NBCUniversal’s Peacock has announced a hot new reality dating show — but, you know, not really.
In an early April Fool’s Day stunt, Peacock announced a new show with language-learning app Duolingo: “Love Language,” purportedly following 10 “confident and flirty singles” from across the globe coming together “to share a house in paradise in hopes of finding true love.” The catch: None of them speaks the same language.
But the only thing real about the show is the trailer, which is available on the Peacock and Duolingo apps and on social channels (watch below).
The setup for the faux Tower of Babel-style dating competition goes like this: The sexy singles must take daily Duolingo language lessons and find a match by the end of each episode — or they’ll be kicked off the show by “the show’s iconic host and merciless judge, Duo the Owl.”
In a nice touch that amplifies the joke, the trailer for “Love Language” features Francesca Farago (pictured above), who has appeared as a regular on Netflix reality dating shows “Love Is Blind,” “Too Hot to Handle” and “Perfect Match” (and has garnered 6.1 million followers on Instagram).
The fake show has real business goals: As part of the promotion for “Love Language,” visitors are offered 50% off three months of Peacock Premium (for a one-time payment of $7.49) through April 19. The ad-supported version of Peacock is regularly $4.99/month. In addition, you can sign up for one month free access to the Super Duolingo service (regularly priced at $6.99/month).
Amid the highly competitive streaming landscape, NBCU is focused on ramping up Peacock’s paid subscriber base — and in January ended signups for the free version of Peacock. The company reported 20 million paid subscribers for Peacock as of the end of 2022, more than doubling from 9 million a year earlier. For full-year 2022, Peacock had an adjusted loss of $2.5 billion, which Comcast expects to increase to about $3 billion in 2023, marking the year of peak losses for Peacock.
Courtesy of Peacock
Watch the trailer for the fake “Love Language” show: