Darcy can understand that. If Ty had a public profile there would be more articles for people to read, more photos shared across social media. As it is, there’s hardly anything about Ty’s past. He’s just a normal guy who happened to know the right person and land himself the biggest gig in town.

Darcy still has plenty of reservations about him. He was so out of his depth choosing the first three girls to send home. She’s worried how he’s going to handle dumping girl after girl each week. He hasn’t gone through all the psychological testing that Joe and the shortlist of suitors went through. Is he up for this after his own break-up?

Darcy’s eyes glance down the screen. ‘Annie from Forbes thought Imogen was hilarious and can’t wait to see more of her.’ She grabs her notepad and scrawls Imogen, making a note to give her plenty of screen time. Later today Darcy will be sitting with the editors as they put together the teaser to go at the end of tonight’s episode, which is mostly pre-recorded packages about the girls, along with the arrival of the first group date card.

Mel laughs. ‘She’s not the only one who has something to say about Imogen.’ She scrolls down the page. ‘Look at the discussion going on about her.’

Darcy peers over Mel’s shoulder again. It never surprises her how quickly the public get involved. Forums like this make audiences feel like they have some power over the outcome of a show, and to be honest it’s true compared to a drama series. Producers definitely take notice of what viewers think of the ‘characters’ on a reality TV show. The reality of the suitor’s love journey is always being manipulated.

‘No one seems overly fussed about the girls who went home,’ Mel says, still scrolling. ‘A lot of them thought it was pretty ridiculous that Nicole cried so much.’

Darcy moves to her own computer and begins opening up her emails and looking at the amended schedule. ‘Poor thing was exhausted. She said she hadn’t slept properly in days.’ Of course none of that made it into the final edit. Instead the viewers thought she was totally overreacting about being sent home. Darcy pulls out a notepad with scribbles, asterisks, ticks and crosses covering the page of the nineteen girls left. Very soon eighteen of them are going to be disappointed with the arrival of the first one-on-one date card.