Although Steve Ward makes his living matchmaking and love
coaching, the most meant-for-each-other hookup of all may be Steve and
VH1.
Tough Love,
the VH1 series based on his successful matchmaking business and
value-added relationship philosophies, has become one of that network’s
top ratings-getters. Viewers have responded to the series with the
love/hate mixed emotions of tough love itself. Some call it ugly and
sadistic. Others call it necessary medicine. Yet America comes banging
at the door, begging to be let back in, week after week. It’s now in its
second season, with, as they used to say on Love, American Style,
more love to come.
Focusing on a group of lonely ladies who seem to be looking
for love in all the wrong places, Steve plays the good cop and
the bad cop of love. He steps in and steps up, enforcing and forcing,
wrenching, watching, questioning, probing, tapping, poking, drilling,
and helping these participants inch their way (hopefully) toward
fulfillment and self-realization. Will they? Keep watching, sucker. At
the very least, they’ll get a foothold on that tough road called the
right path. He’s like the Mike Rowe of Love: it’s a dirty job, but
somebody has to get down in the sewer so that the rest of us can
function.
Damn
you, by the way, if you think you are any better than these vulnerable
trainees. You’re watching a boot camp without having to put on the
boots, but part of you is right down there, on your belly, writhing with
them. Face the truth, if you can handle it: you need a dose of tough
love yourself. Right?
Even Steve does not claim this stuff to tickle. He says,
“It’s really just a matter of looking at yourself in a different way and
saying, ‘what can I be doing differently to get the results that I
want?’ I feel like everybody can improve in their love life. I don’t
think anybody is doing it perfectly. You could be doing things a little
differently that might improve that relationship. And improve every
aspect of your life.”
Throughout the course of the season, the girls get schooled
in everything from “what it takes to make a man go ‘wow!’” to examining
father issues and other darker anxieties and roadblocks.
“What we try to preach on the show is [how to be]
introspective” Steve says, “and to be willing to consider other people’s
opinions. And not staying so steadfast in your belief.”
Because this is not kid’s stuff or for sensitive hearts,
Steve comes well equipped and battle ready.
“I grew up around it,” says the Philadelphia native. “My
mom [Tough Love co-star and business partner, JoAnn Ward] has been matchmaking since I was
a little kid. She’s always taught me right and wrong when it comes to
dating and rel
ationships.
Once I started doing it full time after graduating from college, I made
it my full time occupation. I read voraciously on the
subject of love and
self-improvement I do a lot of collaborating with peers. I just continue
to educate myself and try to share my insights with other people.”
Their Philadelphia-based service, Master Matchmakers,
reaches its loving but firm hands out to the four corners of the nation,
bringing people together, and more.
“Mom was always doing it professionally, ever since 1985,”
Steve says. “Even earlier than that, she set up her uncle with his wife,
and her brother with his wife. When she remarried, she set my father up
with his second wife. She ended up introducing her sister-in-law to her
husband. And that was all before she ever turned a buck doing it. My
stepdad, who I call my dad, encouraged her to go out into the dating
industry in the mid-eighties and she’s been doing it ever since.”
When a production company tracked them down for a possible
series, they were a bit skeptical, but VH1 was looking for love from a
male point of view.
“When they called at first, my mom hung up on
them,” Steve
says.
However,
like a perfect, loving relationship, the TV show has done wonders for
the family business. How's that for symbiotic?
“Master Matchmakers has blown up,” Steve says. “We have
more people contacting us than ever before. We’ve developed different
types of services to offer in addition to just matchmaking because the
response has been overwhelmingly women. So if we want to find a way to
continue to service these women but we don’t necessarily have men to
match them with, there are still things we can do. We can coach them. We
can help them date on their own. There are different packages that we’ve
created for people who are looking for a little bit of support in their
love life.”
In the meantime, there is always the TV to keep us warm
(as well as a companion book published by Simon and Shuster,
called Crash Course in Love, co-authored by mom JoAnn).
“There are a lot of people who are really affected by the
program,” Steve says. “I’m not just acting. It’s not just entertaining.
It’s not just traditional shock-value programming. It’s informative.
It’s educational. I appreciate that people are learning from what I’m
doing. They’re applying what I’m doing on my show to other areas of
their lives. That’s exciting to me.”
CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT STEVE WARD HAD TO SAY
TO US IN 2012!
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