SEARCHING FOR LOVE - HOOKING UP ON ABC WITH ONLINE DATING

Unchain their hearts. Having dissected hospital care, Boston politics and the New York City police department, ABC News producer Terence Wrong turns to the hot pursuit of Mr. Right through online dating in his latest summertime documentary series.

The five-hour Hooking Up, premiering Thursday and airing weekly through Aug. 11, is a dotcom meld of The Dating Game, Love Connection and The Bachelorette - all utilizing online dating personals. Its stars are a dozen real-life Manhattan women whose Cupid is the Internet. They're among the purportedly 40 million Americans who have used online dating services to meet up, make up and often break up with men of their dreams – and nightmares.

Hooking Up only uses New York City as its incubator, which seems a bit insular on the face of it. Still, cyber-dating and online personals obviously are a fact of modern life across the USA. Is it really any more impersonal or sometimes altogether creepy than a newspaper's printed "Personals" section? Should we feel envy or pity for a 35-year-old second-grade teacher named Kelly, who says in the second episode, "It is now Wednesday. I have been viewed 4,418 times" – in a bikini.

Review copies of Hooking Up's first two hours are devoted to the dating ups and downs of Kelly and five other women identified only by their first names.

Cynthia, 34-year-old manager of a hair salon, has a fallback "booty call" arrangement when she feels the need for sex without any strings. The urge usually hits after a first date also proves to be the last one.

"It exerts so much energy to do online dating," she says.

Claire, 26, is in ad sales. "Nick is awesome," she deduces after her initial encounter with a 27-year-old photographer. "I feel almost immediately that I want to see him again."

But Nick is downgraded to an average Joe when he makes the mistake of ordering a plain vanilla ice cream cone that she fears fits his personality. Claire breaks up with him online after their second date. She then arranges to meet 27-year-old music producer Josh, who is "not outrageously hot, not hideous," judging from his picture.

Lisa, a 36-year-old gynecologist, operates under the pseudonym Jennifer in early dates through online personals. She also lies about her occupation, believing men will bring an engagement ring if they immediately know she's a doctor.

Amy, 28 and in real estate, has recently moved from South Dakota. She yearns to make babies and is prone to test the equipment of men who interest her beyond two or three dates.

"I don't think God's going to fly Prince Charming through your bedroom window," she reasons. "You have to put yourself in position to meet someone."

Maryam, a 29-year-old art photographer, frets that one of her dates might be unsuitable at any speed.

"He has a gay voice. C'mon," she says.

The camera is unblinking, even if some of these women and their men at times are self-consciously aware of it. Every so often they play to the lens as though it were a third-party confidant, which in a sense it is. What happens here is all fair game, and it's remarkable how many of the men in these pictures are also willing to play along. Being on television can be a more powerful pheromone than the heady early stages of infatuation. Or so it seems.

Whatever Hooking Up is, it's not traditional hard news. Still, it's likely to be an easier sell than ABC's previous bird's-eye views of cops, doctors and politicians.

We watch the admittedly very choosy Cynthia embark on another date. And another. And another. In time, we get to know her better than the men she discards, and vice-versa.

In truth, she's not very likable. Then again, maybe she's not so bad.

However you feel, you're likely to feel something. All of the abundant kissing, telling and gamesmanship in Hooking Up just might be the beginning of a beautiful relationship – between viewers and ABC at least.