NBC may have been "Ready for Love," but viewers sure weren't. 
 
 The new dating show executive produced and hosted by Eva Longoria was supposed to be NBC's next great hope. Instead, Tuesday's premiere bombed big time -- and that was with the singing smash "The Voice" as a lead-in. 
 
 An average of just 3.7 million total viewers tuned in, according to Nielsen. 
 
 To put those numbers in perspective: "Ready for Love" held on to a measly 28% of "The Voice's" audience. That means nearly three-quarters of viewers fled when they realized what was on. 
 
 Maybe many of them were fans of ABC's "The Bachelor." The opening montage of "Ready for Love" took a swipe at its ABC rival by noting sourly that many of its paired couples had ended up splitting. 
 
 What did you think of "Ready for Love" (assuming you actually saw it)? 
 
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 Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT ||||| ABC's dating show juggernaut The Bachelor has dominated its genre for a long time, but now NBC is attempting to launch a rival network franchise with Ready for Love, a new Eva Longoria-produced dating series. NBC's show shares some aspects with that "other" show (which it references with appropriate catty disdain in the opening moments), but makes this endeavor wholly its own, for better or worse. 
 
 Ready for Love triples down on the original dating concept by having three eligible bachelors instead of one, along with three matchmakers to help guide them, and their ladies, through the process of potentially finding love. But on this show, things don't have to end in marriage; the couples can simply decide to start moving forward in their lives together (though I think we can all predict at least one ring will be in the cards). 
 
 STORY: 'Ready for Love' Will 'Revolutionize' TV's Dating Genre, Say Hosts Giuliana and Bill Rancic 
 
 Ready for Love has layers and layers of process (contestants are confusingly wheeled to and fro, from the studio to a group house and back again, then on to an elimination stage called The Garden), but the matchmakers (Amber Kelleher-Andrews, best-selling relationship author Tracy McMillan and professional dating coach Matt Hussey) do help guide these poor contestants who are isolated away from the advice of their family and friends. Each matchmaker also brings their own style to the table when it comes to choosing the women for each man, as well as in their coaching of both. 
 
 The men in this go-round include Dallas businessman Ben Patton, Plain White T's singer Tim Lopez, and philanthropist Ernesto Arguello. In the first episode we only meet Tim, who narrows down a field of twelve women (in groups of four, presented by each matchmaker) down to nine via a blind selection. That selection then kicks off a mind-boggling number of segments: the show hops all over the place, from the initial eliminations to a group date (where Tim's band performs for maximum cheesiness) to three individual dates (chosen by the matchmakers) to coaching conversations with the matchmakers. Half of the time is spent in front of a live studio audience, which compounds the natural awkwardness of the proceedings (let's just say, if looks could kill ...). Further, this play by play analysis of each moment makes dating feel more like a competition than ever before, with women being groomed and praised and chastised in terms of their budding connections with the bachelors. 
 
 VIDEO: 'Ready for Love': Plain White T's Tim Lopez on Finding Mrs. Right 
 
 The show drives home the point early on that people, left to their own devices, don't know how to date. Leave it up to matchmakers and yentas, apparently, because, as Amber says, "I wouldn't go looking for the CEO of my company at a bar!" But the whole things ends up feeling a lot like a Jane Austen novel: women are falling over themselves, desperate to do whatever necessary to lock down a man when the odds are stacked against them (and the focus is, of course, wholly on the man). 
 
 Bill and Giuliana Rancic, described as "America's favorite married couple" (really?), are kind of catty town gossips in addition to being the show's hosts. While The Bachelor's host Chris Harrison often keeps a poker face regarding the ladies, the Rancics, at least in the first episode, seem to not shy away from making their preferences known. They even instigate a little bit in studio segments, playing up to the crowd by goading one of the women to reveal details of a past intimacy. These moments are non-starters for the show, taking us out of the narrative element. They are in sharp contrast stylistically to the lush segments filmed outside of the studio, although too much glossy post-production work can make that also feel hollow. But these are early days. 
 
 Ready for Love seems to want to establish itself as something different so much that, in its exuberance, it's thrown in everything but the kitchen sink during its frantic premiere. None of these kinds of series are ever going to feel natural, because competing in a harem for a man you just met in front of cameras isn't normal. But Ready for Love does change things up enough to certainly keep things interesting, even though all of the old keywords, "fairy tale, best friend, soul mates, fate" are in play. With only Tim's story having been explored, it remains to be seen if Ben and Ernesto's moments just feel like seeing the same thing three times over. So far though, while Ready for Love seems worth flirting with for now, a chance at true love is rare indeed. ||||| Ah, the good ol’ days of reality shows, when networks were content to just knock off one existing hit. Today, the trend seems to be toward Frankenstein-like mash-ups, which explains NBC’s “Ready for Love,” an ungainly mixture of “The Bachelor” and any number of Bravo shows, with gameshow-style studio-audience elements of “The Dating Game” and relationship “mentoring” a la “Dr. Phil” thrown in for good measure. NBC launched “Ready for Love” on Tuesday with a bloated two-hour premiere. And while the soapy, dating-coach aspects could certainly tap into fans of the genre (particularly for the snark factor), one suspects many gawkers lured in via “The Voice” lead-in were ready for bed well before the show ended. 
 
 Although the program (produced by Eva Longoria, who provided an extended “We’ll show you the entire season in four minutes” introduction before disappearing) will focus on three bachelors who appear to need absolutely no help getting laid, the opener focused exclusively on Tim Lopez, the guitarist of Plain White T’s. As in “Hey There Delilah,” can’t you just go out and pick up groupies like a normal rock star? 
 
 But no, the divorced Tim is ready for you-know-what, and thus free to pick from among a dozen women assembled by a trio of matchmakers. Told by host Giuliana Rancic he would have to quickly jettison the first batch without the benefit of seeing them, Tim responded, “I’m not superficial,” which given the context might be the funniest thing said on NBC since “Frasier” signed off. (On the plus side, it was hard not to hum his band’s catchy “Rhythm of Love,” so Tim might wind up scoring in more ways than one.) 
 
 Add to the twists the fact Tim knew and had a complicated history with one of the women, which seems like a silly wrinkle, there strictly to tilt the playing field and heighten the drama. The commercial breaks, too, were almost comically exaggerated, as in, “The person I choose is” — click. 
 
 Frankly, NBC would have done the producers a favor by launching the show at an hour, instead of asking them to vamp through such a protracted winnowing process. “Over-produced” is seldom an insult in this genre, but “Get on with it, for crissakes” is. (Update: Ratings did show people tuning out as the show wore on.) 
 
 Other aspects of “Ready for Love” were equally puzzling. Bill Rancic, for instance, went unseen for long stretches, making one wonder why his wife needed him along for the ride as co-host. And it feels like something of a gamble to start over entirely next week with the other bachelors who don’t have chart-topping singles to go with their well-chiseled abs. 
 
 In hindsight, the night’s most clever moment actually might have belonged to Investigation Discovery, which (on the NBC station I was watching, anyway) dropped in a promo for its cheeky reality show “Dates From Hell” — piggybacking on what will likely be a much bigger audience. 
 
 Then again, as the women who were sent home can testify, all’s fair in love and war — especially when it’s being waged in front of a hooting studio audience. 
 
 Ready for Love 
 
 (Series; NBC, Tue. April 9, 9 p.m.) 
 
 Hosts: Giuliana Rancic, Bill Rancic 
 
 Produced by Renegade 83, UnbeliEVAble Entertainment and Universal Television. Executive producers, Jason Ehrlich, David Garfinkle, Greg Goldman, Eva Longoria, Jay Renfroe; co-executive producers, Susan House, Kevin Finn; supervising producers, Camilo Valdes, Stephen Hurley, Christine Grund; director, Alex Rudzinski; production designer, Anton Goss; casting, Robyn Kass. 120 MIN.
– Eva Longoria, apparently, is not enough of a draw to make her new reality series a success. Ready for Love premiered last night to big expectations, but actual viewers averaged just 3.7 million, according to Nielsen. NBC used The Voice as a lead-in, but Longoria's dating show—which she produces and hosts—managed to hold onto just 28% of Voice viewers, the LA Times reports. Critics weren't wowed, either: "Ah, the good ol’ days of reality shows, when networks were content to just knock off one existing hit," writes Brian Lowry at Variety. "Today, the trend seems to be toward Frankenstein-like mash-ups, which explains NBC’s Ready for Love, an ungainly mixture of The Bachelor and any number of Bravo shows, with gameshow-style studio-audience elements of The Dating Game and relationship 'mentoring' a la Dr. Phil thrown in for good measure." At the Hollywood Reporter, Allison Keene was only slightly more impressed. "Ready for Love seems to want to establish itself as something different so much that, in its exuberance, it's thrown in everything but the kitchen sink during its frantic premiere. None of these kinds of series are ever going to feel natural, because competing in a harem for a man you just met in front of cameras isn't normal."