Is Bravo’s ‘Love Without Borders’ Anything Like ’90 Day Fiancé’?
International love stories spark a certain kind of intrigue. Crossing oceans and borders in the name of true love can spur on the romantic streaks in all of us — but also maybe the penchant for watching drama unfold. It’s why series like TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé are so hugely popular, after all.
This November, Bravo is hoping to get back into the matchmaking game (from its history with The Millionaire Matchmaker) while also putting its own stake in the international dating scene. The upcoming Love Without Borders will give participants the chance to find true love abroad while potentially leaving behind their jobs, homes, and families — for good.
You might assume LWB and 90 Day Fiancé are basically the same thing on different networks, but they’re actually fairly different from each other. Here’s what to expect from Bravo’s new reality TV show.
Bravo’s new ‘Love Without Borders’ offers a chance at international love
Love Without Borders will follow six Americans who have given up on love in the States. Instead, they’ll hop on a plane to an unknown destination and hope that the show’s professional matchmakers can help them find their “perfect” life partner. Bravo calls it a “bold social experiment” in the initial press release about the new show, and the label seems fitting.
Not only will the participants leave everything they know behind, but they’ll be exploring a new culture, all while trying to discern if their love matches could be the real deal. The goal of the show is to help the formerly unlucky-in-love cast members find their “one ideal match.”
The network doesn’t detail how long they’ll spend abroad, but they’ll have a potentially life-altering choice to make at the conclusion. “At the end of the experiment, they will be faced with the stark choice of leaving life as they knew it behind and starting over for love,” Bravo teases.
Unlike TLC’s ’90 Day Fiancé,’ pairs are professionally matched on ‘LWB’
At first glance, Love Without Borders and 90 Day Fiancé do seem similar: Both series are working with Americans potentially falling in love with partners from abroad. However, there are some stark differences between the shows.
For one, the suitors on 90 Day Fiancé move to the United States instead of the Americans packing their bags. In accordance with immigration laws on a K-1 visa, those couples then have 90 days to marry or call it quits and have the potential partner return to their home country. In this case, Love Without Borders is essentially flipping the process.
On top of that, couples on 90 Day Fiancé have already met and are ready to take the next big step in their relationship when the series begins filming. (There’s some skepticism about whether the couples are legitimate or not, but executive producers state the show has no involvement in the beginning stages of the relationships featured on the series.)
In the upcoming Love Without Borders, the Americans will work with a matchmaker, or perhaps a team, in hopes of being set up with their soulmate. Professional matchmakers can cost a hefty sum and potentially could yield better results.
‘Love Without Borders’ might have a different definition of success than ‘90 Day Fiancé’
There are undoubtedly similarities between the two reality shows. The couples will need to wade through immigration paperwork, navigate cultural differences, and adjust to melding their lives together all in a short time to determine if an international move is the next step. However, perhaps the biggest difference between the two is where the shows might end.
The goal of 90 Day Fiancé is to determine if wedding bells are in the near future. The couples live together for three months and then must decide if they’re getting married or going their separate ways. The stakes are high for the relationship, although most couples have already progressed through their relationship and think they’re ready for that long-term commitment.
Bravo’s Love Without Borders is vaguer about how things could end. For one, they don’t give a certain timeframe for how long the American participants will spend abroad. That could be due to the fact that different countries have different requirements or because the couples are able to take different amounts of time.
At this point, all we know is that Bravo will have each participant choose if they’re going to return home or “start over for love” in a new country. If travel visas allow for it, that could mean that a season of the show ends and couples are still together but unsure if they’ll get married.
Fans will get to learn more once Love Without Borders premieres on Bravo Wednesday, November 30 at 9 p.m. ET.
