Woman of the Hour is the latest must-watch thriller on Netflix. The film is Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut and also stars the actress as dating show contestant Cheryl Bradshaw.

What is Woman of the Hour about?

The feature follows Cheryl’s appearance on hit US programme The Dating Game in 1978, on which she managed to ‘win’ a date with a real-life serial killer.

Terrifyingly, this story is based on a real-life nightmare.

What is the true story behind Woman of the Hour?

The Dating Game - which aired on and off for over 50 years between 1965 and 2021 - saw bachelorettes question three bachelors, who were hidden from her via a screen. Think the UK’s Blind Date. At the end of her questioning, the woman would pick one of the bachelors to go on a date with.

When Cheryl appeared on the show, the man she was paired up with was Rodney Alcala, a serial killer who had already murdered five women.

This chilling reality was of course unbeknown by Cheryl at the time, who was completely charmed by Alcala and his answers on the show. It’s unclear as to whether or not the producers knew about Alcala’s dark past though. The killer had spent 17 months in prison six years previously, from 1972, for raping an eight-year-old girl.

However, he wasn’t convicted for any of the murders he committed - before or after the appearance on the show - until 1980.

During her appearance on The Dating Game, Cheryl - an aspiring actress living in LA - asked her potential dates a series of questions, for which Alcala had some pretty creepy answers. At one point during the show, she asked the eligible bachelors: “I’m serving you for dinner. What are you called and what do you look like?”

Alcala replied saying: “I’m called the banana and I look good. Peel me.”

Another question asked by Cheryl was: “What’s your best time?” Alcala chillingly responded with “because that’s the only time there is… nighttime is when it gets really good.”

Describing himself, Alcala said he was a “successful photographer and amateur skydiver”. His reference to being a photographer took on a chilling meaning as he murderous crimes came to light - he used to photograph his victims after murdering them.

Despite Alcala’s strange answers, Cheryl liked him the most out of all her bachelor options, and chose to go on a date with him. However, once the lights went out in the studio and the show ended, Cheryl began feeling weird about her new date.

What happened to Cheryl and Rodney after The Dating Game?

In 2012, during an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Bradshaw claimed that Alcala had begun acting “creepy” after recording finished. In fact, his behaviour was causing so many alarm bells to ring that she turned down his offer of a date, which could have saved her life.

Speaking to the publication, she said: “I started to feel ill. He was acting really creepy. I turned down his offer. I didn’t want to see him again.”

Contestant coordinator on the show, Ellen Metzger, confirmed during an interview with 20/20 that Cheryl hadn’t wanted to go on a date with the killer. Bradshaw had called her to complain once she met Alcala properly after filming had finished.

Speaking to the news outlet, Ellen said Cheryl had argued: “I can’t go out with this guy, there’s weird vibes that are coming off of him. He’s very strange. I am not comfortable.”

Their date didn’t go ahead, which is very lucky for Cheryl, as there is every possibility that she could have ended up being one of Alcala’s victims.

Rodney Alcala's horrific crimes

By the end of the 1970s, Alcala was believed to have been responsible for the deaths of seven women. In 1979, just one year after his appearance on The Dating Game, he murdered 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. She disappeared after heading home from a ballet class on June 20, 1979. Her body was found 12 days later in the foothills of LA. Samsoe’s friends told police that a stranger had approached them on the beach, asking to photograph them. Detectives circulated a sketch of the mystery photographer, and Alcala’s parole officer recognised him. During a search of Alcala’s mother’s house, police found a receipt for the rental of a storage locker in Seattle. In the locker, they found the earrings of Charlotte Lamb - a woman who had been murdered in 1978.

Did Rodney Alcala go to prison?

In July 1979, Alcala was arrested and held without bail. He went on trial for the murder of Robin Samsoe and was found guilty. He was sentenced to death.

However, his sentence was overturned initially in 1984, as the California Supreme Court determined jurors hadn’t been informed properly of Alcala's previous crimes and introducing them in court tainted the trial. In 1986, a second trial once again found him guilty, and he was sentenced to death again.

In 2001, this was once again overturned after Alcala filed a federal habeas corpus petition. But new evidence came to light in old murder cases that pointed towards Alcala being involved. In 2010, Alcala once again stood trial, this time for the murders of a further four women, including the aforementioned Charlotte Lamb. Alcala acted as his own attorney during this trial, where he denied any involvement in the murders he was now being accused of. But, as before, Alcala was found guilty yet again, and sentenced to death once more.

In 2013, he was charged with another two murders, with a judge in New York sentencing him to a further 25 years in prison.

In 2021, over 40 years after being initially sentenced to death, Alcala died of natural causes in custody, while on death row. It’s believed that, while he was charged with seven murders, his actual victim count could have been as high as 130.

What happened to the real Cheryl from Woman of the Hour?

Meanwhile, not much is known about Cheryl at the time of writing. The only thing we do know is that thanks to her intuition, she avoided a grim fate at the hands of Alcala.

Alongside Anna Kendrick in Woman of the Hour, Daniel Zovatto portrays the serial killer. While the film isn’t 100% faithful to Cheryl’s experience, and there are plot points that don’t exactly match up to how things went down in 1978, it’s still a chilling look at how a vile killer managed to hide in plain sight on national television - and almost got away with yet another horrific crime.

Woman of the Hour is available to watch on Netflix now.