It’s the perfect date; a three-day, all-inclusive cruise to an exotic destination with a sexy single of the opposite sex. But there’s a catch: it’s a blind date. And there are cameras following your every move, stare, gawk and slip up. Throw in a sarcastic host who makes fun of your every move, and you get “Shipmates,” the guilty pleasure of college students and housewives nationwide, which began its second season this fall.

The second season promises more outrageous voyeuristic thrills, but no guarantees that any of the couples will be compatible. In fact, according to creator and executive producer John Tomlin, most of the time the two singles aren’t compatible.

“There are a few people who still keep in touch,” Tomlin said of previous matches. “But most people don’t. It’s really hard to find somebody to fall in love with.”

Despite its low success rate, “Shipmates” still attracts hundreds of applicants each week, through online submissions, recruiting at singles bars and clubs by casting departments in Hollywood, Fla. and New York City and walk-ins. The applicants then go through a rigorous screening process. After being interviewed in person by someone in the casting department, they fill out a lengthy questionnaire, followed by more interviews including both a video interview and a one-on-one with Tomlin himself.

Despite the lengthy application process, Tomlin admits that the matching up part of the process is the least stringent. In fact, he says there is no method to it at all.

“The first season we thought we were smart enough to just match them up, but we realized that we’re not that smart,” Tomlin said. “We don’t know what anyone is looking for.”

Tomlin also admits that blind dates that happen in real life hardly ever work out. “I interview all the people that go on the show, and I always ask, ‘Have you been on a blind date?'” he said. “Most of the people who have been on blind dates say it didn’t work out.”

Tomlin, who got his start working as a producer for WBZ-TV straight out of graduate school at Boston University, may not know what people are looking for in love, but he certainly knows what television viewers want. A sort of syndicated television guru, Tomlin and partner Bob Young are the creative team behind syndicated gems such as “Inside Edition,” “A Current Affair” and “Judge Mills Lane.” While Tomlin has worked on many projects, he credits “Shipmates” as his current favorite. Tomlin said he and Young came up with the idea for “Shipmates” by watching other successful syndicated shows.

“It’s particularly hard to sell new [syndicated show] concepts,” he said. “Relationship shows like “Change of Heart” were doing so well, and people seem to be interested in them. So we began working on relationship genre concepts.”

After deciding that the relationship genre was the way to go with a new show, the idea for a cruise ship-based dating show fell into place when Tomlin made a deal with Carnival Cruise lines. The three-day cruise premise is what makes “Shipmates” unique.

“If you go on a blind date for one night to a restaurant or something, you’d usually be polite and you can hold it together,” Tomlin said. “But if you’re together for three days, it’s a little harder to stay composed.”

“Shipmates” host Chris Hardwick agreed. “Essentially they are trapped for days and that lends itself to people being a lot more expressive about how they feel about each other,” he said.

And usually, the feelings are not warm and fuzzy. The show continues to show episode after episode of blind date disasters. Why would anyone volunteer to be humiliated on national television? Hardwick offered some suggestions.

“It’s a free cruise, it’s different,” he said. “All of the people on the show are from the east coast so they’re not actors. I guess it’s just something to do.”

Hardwick did point out that the second season is going to be even more outrageous than the first.

“The second season of a show like this is always interesting,” he said. “People who go on the show are people that have already seen the show, and when they’ve already watched the show, they sort of think to themselves that they need to be more interesting than what they’ve seen before.”

The second season also promises contestants such as a well-known racecar driver, “Penthouse” and “Perfect 10” models, and New York City police officers. The second season of “Shipmates” also holds a new format for the show that includes a generic beginning and ending for the shows and voice-overs by Hardwick instead of the old in-studio clips.

The new format gives Hardwick, the host of late `90s MTV dating show “Singled Out,” a chance to work on other projects including movies. He has completed work on two upcoming films, “House of 1000 Corpses” and “Terminator 3,” both due out in 2003.

As far as “Shipmates” goes, the second season is already under way. You can catch it weekdays on Channel 38 at 9:30 p.m.