Love and marriage are certainly a gamble, but they are definitely not a game.

If you talked to television executives at the Fox and ABC networks, they may see it differently. They probably see these sacred bonds as ratings and dollar signs.

It’s easy to fall in love when you’re in the perfect bubble of circumstances, amidst lighting and make-up artists.

It seems the forced marriage proposals and decisions made in front of America are becoming some sort of new warped reality craze.

Joe Millionaire: disgusting, but I’ll still watched it.

The Bachelor: so sad to see women a little older than me competing over one man.

The Bachelorette: the woman who “lost” the first bachelor on ABC actually wants to go through it again after she was convinced she was madly in love with Alex, of the first show.

Along with these shotgun televised wedding programs, I think dating shows are corny. On the other hand, the result is nowhere near as defaming as The Bachelor, Bachelorette and Joe Millionaire.

Michael Jackson was on The Dating Game when he was younger, and where has he ended up? He is looking like a Mattel version of Diana Ross dangling his toddler off of a hotel balcony.

That may be an extreme case of dating shows gone awry, but I find it hard to believe that all the beautiful people chosen for dating shows have a difficult time finding a date.

Isn’t “it” supposed to happen when you’re not looking?

One of the highlights of the Joe Millionaire night was listening to the women’s reactions to “Mr. Right” himself – Evan Wallace.

One woman said all she could picture was Gaston from Beauty and the Beast riding his mighty steed.

Mighty steed?

Right.

The boy tried to get back on his horse and he bumped his head on the saddle. If that had been me, I would have burst into laughter making fun of my clumsiness.

What were the women’s reactions? One contestant said how down to earth he seemed because he bumped his head on the saddle. How sweet.

By her standards, I would be the most down to earth woman because I’ve lost several pairs of pantyhose this winter because I’ve slipped on the ice.

If none of this is disgusting you, you still have time to become a part of the marriage craze.

Fox Network is still accepting applicants for their next marriage program, Married by America. The concept of this show is that the American public will decide which two people are a match made in television heaven.

There are guidelines, probably to prevent such disasters as their previous marriage stint, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?

According to the 2000 Census, 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, and people are getting married at an older age.

Many people chose not to even marry; there are eleven million unmarried people living with an unmarried partner in the United States today. This number has grown 72 percent in the last decade alone. Even though it’s technically illegal for an unmarried couple to live together in Massachusetts, households here containing unmarried adults have increased significantly by 66 percent since 1990.

The marriage and dating shows are entertaining by all means. Watching single people fumble over their single life foibles is fascinating, but also disheartening.

For those people who do wish to marry, is this what love is going to be reduced to?

In the meantime, I’ll just stop worrying about it. I’m young and I can still laugh at elder people who desire something that only network television can provide: true, honest love.