How real are Amelia Dimoldenberg’s ‘Chicken Shop’ dates? She’ll never tell

Some of the feedback Dimoldenberg gets from her fans is that she represents a stand-in for the viewer. She leans into the awkwardness many are terrified of and breaks new ground with a pop culture figure they adore. If she can do it, so can they.

And yes, sometimes those dates actually elicit flirty banter.

“You get to see a side to the guests that maybe you haven’t seen before, and that all happens through the art of flirting,” she explains. “That’s how you get to see the real person.”

These dates … just how real are they?

As Dimoldenberg’s bookings get bigger and her follower count gets higher, she’s become a pop culture figure in her own right.

Walking with Dimoldenberg and her team through Rockefeller Center, a group of people recognize her. The word “chicken” could be heard. (“I will turn my head to ‘chicken,’” Dimoldenberg said later that day on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”) The fans ask to take pictures, each rotating in to stand beside her for a quick snap.

Part of being a celebrity in her own right means viewers often want to know how she fares on each date.

“There’s an element of realness to it for some people,” she says of her interviews. “Even when they are married or whatever, the realness is that they’re not interested, you know?”

So are Dimoldenberg and some of her guests actually flirting? She says she asks herself that same question.

“I feel like that’s one of the reasons that show has done so well, because in some ways, it’s genuine. Even if it’s just from my side,” she says.

Some celebrities have dealt it back, too. Matty Healy famously asked for that kiss, and she’s said there was a “chemistry” between her and Jack Harlow. Paul Mescal remarked to Dimoldenberg that she is “brilliant at her job.”

And then there was Dimoldenberg’s viral red carpet interview with Andrew Garfield that left so many people blushing, even The Guardian called it “real magic.” (“I think he’s into me, actually,” she told Hoda and Jenna.) Now, nearly two years later, Dimoldenberg and Garfield reunited for an official “Chicken Shop Date” that dropped Oct. 18.

“I have said before, I don’t see why I couldn’t meet someone, like a romantic partner, via the show. Maybe some people might think that is really deluded,” Dimoldenberg says. “I think part of me honestly believes, like, I am actually trying to meet someone and fall in love. And I think that genuine feeling is brought through within the show.”

How Dimoldenberg got down to business

Like her confidence, Dimoldenberg has been manifesting since she was a child, even before she knew there was a word for it. She told The New York Times in 2022 that she used to introduce herself with, “Hi, I’m Amelia. I’m going to be the editor of Vogue.” (While not there yet, she was profiled by British Vogue in April.)

But much of her success can also be chalked up to patience. It wasn’t until early 2019 that “Chicken Shop Date” turned a profit, she says. Before that, she wasn’t making any money from the episodes, and she had reached a point where she needed cash to keep producing.

She had some offers to sell the show, including one that priced the copyright for “Chicken Shop Date” at £500. Since founding the series, she has always had creative control, and “once you have that, it’s not possible to let it go,” she says.

“I meet so many content creators who don’t own their IP. So many of them, and I see them be stressed about it,” she says. “I think I’m really in a privileged position, especially as a woman. … Whatever kind of idea you’re wanting to start, own it, and it will be worth it in the long run, because you’ll honestly just end up hating your job.”

Not selling was a decision she calls “the best thing I’ve ever done.” But she needed to do something to keep the show afloat.

For the first (and likely last) time, she put out a sponsored series of dates with Voxi, a mobile network owned by the British phone company Vodafone.

“I made money from that deal, and then I was able to use that money to continue funding ‘Chicken Shop Date,’ and I’ve never had to worry about funding ‘Chicken Shop Date’ since,” she says.

Dating outside of the chicken shop

One of the results of “Chicken Shop Date” is the realization that interviews aren’t all that different from dates.

“There’s more similarities than there are differences, really, because you’re trying to get know someone,” she says. “With an interview, it’s very one-sided. I’m the one asking the questions. But on a lot of dates, it’s exactly the same thing.”

When it comes to Dimoldenberg’s dating life out of the chicken shop, she says, like her show persona, she considers herself to be “great at flirting” — maybe too great.

“If anything, I feel like my confidence intimidates men,” she says. “I don’t know if that’s helped me in a romantic sense. … I need to meet someone that can match my freak.”

Before it was a video series, “Chicken Shop Date” started as a column for a youth magazine. Prior to her first assignment at 17, Dimoldenberg had never been on an actual date with anyone. Nevertheless, going on a “date” with a local celebrity didn’t make her actual first date — at a cinema, “which, I wouldn’t advise,” she notes — any less intimidating.

To this day, she says she finds dating hard.

“I fancy a lot of people, but often they don’t fancy me back,” she says. “Statistically, it’s been hard for me to meet someone that likes me back at the same time that I like them.”

Ironically, her job as star, director and executive producer of a dating show can be a hurdle.

“I love my job, and I travel so much, and I’ve been in relationships before where you’re feeling guilty about prioritizing certain things,” she says. “It’s been actually really refreshing in this time of my life to not ever feel guilty.”

Nevertheless, one of her ambitions for the future is to fall in love.

“I feel so happy and content with my career, and how everything’s been going and all the things that are happening in the future. I want to work on scripted projects, and I’d love to create more things in visual media,” she says.

“It would be really fun to fall in love … but it obviously happens when you’re not trying to find it,” she adds, groaning. “So I’ll have to stop talking about it in interviews.”