Everyone loves a good reality love show, but for far too long now, we have only seen straight love represented. Thankfully, we now have two new queer love shows to sink our teeth into. It seems that the formula of Love Island has been working well for eight years, so will these new queer reality love shows take the same route, or create their own path?
What Is Love Island?
Love Island was created in 2015 and has run for 10 series. It sees around 10 singletons fly out to a villa in the sun to try and find love. Throughout the show, singletons talk to each other in hopes of finding a connection. Once they have all coupled up, new people called ‘bombshells’ enter the house and have been known to rip apart couples.
As the couples get voted off by the public and their fellow contestants, it ultimately gets down to the final three couples. The victorious couple win £50,000 between them. So what about the queer reality shows that have followed?
The Ultimatum: Queer Love
The Ultimatum aired on Netflix in late May. The premise sees one person from each of the five lesbian couples give their partner an ultimatum. Either they get engaged, or they break up.
During the first week of the show, the 10 women mingle and try to find someone whom they think they could have a stronger connection with over their original partner. After ‘recoupling’, the new five couples then enter a trial marriage for three weeks. During this time, the women need to figure out if they are enjoying life with a new person enough to leave their original partner, or if this time has shown them how much they value their life before.
After the three weeks, the original five couples reunite for a second trial marriage. Here they have conversations about how they see their future as a couple.
The final episodes will see each person make one of three decisions. They can get engaged to the person they arrived with, engaged to a new person, or leave single.
As well as giving us some brilliant queer, women loving women representation, The Ultimatum also has a brand new take on the reality love show which in itself is very refreshing.
I Kissed A Boy
I Kissed A Boy is closer to Love Island in its format, but they have clearly made efforts to make it exciting and different. Hosted by Danni Minogue, we see 10 gay men enter an Italian farmhouse, referred to as the ‘Masseria’.
Once at the Masseria, the men are then paired up based on who production thinks is their strongest match, based on what kind of person they are looking for. Before the pair can even introduce themselves, they have to kiss. Will it be a moment of passion or a cute little peck?
The boys must then get to know their new partner and see if they can picture a relationship with them. After some time, there is a ‘Kiss-off’ where boys can choose to kiss their current partner or stir the pot by kissing someone else. It seems to be a different take on Love Island’s recoupling.
It has now been announced that a spin-off of this show, I Kissed A Girl, will begin filming in September 2023. This version will be the exact same format with lesbian couples instead.