Farmer wants a wife

I confess: I watch Farmer wants a wife, or Bauer sucht Frau, as it is called in German. It's dull, most of the farmers & their respective wives do not look like Brangelina *cough*, the stories are probably entirely faked, but it's a perfect zapping choice to chill down my overstrained brain on a Monday night. Many people seem to feel the same, as this show gets insanely high audience rates, with up to 25% prime-time market share.

I don't want to deliberate on the secrets of this phenomena, probably there is already a PhD thesis on it (recently, I saw a girl on a quiz show who wrote her Master thesis about the yellow press on the candidates of the German version of Pop Idol. Everything is possible.)

No, I'd rather like to take a look across the border. The Dutch version is particulary remarkable, as it is moderated by the wife of my former Environmental Economics Professor in Amsterdam, insiders might know who that should not be named. But even more remarkable is that the Dutch and the German moderator are identical twins, seperated at birth.  Look at that:

 Boer zoekt vrouw, the Dutch version

Bauer sucht Frau, the German edition

I have to say, they both look totally cute. Like Meg Ryan in her golden days (i.e. before she got a messed-up facelift).

The show comes originally from Australia. Here, as in the US, the farmers tend to look like if they are coming straight from the gym and the girls straight from a manicure:

Either this is even more faked (mmh, pretty sure it is), just in the opposite way, or I just have to acknowledge that every country just gets the TV farmers it deserves.

This lovely piece of television culture is meanwhile broadcasted in many more countries, if you want to check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer_Wants_a_Wife