Last Valentine’s Day, TODAY hosted its first-ever speed dating event, gathering 18 singles to mingle in Studio 1A on live TV.
Eli Friedman, 26, and Emma Gobillot, 28, were among the hopefuls who decided to give it a try — and are still together a year later.
Gobillot tells TODAY.com she heard about the opportunity through a friend of a friend. She didn’t want to go on TV, but she correctly thought Gobillot was the type “who would do it for fun” and recommended her. So, Gobillot went.
“Thought it would be funny and fun, worst case scenario. Or best case scenario, I end up meeting someone,” she tells TODAY.com as she squeezes Friedman’s thigh.
Friedman heard about the speed dating event through his roommate’s girlfriend, who convinced Friedman and his other roommate to give it a try.
“We were like, ‘Do we want to do this? Are we up for it?’ And just decided to go for it because, yeah, why not?” Friedman, who works in advertising, tells TODAY.com.
During the segment, prospective couples had three minutes to get to know each other as Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager interviewed them mid-date.
Gobillot, who works for a company that adapts books into TV shows, says she and Friedman had “instant chemistry.” Friedman used a line on her that she says shouldn’t have worked, but did.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I love your sweater. It looks great,’” Gobillot says. “And he’s like, ‘It matches your eyes.’”
She found the line “very suave” and felt a strong connection throughout the rest of their conversation.
Then, Gobillot asked Friedman what his ideal Sunday looked like. Friedman was shocked: That was the question he’d decided would be his ice-breaker, should he need one.
“I was already feeling good signs and then when that happened, I was like, ‘Oh we got to explore some more,’” he says.
Friedman’s ideal Sunday is a morning walk, a good meal and then a Ravens game. Gobillot’s is a long walk, coffee and a book. Today, they regularly live out their perfect Sundays — during football season, Friedman watches the game and Gobillot curls up with a good book next to him.
“When the time was up and we had to move on to the next person, I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to move on. I want to go back,’” Friedman says.
After nine dates each, the singles submitted a list of who they were interested in dating. From there, producers paired up couples.
Despite hitting it off, Friedman and Gobillot weren’t matched up at the end of the show. Friedman was paired with another single and Gobillot was told she hadn’t matched with anyone.
“We really had a connection, so I was surprised when we didn’t match,” Gobillot says.
Friedman, meanwhile, was “confused” to hear Gobillot didn’t have any matches, since he was “pretty sure” she had checked yes on him and he knew he had on her.
“I was matched with another girl who is also lovely, but as soon as the show ended, I said, ‘I think I should probably not let this die down,” he says.
He texted the TODAY producer after the show asking whether Gobillot had been interested in him. If she had been, he wanted her number. The producer revealed Gobillot had wanted to match with him. Five minutes after the segment ended, Friedman reached out.
“I sent some dumb message — ‘I’d love to go out, even if the TODAY Show isn’t sponsoring it.’ I think that was on Monday and then we went out on Thursday,” Friedman says.
“He planned a wonderful date,” Gobillot says, before Friedman jokes that it was just a bar. Gobillot corrects him by saying it was a “very cool bar.”
A year later, the couple returned to the TODAY Show on Feb. 13 to talk about their relationship where it all began.
“You found love on the TODAY Show?” Jenna asked the couple.
“Yes, ma’am,” Friedman replied.
The couple told TODAY that neither had ever tried speed dating before going on the show.
“And hopefully never have to try again,” Friedman added.
Jenna told the couple to come back and get engaged on the Plaza — and that she would happily marry them there, too.
But for now, the couple says they’re happy to focus on celebrating their one-year anniversary.
“We’re going up to one of our favorite little town in Maine called Belgrade,” Gobillot says.
The New Yorkers don’t think they would have met without a little help from TODAY.
“There’s really no overlap,” Friedman says. “I’m very grateful for the TODAY Show for putting us together. I think it’s hard for people when they’re trying to date to find someone that is outside of their circle, other than doing it online — so I think this is great.”
