The series premiered on 4 September 2008 on RTL. It is one of the longest-running Croatian reality series, having entered its seventeenth season in May 2024.
Format
For every new season, RTL broadcasts an episode where a set of farmers introduce themselves and their farms to the viewers. The farmers are usually male, but so far three female farmers haven been featured throughout the series as well.[1] After the episode airs, the viewers can apply to meet the farmer of their liking by contacting RTL via e-mail or phone. The viewers are required to write a letter where they introduce themselves to the farmer.
A few months later, after the application period expires, the farmers who received the most letters from the viewers qualify for participating in the series. The farmers get to meet the candidates that expressed interest in them in front of the cameras and invite a few of them (usually three to four) to their farms, where most of the series takes place. As the season progresses, farmers eliminate candidates one by one, until selecting a single candidate whom they take on a romantic journey.
Hosts
The series employs a host who guides the farmers and their candidates through the series. The hosts brings the letters to the farmers and occasionally visits their farms through the season to check on the progress of their relationships with the candidates.
Croatian actress and former television host Lorena Nosić hosted the first two seasons of the show,[2] until Marijana Batinić took over and hosted the show from season 3 to 12.[3] In March 2021, RTL announced that Anita Martinović is taking the role of the host starting from the show's 13th season.[4]
The series is a part of RTL's staple programming, having been on air uninterruptedly since 2008. Excluding the network's news programming, it is RTL's second longest-running original series, following culinary series Večera za 5 (Croatian iteration of Come Dine with Me), which has been on air since 2007.
For the first six seasons, the series employed a weekly format with one episode a week being aired. Since the show's seventh season, which premiered in 2016, the series airs several episodes a week. As of September 2023, with the premiere of the show's 16th season, RTL's streaming serviceVoyo releases each episode 24 hours before their television broadcast. As of 2019, the series also airs in Slovenia on Pop TV.[5]
Series overview
Season
Episodes
Farmers introduction
Original run
Farmers
1
12
4 September 2008
15 January – 14 April 2009
Mato Smolčić, Tomislav Copić, Ivan Đurašević, Franjo Kolarić, Petar Benčić, Marinko Sarić, Denis Tikel, Andrija Vitković[6]
2
14
10 September 2009
3 April – 22 June 2010
3
14
29 May 2011
22 January – 28 April 2012
4
14
8 July 2012
10 February – 3 May 2013
5
12
20 July 2014
2 October – 14 December 2014
6
14
5 June 2015
27 February – 23 March 2016
7
22
3 June 2016
3 October – 29 November 2016
8
25
15 May 2017
10 September – 1 November 2017
9
28
4 January 2018
1 April – 31 May 2018
Domagoj Škobić, Anto Vardić, Ivan Marenić, Boris Kovačić, Vatroslav Tijan, Miljenko Mišić, Josip Ćiritović, Dario Gašparić, Hrvoje Gregurić, Ivan Kosar, Mladen Vidulin[7]
10
25
11 June 2018
3 February – 13 March 2019
Dragan Ljiljak, Ljubo Bebić, Ivica Mušćet, Željko Bilić, Boris Kolesarić, Marko Skelin, Pavo Štivić, Jovan Karapandža, Miljenko Vrančić, Josip Krizmanić, Kristijan Vrban[8]
11
25
14 March 2019
8 September – 17 October 2019
Daniel Granja, Darinka Ljubica Goravica Green, Domino Santro, Srećko Ponjavic, Jack Vukoja[9]
12
25
1 May 2019
9 February – 18 March 2020
Dušan Golubovac, Hakija Špago, Ivan Putnik, Ivica Jurjević, Josip Tratnjak, Josip Vodička, Mihael Derdić, Miro Vojvodić, Stjepan Basarić, Stjepan Skočak, Valter Krastić[10]
Nenad Lekšić, Ante Brčić, Zdravko Tomešić, Tomislav Skejić, Ivo Lepeš, Darko Rožić, Damir Toplek, Branko Stanša, Krunoslav Pavlaković, Josip Ranogajec, Milan Milinković[12]
15
25
10 June 2022
14 March – 14 April 2023
Ivan Damijanić, Dragoljub Kostić, Zvonko Šantalab, Hrvoje Špoljarec, Nikola Macut, Milan Ercegović, Ljubo Šerman, Jerko Odžak, Siniša Marković, Đuro Osman, Ive Pavlović[13]
16
42
17 June 2023
6 September – 8 December 2023
Branko Jurković, Ante Munitić, Ivan Detković, Jožef Mastnak, Mijo Bošnjak, Miroslav Dekalić, Radoslav Biskupović, Stjepan Runtas, Tihomir Petrović, Vinko Gržan[14]
17
TBA
22 May 2024
9 September 2024 – TBA
Darko Školnik, Ilija Strinčić, Ivica Turas, Ivo Obreza, Manuel Mandić, Mate Begović, Sandi Hribernik, Toni Patrčević, Vjekoslav Šajnić, Željko Stipetić, Zlatko Jakupović[15]
Legacy
Success and impact
The show's main goal, which is to help farmers find love, was achieved numerous times with several romantic relationships of past participants continuing off-screen. By 2021, seventeen couples that meet on-screen got married after the show; eighteen children were born out of these marriages.[16]
Some participants of the show through the years gained attention from the Croatian public and media, becoming instant celebrities. Most notable examples include Nevenka Bekavac, a season 5 participant, whose bold personality attracted several Croatian outlets to write about her personal life after the series.[16][17][18] In 2020, Bahra Zahirović was quickly dubbed "the star of season 12" by numerous media due to her unique personality.[19] As reported by 24sata, her unique expressions became known as "Bahrizmi" (Bahrisms).
[20]
Controversies
As season 13 started airing in April 2021, one of the farmers was met with a negative reaction from the public due to his tattoo that contained Schutzstaffel's motto. RTL issued a public statement saying that all of the farmer's scenes will be completely removed for the rest of the season's broadcast.[21] Another farmer was disqualified shortly after he was introduced as one of season 14 farmers in June 2021. The disqualification occurred after RTL discovered that he omitted the fact that he has a child and lied about his mother abandoning him at the age of 13.[22]
A season 15 episode aired in April 2023 featured a farmer eliminating one of the female candidates by violently throwing cake into her face. Given the negative tensions between the farmer and the candidate, the fans deemed it violence against women and reprimanded RTL for airing such content. RTL issued a public statement expressing that the farmer's act of throwing cake was internet as a joke. The scene was removed from the re-run of the episode the following day and from the episode's release on RTL's streaming service (then RTL Play).[23]
^Kuterovac, Martina (9 April 2010). "Lorena Nosić: Nikada ne bih preko malih ekrana tražila ljubav života" [Lorena Nosić: I would never look for the love of my life through TV]. jutarnji.hr (in Croatian). Jutarnji list. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2024. Simpatična voditeljica Lorena Nosić vratila se na male ekrane u ulozi "posrednika" između seoskih mladića i njihovih potencijalnih djevojaka, u uzbudljivoj emisiji "Ljubav je na selu" [The adorable presenter Lorena Nosić returned to the small screen in the role of "mediator" between village boys and their potential girlfriends in the exciting show "Ljubav je na selu"]
^Danijela-Ana, Morić (26 March 2021). "Marijana Batinić otkrila zašto više neće voditi emisiju 'Ljubav je na selu'" [Marijana Batinić revealed why she will no longer host the show "Ljubav je na selu"]. tportal.hr (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 14 January 2024. Retrieved 12 July 2024. Besprijekorno je odrađivala taj posao i postala zaštitno lice emisije kojeg napušta nakon 12 sezona. [She did the job flawlessly and became the face of the show, which she is leaving after 12 seasons.]