What makes for a dream date? Is it red roses? Champagne? What about your future boyfriend dating, uh, your mom? That was the premise of the mid-aughts MTV reality dating show Date My Mom, in which people went on dates with the mothers of prospective partners to see if they’d be a good match. The result was a raunchy, cringe-worthy nugget of television, featuring moms fielding questions about their teens’ sex lives and whether or not they were team Christina or Britney.
Highly scripted and filled with zany stunt dates, Date My Mom was a snapshot of reality TV history when the genre was just beginning to find its footing. Here Jezebel staff writer Ashley Reese and pop culture reporter Hazel Cills talk about the legacy of the show and the era’s obsession with MILF culture.