Lifetime’s new show Love at First Flight brings together four perfectly matched couples to meet for the first time and then sends them off on a monthlong travel journey across the continent with an option to get married at the end of the trip.
Johnson, founder and CEO of Dallas’ Singles & the City, is half of one of the couples. Although the filming of the show is finished, Johnson is not able to reveal how her trip ended. For all we know, she could already be a Mrs.
“Being on the show was absolutely — I mean, I don’t want to speak too soon — but it was a really fun time, and we had the best crew, and I got matched with a really great guy,” Johnson says. “All the filming’s done; it’s wrapped up, but we’re watching it back with the rest of the world. So far it’s been very transparent and very true to what happened. I’m proud of what’s been shown so far, four episodes in.”
The casting producers of the reality show found Johnson on social media.
“They hit those DMs," she says. "So keep your DMs open for casting — they’re stalking folks. You never know.”
The producers asked her to go through an extensive matchmaking process. She spent hours taking long personality tests, talking to a psychologist about her results and surrendering her personal information to TV matchmaking.
Compared with other dating shows, Johnson says Love at First Flight has “more longevity. To see how they interact with different people, different environments, bad things that happen randomly, it’s a good overview of who the person is in the moment, and it’s something people don’t get a chance to do when they’re dating, going out and getting dressed up once a week versus being with someone for a long time and have them seriously no filter be themselves.”“I’m a big foodie, and not getting the chance to research and go to the best restaurant — that got on my nerves because they have your days planned, and we don’t know what we’re doing." – Stephanie Johnson
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The fact that the show puts couples through travel challenges to test compatibility and readiness for marriage makes Love at First Flight stand out. The couples had a schedule with specific places to go and things to do as determined by the show’s creators.
“I’m a big foodie, and not getting the chance to research and go to the best restaurant — that got on my nerves because they have your days planned, and we don’t know what we’re doing,” Johnson says. “The best part of traveling was all the new places that I’ve been meaning to go to that I didn’t get a chance to go to and then traveling with an amazing partner. Michael is like the best travel partner ever.”
Johnson was supportive of the show’s concept.
“Meeting someone, and supposedly they’re your perfect match and you have to be like stuck with them for like a month traveling — it’s actually a good practice for dating if people could really do this, you know,” Johnson says. “I stand by traveling with someone that you’re dating 100 percent.”
The show’s first six episodes are available to stream on Lifetime’s website.
