ABC's "Hooking Up" is being described as a TV documentary about Internet dating rather than a tawdry reality show centered on sex and the single girl.

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Executive Producer Terence Wrong compiled the series from 1,100 hours of footage shot over 14 months, Zap2it.com reported.

"When I first proposed the idea, I didn't know that 40 million Americans were currently online dating -- at least, that's what the dating sites claim," he told the entertainment Web site.

The show follows a dozen New York women as they try to develop "meaningful relationships" based on sparse and sometimes even false Internet profiles posted by men that Wrong calls "bottom feeders."

The women are of a much higher caliber than their male counterparts, Wrong said.

"These are not the kind of stigmatized, desperate losers that people have thought of in the past," Wrong said of the women profiled. "You have the prom queens, everyone from stereotypically beautiful models and actresses to really successful wage earners."

The five-episode series premieres Thursday on ABC.