Speed dating anyone? Yasmin gets the chop...

Has Channel 10 no heart? Forget ratings... what about Yasmin's future? After the lowest rating premiere of any prime-time program in the last DECADE [!] (props to JR-E for allowing me to borrow the square parentheses) on ANY channel, they've axed not only her show but her chances of happiness. The plucky 29-year-old recruitment manager barely had time to reject her first suitor before the pin was pulled. The question remains: Is Channel Ten still contractually obliged to find her a husband? Or does it work the other way? Will Yasmin find herself in court if she remains single? Will Ten try and recoup their embarassing loss with a "Jess and Marty"-style wedding special? I just wonder what made the Ten executives decide to put away their Cupid bows and arrows and reach for the calculator and a hatchet. Perhaps they realised that a live show based almost entirely around a panel of experts (pronounced "wankers") gobbing off about their own pathetic relationship histories and spouting pseudo-psychological maxims was always doomed to be put in the "maybe I'll watch Home and Away" bin. Perhaps they felt poor old Yasmin was unloveable, or maybe even (heaven forbid) that the entire concept was at best a freakshow and at worst shithouse. I was intrigued though at Yasmin's comment in the debut episode (yes, I was one of the few Australians "edgy" enough to be interested in what Ten described as a "bold new initiative") that she was "ready to get married", as if getting married was like changing hair colour or buying a labradoodle. Although to be fair, Yasmin had set aside nine weeks to be introduced to a man, then go on a date accompanied by a production crew, then marry him, whereas buying a dog can usually be wrapped up on Thursday night at Castle Towers or the Marrickville Metro. Perhaps viewers thought that a network treating marriage on a par with other decisions like buying a house or getting a Brazilian was a bit crass. Perhaps Ten will realise that just because a show falls within the "reality" genre (remember, YGM slotted right in to Big Bro's timeslot), that doesn't mean it won't suck.
But what does the future hold for Yasmin? Will many men be keen to hook up with the girl who couldn't find a partner, even with the aid of a nationwide television campaign? Would he (if he's out there) find it too awkward introducing her to his mates? Or would men be scared off now that it's public record that she's desperate to get her hooks into a man, and thinks a touch over two months is an appropriate timeframe in which to achieve that goal?
Beware speed daters, things could get ugly at a moodily-lit corner table near you....

FOOTNOTE: I always liked Ryan Phelan as the occasional "Tim Webster's drunk and not here" fill-in Sports Tonight host, but having seen him on the panel of YGM, it has become apparent that he is a knob jockey of Darren Beadman proportions