It does look like Netflix has continued its foray into dating shows. And this time, the streaming giant is raising the stakes even more with The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On. Also hosted by celebrity couple Nick and Vanessa Lachey, it is a dating show that essentially puts couples through the ultimate test – going through a trial marriage. Just like other dating shows, however, this one also opens up the possibility of discovering love with a completely different person.
Such an experiment has led to some of the messiest (and cringiest) moments in dating show history. Viewers saw couples fight over jealousy, money, and everything in between. There was even some physical abuse that occurred while filming was underway.
Indeed, The Ultimatum has become Netflix’s most controversial show yet. And as it turns out, however, viewers already had an issue with the series even as it was preparing to make its debut.
The Idea Was To Do A Relationship Experiment That’s Relatable
Chris Coelen, The Ultimatum creator, is no stranger to dating shows. In fact, his company, Kinetic Content, is also behind Love Is Blind and Married at First Sight. And clearly, Coelen isn’t done with dating shows just yet. “We love the relationship space,” he even remarked.
Now, the idea behind The Ultimatum is to focus on issues that make or break every relationship – commitment.
“Look, an ultimatum is a very relatable thing and the situation that the couples find themselves in is very relatable,” Coelen explained.
“It's about am I willing to commit to you for the rest of my life? So starting off of that impulse and relatable idea, we felt like if you put a group of couples together who are all seriously thinking about getting married and all potentially questioning their relationship in the long-term, and allow them to choose one another based on things that they thought that they might want in their future, that's going to be a really interesting window in a different possible future."
Meanwhile, just like what they did on Love Is Blind, Coelen and his team chose to specific locale for casting. “We also wanted to do the same thing in The Ultimatum because if someone is going to make a choice, we wanted it to work for them in the real world,” he added.
Moreover, to find the right people for the show, they also reached out to community groups and utilized social media.
This Has Been The Viewers' Number One Issue With The Show From The Very Beginning
Sure, other dating shows had promoted the idea of people going out with multiple prospects to find ‘the one.’ In The Ultimatum, however, the focus is, oddly enough, couples who may already be taking the next step in their relationship sooner rather than later. In every pairing, one is already thinking about marriage while the partner has some hesitations.
By entering the show, couples would supposedly figure out if they should remain together and settle down or break up for good. This is done by forcing them into two trial marriages – first with someone else’s partner and then, with the original partner they joined the show with. For viewers, they knew right away that there was going to be trouble considering the general profile of the cast that came on the show.
In particular, viewers seem to have an issue with the age of the cast. Specifically, it seems too soon for the group to consider settling down.
“The show cast is way too young,” one Redditor wrote. “I felt like at times I was watching kids. College mindset kids. Too young and immature to really embrace the meaning of love and the value of a relationship.”
There are users who also believe that the show should have opted for a slightly older cast. “I hoped there would be 30+ years people, but most of them are just college graduates, too young for marriage, especially guys,” one user posted on Reddit. “They don't know yet what to do with their life.” Another Redditor also remarked that the couples were “too immature and self-centered” to be getting married.
Meanwhile, Coelen himself was asked about the contestants being relatively young. And the creator pointed out that in some societies, there is pressure to marry quite early in life. “Listen, Austin is a very cool, progressive place that I love, but there are also certain areas where the pressure to get married happens at different stages,” he explained. “Sometimes people feel more pressured to get married earlier than other people do.”
At the same time, it wasn’t really the age that Coelen and his team focused on during the casting process. Instead, they wanted to bring in various people who can genuinely become interested in each other. “We weren't matching these people up into their new relationships, they were doing that on their own,” he said. “But we wanted to make sure every person who was participating in the experience had people that we felt like, at least on paper, that they would be interested in.”
Love it or hate it, Netflix has already renewed The Ultimatum for a second season. This time, it is believed that the reality show will center on an LGTBQ+ group of cast members.
