*LisaRaye McCoy is hosting TV One’s new dating series, “Asking for a Friend,” which premiered on February 9th.
Per the official synopsis, “Everyone has a best friend, and whether that friend is a sorority sister, a real sister, a coworker, or even an ex, everyone wants the best for their friends & family. Especially if they’re single and looking for love! “Asking for a Friend,” hosted by LisaRaye McCoy, on TV One is a modern, self-contained dating show in the vein of Netflix’s “Dating Around”, in which 2 single best friends looking for love, choose 2 blind dates for each other in every hour-long episode. Then to up the ante, the fun, and the unpredictability, each blind date will be a double date. That’s right, 2 besties double date 2 singles – that they’ve picked for each other – in one evening.
When TVOne was searching for a host for the show, LisaRaye was the only personality the network considered.
“Of course, that feeds a girl’s ego. That’s always great when a network calls you and says it’s you that we want because that takes away all the competition and all the other fluff,” LisaRaye told HelloBeautiful.
READ MORE: LisaRaye McCoy Announces the Passing of Her Mother Via Instagram
“When they told me it was a dating show, I understood why they chose me, first of all, because my single life is just as big as my career. It’s just as relevant as that. Everybody wants to know who I’m doing it to and who is doing it to me,” LisaRaye added.
“Right now, with the placement of racism, equality, brutality, and everything that’s going on right now that we’re fighting for, boycotting for, and voting for, the world needs love. Love is universal. Everybody’s looking for love. Everybody wants love. We’re trying to find love and I thought that this was a refreshing, light way to approach putting couples together to find love,” she continued.
Below are excerpts from LisaRaye’s conversation with Hello Beautiful.
LisaRaye on double dates and blind dates:
Both and any. Let’s be honest, we do have online dating, we have social media. I don’t think that any of my friends have been able to hook me up with anybody, but I’m open. I’m open to trying different ways. I don’t think any way is terrible because you just might find what you’re looking for. I would definitely go on a blind date because it could be fun. I’m a people person; I just like relationships, period. If something comes out of that, that somebody that I want to see more of, then hey, I take it from there. I’m not opposed to it.
LisaRaye on dating since the pandemic:
We’re not all the way out. Some of the dating places that you would go to accompany your significant other is still kind of off limits. I kind of still don’t want to be in public with so many people like a concert. I want to do more intimate things because I don’t care to have a movie date for my first date. That’s just hell sitting up watching TV in another forum, we not talking, and we’re not getting to know each other. I’d love to do something that enables us to be able to have a conversation with each other and engage in each other where I can see, can you make me laugh?
Are you witty? Are you spontaneous? Are you fun? I need to know what is your idea of a first, second, and third date? I don’t want to ask for anything that I can’t give either. I want to be able to give just as much of [myself] as I’m requiring him to give to me and wherever either one of us falls short, we’ll pick it up like a yin to the yang. Dating for me has changed because I’m a little bit more open, meaning I’m ready to mingle a little bit. I would love to go and start going to happy hours because happy hours are job people, people that got jobs. Because they’re getting off work.
I’ve been pushing myself to open up and do more because I don’t know where I’m going to find him, because hell, if I did know, I’d probably be standing on the corner looking for him. I don’t know if it was going to be the grocery store. I don’t know if I may see him at the spa. I don’t know if I may see him at a restaurant while I’m just simply eating by myself.
I don’t know, but I tell you this, I’m going to be well put together because I don’t really go anywhere while I’m not put together. I never go anywhere where I feel like, oh my God, you caught me looking like this or not at my best. I’m not that kind of girl, and that may come with maturity too. He’s going to eventually see me like that anyway, so if you catch me like that, then more power to you.
LisaRaye on what she looks for in a partner:
I need him to be God-fearing because I need him to know what his place is. Not just in society, but within our home, within the union of our relationship, which is the king, which is the provider, which is guiding me. I have to follow, I have to trust, I have to love, I have to have faith that we can grow equally yoked and grow together. I need him to be that so he can lead the family. I need him to be a family man because I have an awesome grandbaby that I’m like the second mother to, and that is love unconditional so she will definitely be around. I need him to be generous in every way, not just financially, but generous with his heart, generous with his knowledge, generous with being a companion, and wanting to travel and see the world and cater to me. I want him to be my friend. I want us to like each other.
Read the full interview here.
Catch LisaRaye on TV One’s “Asking For A Friend” at 8PM EST /7PM CT on Thursday nights.
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