with this show. For example, if a woman is drawn to a certain man but does not feel any chemistry after a few dates, Steve brings her back into the mix of the women still participating in the group activities so she can try to meet someone new while also learning the skills she needs.