KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — For most people on a dating show, the person helping them navigate romance is part of the production team, but for Malaysian Olivia Law, her wingman was her friend Yuki Chong.

The Johor natives are among the participants in Wingman, Mediacorp’s new 12-episode Singapore reality dating show, adding a Malaysian dimension to a format that draws on the growing popularity of dating shows across South-east Asia.

For Law, 29, that meant having Chong, 25, by her side as she navigated the dating experience, while Chong had to help create opportunities for her friend to connect with the other contestants.

The pair had never appeared on a reality dating show before and only decided to audition after coming across an online casting advertisement.

“We stumbled upon an ad online looking for people for a dating show, and I thought it was interesting because you could go with a friend. I told Olivia, ‘Why not?’ because she had been single for a while and I was also single,” Chong told Malay Mail.

The experience brought together two friends with very different relationships with reality television.

Chong moved from Johor to Singapore about four years ago and works in marketing while pursuing content creation, dance and singing, whereas Law has lived in Singapore since completing her SPM and comes from a finance background.

Law was already familiar with Asian dating shows including Single’s Inferno and Transit Love, while Chong rarely watched reality television and had previously been more interested in music and performance than acting.

On Wingman, the roles were clear: Law was the single looking for a partner, while Chong was there to help her navigate the process and encourage connections, particularly when Law felt shy.

“As the wingman, my job is to create opportunities because she can be a bit shy in the beginning,” Chong said.

The format also puts the friends themselves into the action, with wingmen taking part in games and challenges that can determine who gets dates with the singles.

For Law, the experience was different from the Korean, Japanese and Chinese dating programmes she was accustomed to watching, partly because of the Australian director and producer behind the show.

Filmed over 15 days in March, the experience also forced both women to adjust to living in a villa surrounded by cameras, interviews and fellow contestants.

Chong, who was already comfortable in front of cameras through her work as a content creator, found that reality television required her to do something counterintuitive — ignore them.

“I’m very sensitive to cameras, so when I see one, I’ll look into it. But in a reality show, you cannot look into the camera. You have to act like it’s not there,” she said.

Law’s challenge was less about the cameras than what was happening in her own head.

She found herself overthinking her answers during interviews, while nerves and shyness sometimes prevented her from expressing herself as openly as she would have liked.

“Because I was nervous and shy, I couldn’t fully express myself on the show. I feel a bit regretful that I didn’t just show my full potential,” she said.

The experience nevertheless left both women with lessons that extended beyond dating.

For Chong, appearing on the show reinforced the need to separate her own experience from the opinions of viewers and online commenters, something she has also encountered through content creation.

Law, meanwhile, said the experience pushed her to be more open and willing to take opportunities outside her comfort zone.

“People always say, ‘You only live once.’ To me, it’s more like, ‘You only die once.’ You have to do things when there’s an opportunity,” she said.

Wingman is now giving the two friends a new connection to the regional entertainment scene, even as they return to their own interests.

Chong plans to continue creating content while remaining interested in singing, dancing, music and acting, while Law is focusing on travel and lifestyle content and is open to acting, variety programmes and future dating shows.

For two Malaysians who answered an online casting call because they could go together, Wingman has taken them from watching Asian dating shows to becoming part of a Singapore production with a wider South-east Asian audience.

Wingman is currently available to watch in Malaysia on YouTube and the Mediacorp platform.