AS each male contestant steps out to impress a panel of single women, every ‘bachelorette’ on stage nervously waits in anticipation.

This scene from ntv7’s dating reality show Take Me Out is so tense, you can almost hear a pin drop, save for prompting from polished-to-perfection hosts Julie Woon and Nazrudin Rahman.

For the contestants, making a great first impression could mean they are one step closer to meeting the love of their life, and there is no room for even the slightest of errors

On each episode, the guys are given a few minutes to ‘sell’ themselves with a quick introduction, a video about themselves and a talent showcase. If they manage to capture the attention of one of the ladies on the panel, the couple will then go on a date (highlights of this are shown on Take Me Out Extra on Sundays at 3pm) to get to know each other better.

Just like with most TV shows, what goes on behind the scenes remains a mystery to most TV-watchers.

Most of us have no idea what goes on before and after the cameras stop rolling, how the contestants ended up on the show or even how the crew members set out to recruit participants.

Crew members Sean Jesudasan, Annie Zainal Abidin and Shazreena Mohd Kassim worked on the show, where each week four bachelors step up to impress a panel of 30 single ladies from all over the country.

The dating reality show is a first for Sean, Annie and Shaz. They have worked on reality shows before, though none were quite like this.

'Take Me Out' crew members Sean Jesudasan, Annie Zainal Abidin and Shazreena Mohd Kassim.

By far, the biggest challenge was finding contestants (90 women and 60 men) who would be willing to put themselves out on TV and make known their quest for true love, and also face the possibility of getting rejected in front of the whole country.

“It was a big challenge for all of us, we’d never done something like this before – a dating show where you cram 30 women into a small room,” jokes Sean, 28, who is a content producer on the show.

“As we went on, casting became a problem, it was quite difficult to find people to join the show. It was a new show and people are conservative here. The next one was finding people who could commit – there are 15 episodes and our recordings were every weekend,” explains Annie, 24, a script writer on the show.

Shaz, Sean and Annie worked with the crew to set up auditions and used all the means they could think of to find participants.

“We had call-outs and open auditions, and we managed to find people through word-of-mouth and going through contacts,” says content producer, Shaz, who is 27.

Next was setting the tone for the show, and keeping the content interesting for both the contestants and the audience.

Reality show 'Take Me Out' is hosted by Nazrudin Rahman and Julie Woon (centre).

“It was a new show with a new concept,” says Annie. “Coming up with the first script, the rundown, was a challenge. The aim of the show and the messages that we want to send out to our viewers had to be clear. They couldn’t be the same as the show’s United Kingdom version, that’s 10 times more flirty, this is a bit different.”

Personality-wise, those who were shy needed to come out of their shells a little, while the ones who were outspoken and outgoing needed to tone down to not outshine the others.

“We really didn’t want all 30 girls to be brash and out there,” explains Sean. “We told them to be themselves but be the best versions of yourselves, which isn’t unlike real life when we go out speed dating. We always try to give ourselves an edge.”

When it came to the talent portion of the show, the crew put a lot of effort in to encourage the guys to steer away from their comfort zones and to try and find something interesting to present to the ladies, and the audience.

“Most of the guys said their talent was singing,” says Shaz, 27. “You definitely don’t want to see all four guys singing every episode. We asked them to come up with other ideas, for example one guy actually learned flair bartending in a week. Another guy learned fire-eating.”

In the end, spending every weekend on set and working late for days on end were worth it for Sean, Shaz and Annie.

“Seeing the contestants get together and become friends are really rewarding,” expresses Sean. “They actually meet up regularly to watch the show, and get together quite often just to spend time with each other.”

Only time will tell if the ‘romantic’ relationships on the show will turn into something lasting, but for now the trio are happy that the show is a success, on and off air.

* Take Me Out airs every Friday at 8.30pm, and Take Me Out Extra on Sundays at 3pm on ntv7. To find out more, head to www.ntv7.com.my/takemeout.