The News
“Ana [I] don’t do coffee dates.”
You have to be living offline to not recognize the single most memorable line from Love Is Blind: Habibi, the UAE-based spin off of Netflix’s popular dating show. Millions gave into the guilty pleasure of watching a Saudi power couple host a show where Arabs from the region and abroad compete for dates. It topped Netflix’s top 10 most-watched non-English TV shows globally in the first two weeks after its release.
The viewership emphasized what 2022’s hit show Dubai Bling first demonstrated: There is a huge appetite for watching Arabs (speaking different dialects) in reality shows.
And Dubai, a pseudo melting pot for Arabs, was a great choice for a backdrop. Where else would Lebanese-Senegalese Chafic propose, again, to Saudi-Moroccan Dounia besides a Dubai luxury hotel — “the idyllic setting of Banyan Tree Dubai.”