Even though Pride month is over, the first all-queer reality programme has announced that production on its second season has come to an end. After a highly publicised first season, Variety reported that Netflix’s The Ultimatum was currently in post-production for a breakthrough second season. Will they or won’t they? was the first episode of a will-they-or-won’t-they show that followed six couples on the cusp of making a relationship-altering choice. In an eight-week journey with the couples, the show is hosted by real-life celebrity couples Nick Lachey and Vanessa Lachey.
They get to know one other during the social experiment by discussing their relationship troubles and hangups. A few weeks in, the pairs split up and have to choose who they want to live with for three weeks in order to deepen their connection with the other people they’ve met thus far. Some couples will break up, some will become engaged, and others will get married in the end. A cast made up completely of LGBT participants, most of whom are female, will take part in this year’s The Ultimatum instead of the show’s previous cast of solely heterosexual couples. In terms of the future of reality television and of the LGBT community, this is a huge step forward.
To a large extent, dating shows focus on pairing up females and males. This year’s reality dating programmes are more likely to feature heterosexual men and women than gay men and women, even if there has been some representation in the past, including MTV’s Are You The One? and Ex On the Beach, and even (throwback!) A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. Although some networks and streaming services, like MTV and Netflix, are getting it right and improving, shows like The Bachelor feel like they’ll be stuck in a heterosexual norm forever. Chris Coelen, Kinetic Content’s executive producer and CEO, is all about the prospect of bringing more LGBTQ+ love and tragedy tales to the public eye.
Coelen, an executive producer on The Ultimatum, Love Is Blind, and Married at First Sight, spoke about his excitement for the second season of the queer-only series. He has this to say about the upcoming episode: To me, the potential to tell a variety of tales from a variety of individuals is extremely fascinating, and it’s less about the format in which we tell those stories and more about the fact that we’re sharing those stories. ”
It’s wonderful that The Ultimatum’s creators appreciate the importance of diversity. Collider will keep you up to current on the show’s anticipated Season 2 release date as soon as it becomes available.