I Asked Netflix’s Reality TV Boss Why So Many Men On Dating Shows Are Terrible

When Brandon Riegg joined Netflix a decennary agone to caput up its world TV programming, helium had 1 main rival successful mind: ABC’s The Bachelor.

But Riegg felt that show—which is presently successful a tailspin aft canceling its latest play owed to a home unit incidental involving would-be bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul—was “contrived,” with its “tug-of-war” implicit radical dates and outings astatine Italian chateaus. He wanted to make thing that felt much “authentic” to modern dating, helium says.

It worked. The streamer debuted its blind-date-turned-engagement show, Love Is Blind, successful 2020, and it’s since been viewed 215 cardinal times and expanded into 9 markets astir the world, making it the cornerstone of Netflix’s expanding slate of world programming. The network’s different fashionable offerings see Love connected the Spectrum, which follows daters with autism, and the recently launched and already renewed Age of Attraction, wherever contestants’ hold revealing their ages until they perpetrate to each other. (One pairing included a 60-year-old antheral and 27-year-old woman.)

Still, these successes person travel with their stock of criticisms, including from me.

As I've antecedently written, portion Love Is Blind was refreshing erstwhile it broke onto the scene, the men successful the past fewer seasons person felt progressively plucked from the blimpish manosphere. The astir caller Ohio play featured Chris Fusco, who compared himself to influencer and alleged quality trafficker Andrew Tate, bragged astir being “dominant,” and broke up with his fiancée Jessica Barrett for not moving retired enough. Another contestant, Alex Henderson, was a crypto bro who professed his emotion for President Donald Trump.

Combined with the changeless speech (pressure?) astir having babies and offputting radical dynamics—several contestants look to person struggled erstwhile their spouse was revealed to beryllium a idiosyncratic of color—it made maine wonderment if Netflix is leaning into radical with blimpish ideals to entreaty to the governmental right.

Riegg, who is Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction bid and sports, tells maine that’s not the case.

“Half the state voted for Trump, right?” helium says. “Depending connected wherever you go, you're going to person conscionable luck of the gully successful presumption of whether it's much left-leaning oregon much right-leaning. And I deliberation we're neutral connected that.” (In summation to Ohio, the past fewer seasons person taken spot successful Denver, Minnesota, Washington DC, and Charlotte, North Carolina.)

Barrett, a wide doctor, has said successful interviews that she screened each the men connected Love Is Blind, asking if they voted for Trump—but nary of that was shown connected screen.

Riegg says Barrett’s screening questions apt weren’t included due to the fact that producers prioritize “story,” but that helium witnessed the aforesaid anxiousness erstwhile trying to acceptable up a pistillate friend.

“She's like, ‘Just marque definite he's not MAGA.’ To her, that was apical of mind. And I was like, ‘Oh, I don't cognize what helium is.’ I hadn't adjacent thought of that.”

According to a 2025 survey from DatingAdvice.com successful concern with the Kinsey Institute, celibacy is connected the emergence among young people. And among Gen Z women who place arsenic voluntarily celibate, 64 percent identified authorities arsenic the reason.

More broadly, Riegg concedes that it’s hard to find “quality men”—and not conscionable for tv purposes.

“You cognize however galore large pistillate friends I have? And I bash not person astir capable large feline friends to acceptable them up with,” helium says. “So I deliberation that's astir apt a broader issue.”

Prior to moving astatine Netflix, Riegg worked successful world TV astatine some NBC and ABC, overseeing hugely fashionable shows similar The Voice, America's Got Talent, and The Biggest Loser. The latter, on with America’s Next Top Model, has been the taxable of a Netflix documentary that exposes behind-the-scenes controversies and instances of intelligence accent among the contestants.

Riegg says he’s not acrophobic astir a tell-all astir Love Is Blind popping up successful 10 years due to the fact that Netflix holds itself to a precocious “duty of care” standard, including providing formed members with entree to therapy.

Asked if world TV is inherently exploitative, helium says, “You're not forcing anybody to bash anything.” And a quarter-century aft Survivor’s debut solidified the high-stakes template for modern world television, helium adds, “I don't deliberation anybody's unaware of the pros and cons of doing that stuff.”