OWN’s ‘Ready to Love’ Contestants on Why Dating in Washington, D.C. Is ‘Unique’

OWN’s Ready to Love is ready to bring romance to “Chocolate City” with season 4 of the dating reality series.

Thomas “Nephew Tommy” Miles returns to host the show, which focuses on singles in their 30s and 40s looking to find love and the right partner. This time, the series switches its location to Washington, D.C.

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Urban Hollywood 411 caught up with the cast,  which includes 20 successful singles (10 women and 10 men), for the scoop on the new season.

“Love was in the air — I think love was found,” Miles said during a virtual roundtable with reporters.

Frank, a 35-year-old cocktail brand owner, is a contestant this season and said D.C. is an interesting city to date because of its “unique” work culture.

“I would say D.C. is a unique market within its own. Not to say or knock any other market, but the level of professionalism kind of trumps a lot of our conversations when it comes to finding new partners,” he explained. “I will say this, I think as diverse as D.C. is, there often comes times when people will date within their specific occupation.”

“I think the one question we try to avoid because it’s become so generic in Washington, D.C. as an ice breaker is, ‘What do you do?'” he continued.

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Libba, a 44-year-old marketing professor, is originally from the D.C. area and wanted to find love close to home.

“I actually grew up here, born and raised. Born in D.C., raised in Prince George’s County and also Charles County. I’m very proud of this area. This area is filled with wonderful beautiful Black people and I feel like I wanted to be a great representation of it and I wanted to find a quality man here in the D.C. area,” she said.

The contestants said they were ready to return to the dating pool after enduring the pandemic without dating at all. 

“For me specifically, just being able to woo a woman or see if you still have it, you feel rusty a little bit being sat down for about a year and a half. It was interesting, but I think overall it was just a great experience just trying to get back out there and establish yourself,” Carrington, a 33-year-old nightlife marketing CEO, said. 

As for the appeal of Ready to Love, Miles imagines it’s because Black love is rare on TV.

“We rarely see it in our face, and to tune in every Friday night and be able to say, ‘Oh my god, this is what Black love looks like, and it looks good and it looks great and I’m pulling and I’m rooting for people,’” he said. 

So far the show hasn’t had a couple tie the knot, but Miles joked he might pay for the honeymoon when the show gets its first marriage. 

“I’m going to help, but I will make sure Will Packer throws some money in too,” he said with a smile about show producer Will Packer.

The series is produced by Will Packer Media and Lighthearted Entertainment and first premiered on OWN in 2018. Previous seasons of the unscripted reality TV dating series were filmed in Houston and Atlanta.

Ready to Love premieres Friday, Oct. 15 on OWN at 8 p.m. ET/PT.