"HOOKING UP," A NEW DOCUMENTARY SERIES FROM ABC NEWS, GOES INSIDE THE UNPREDICTABLE WORLD OF ONLINE DATING

Five-Part Series Premieres Thursday, July 14 at 9:00 p.m., ET

Once stigmatized as the last resort of desperate souls and lonely hearts, today internet dating services are a billion-dollar industry used by an estimated 40 million Americans. "Hooking Up," a new five-part documentary series from the producer behind the award-winning ABC News series "Hopkins 24/7," "Boston 24/7" and "NYPD 24/7," offers an intimate look at the sometimes bewildering, often hilarious, and occasionally frightening world of online dating. Like the "24/7" series, "Hooking Up" puts a particular aspect of our culture under a microscope, focusing in this case on the yearnings, trials and tribulations of eleven Manhattan women. Their experiences - the connections, the rejections, the dating disasters - are a reminder that, for better or for worse, every date is an adventure into uncharted territory. "Hooking Up" premieres THURSDAY, JULY 14 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network, and continues Thursday nights at this same time through August 11.

In the first hour -- "Hooking Up, Part 1" -- Cynthia, who manages a hair salon, goes on a nightmare date with a man who describes himself as a "slim Fabio," but isn't exactly what he advertised. She also has dinner with a date who apparently finds his meal finger-licking good, and she's shocked when he asks her to help pay the check. Claire, an advertising executive, goes on two dates with a man before deciding there's no chemistry - which becomes more clear, she says, when he orders his vanilla ice cream cone without sprinkles. But then sparks fly in her next online dating experience. And Lisa, a gynecologist, explains why she never tells guys what she does - or reveals her real name -- on a first date. Her strategy seems to backfire on date number two with a plastic surgeon.

Terence Wrong is producer and executive producer of "Hooking Up." Brad Hebert and Bryan Taylor are co-producers. Rudy Bednar is the senior executive producer and Phyllis McGrady is the executive-in-charge.