Ready for love? TVNZ announces search for The Bachelorette NZ

Art Green and Matilda Rice met on series one of The Bachelor NZ and remain the poster children for reality romance.

TVNZ is embarking on a new reality adventure, announcing it will bring a local version of The Bachelorette to New Zealand screens.

The broadcaster has not confirmed when the series will screen but has officially launched its search for a leading lady, who will sign up to date multiple men in the hopes of finding true love.

Internationally, The Bachelorette is a top-rating format, that has attracted a number of high-profile women, including Australian pop star Sophie Monk.

In New Zealand, Three delivered three seasons of The Bachelor NZ, before dwindling ratings resulted in the network dropping the series.

But not before it gave the country one of our greatest national love stories - Art and Matootles. Art Green met Matilda Rice on season one of The Bachelor NZ in 2015, and the couple married earlier this year. The pair are now expecting their first child.

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We’ve only got a couple months or so to go til we meet Baby G, and I’m just sitting here faffing around on my laptop, thinking how insanely lucky I am to have such a top notch husbo to go through this bloody exciting journey with. Isn’t marriage THE BEST?!? 📸: @danellebohane #ArtHatesPDA #Butiloveit

A post shared by Matilda Green (@matootles) on Jun 30, 2019 at 10:53pm PDT

It also delivered some less successful pairings, including the season two shocker, when Jordan Mauger dump edFleur Verhoeven just 72 hours after she was named the show's winner, beating Nazanin Khanjani.

In 2017, Zac Franich chose Viarni Bright as his love match, but the pair split a year later. Franich is now engaged to former children's television presenter Erin Simpson.

Rumours that The Bachelorette was in development have circulated since The Bachelor NZ launched, but insiders said it had proven too difficult to find enough New Zealand men willing to sign up to the experiment.

Now, TVNZ has purchased the format rights and will begin the quest to find 25 Kiwi blokes willing to put their hearts - and faces - on the line in the name of love.

The series will be produced by Warner Brothers New Zealand, which also made The Bachelor NZ and Married at First Sight NZ.

• Applications are open now to women aged over 18.