More than a week before “The Ultimatum” premieres on Netflix, the dating series has been renewed for a second season, the streamer announced on Thursday amid an avalanche of other dating show news. Season 2 will follow an all-queer, mostly female cast.
The Kinetic Content-produced series follows six couples on the verge of marriage. While one partner is ready to take the next step, the other isn’t quite sure, and an ultimatum is issued. Over the course of eight weeks, the duo must choose to fully commit or move on.
For three of those weeks, each individual will choose a potential partner from other couples in the same situation and live together to get a glimpse of what their future could look like.
Chris Coelen, Eric Detwiler, Sarah Dillistone, Stephanie Boyriven, Kelly Montalvo and Chris Cullen serve as executive producers.
“It’s based in a very real relatable conversation and situation for for many, many people — either you’ve been in that situation or you’ve known people who are in that situation,” Coelen tells Variety of the premise. “What’s fascinating is when you actually look at the reasons that people give for not being ready, there are a multitude of reasons — ‘I come from a family background of bad relationships. I don’t want to repeat my past’ or ‘I’m not ready, I’m too young’ or ‘I need to be financially stable.’ There may be some validity to some of those reasons, but the real reason is that they’re not sure that they want to marry this person that they’re with. Most of those things that they say are our excuses, and it’s very common.”
Since the situation is so common, Coelen was excited to dive into it for the show, which he teases is very “addicting” to watch.
“We allow them to choose another partner that they think has qualities of someone that they would want to potentially marry and and get an opportunity to live out a trial marriage with that person,” he explains. “They have two trial marriages: one with the person they choose and one with their partner that they come in with.”
The producer adds, “For the participants, it’s incredibly powerful. It does teach them something, I think, at the end of it. It’s full of emotion and hope. I’m really proud of it.”
While Season 2 of “Love Is Blind” was airing, Variety asked Coelen if he had considered doing a sexually-fluid season of the fellow Netflix dating show.
“For sure. I love to tell stories. All kinds of people have all kinds of interesting stories. To be able to tell as many different kinds of stories as we can, I think is great and something to aspire to,” he said at the time. “If there was a fluid version, everyone would have to be completely isolated from everyone else because everyone would be an option. Is that something that we could do? In its current form, I think it’s difficult because of the way that everything is structured. You wouldn’t be hanging out in the lounges with people because those people could be possible love interests for you. So certainly, I’ve thought about it, and what I will tease you with is that we want to be representative in all kinds of ways and we are figuring out ways to do that.”
The first eight episodes of “The Ultimatum” premiere on Wednesday, April 6, with the final episodes dropping on Wednesday, April 13.