TV Shows

Image: Netflix

Netflix launched its latest dating reality TV show Jewish Matchmaking in May, and it’s already sparking new interest among young singles to try the age-old practice.

According to Jewish Unpacked, matchmaking is ancient but gets a fresh new look on the Netflix series, hosted by Aleeza Ben Shalom, Dating Coach and Matchmaker. One of the contestants is content creator Cindy Seni (who has also hosted videos for Unpacked), who was contacted by the production team to audition.

“I was making a lot of reels about being single,” Seni told Unpacked. “So I was sent an email, and then I just applied as a joke at the beginning, because I had just gotten out of a relationship. And I was like, Well, why not? You know, if someone’s gonna find me a husband, it’s going to be Netflix.” 

Netflix dropped its first trailer for the new series The Ultimatum: Queer Love, which will premiere on the streaming service in May.

The trailer is a departure from the original Ultimatum series because all of the couples on the new dating reality show are LGBTQ+ for the first time. According to The Pink News, the new series promises to “showcase more stories of love, relationships and the ups and the downs of commitment” with “brutal honesty” as each couple hits a crossroads in their relationship.

Notably, as show creator Chris Coelen promised last year, this installment would feature “an all-queer cast made up of women and non-binary people.”

Image: Netflix

The wildly popular dating reality series Perfect Match has been renewed for a second season by Netflix. The series debuted in February of this year and spent five weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10 English TV list, and reaching the top 10 TV lists in 58 countries, according to Deadline.com.

The show doesn’t introduce new singles to its audience – instead, it brings together stars who remained single after they left other popular dating reality shows like Love is Blind, The Ultimatum, Too Hot to Handle, and The Mole.

The characters convene on a tropical island (per usual for reality shows) and try to find their “perfect match.” The twist is that the singles have to compete to form relationships, and the most compatible couples have the most power. These couples play matchmaker, with the ability to break up others and send them on dates with other singles they invite to the villa.

Image: Bumble & Netflix

Dating app Bumble has teamed up with leading streaming service Netflix to launch a game that is themed around some of its most popular shows, including Emily in Paris, Squid Game, Selling Sunset, and Stranger Things, among others.

According to Netflix’s blog post, the new game called Netflix Nights In will challenge matches to find out how deep their knowledge goes about their favorite shows by answering questions like: “How much was Davina’s infamous listing in Selling Sunset?” In a twist, the game requires matches to answer the question before responses are revealed, and both will be able to see their compatibility based on their answers.

Stars from fan favorites like Ashley Park from Emily in Paris or Jonathan Daviss from Outer Banks will present new questions each week in the app, according to Netflix.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble will offer a real-life Bantr on its platform, the fictional dating app made famous on hit TV series Ted Lasso.

Starting October 13th and through the end of the year on Thursdays at 7pm, Bumble is offering Bantr Live, and operates much like the fictional app, according to the company’s blog post. When you decide to play, you won’t be able to see or swipe on other daters’ profiles. Instead, you will be paired at random to strike up a text chat with someone who matches your location, age and gender preferences, but you won’t be able to see photos or their profile (just their name). Much like Bantr on Ted Lasso, these events are meant to spark conversation ahead of seeing what someone looks like to make for a more genuine match from the start.

Participants get three minutes to decide if they want to keep chatting, and then they are matched with the next participant to see if a connection can be made. At the end of the event, users can see who matched with them. At this point, they will be able to see the profiles and photos of these matches.

Bumble’s first original series to launch in India, Dating These Nights, was so popular it is back again with a third season.

The teaser for the series includes candid interviews with singles and celebrities about different topics of modern dating that don’t often get discussed openly. The series went live September 2nd on the company’s YouTube channel, and features filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, popular actor Mrunal Thakur, and star of the recently released film Darlings Vijay Varma, among others.

According to ANI Business Wire India, the first episode is entitled “Romances and Bromances” and features a conversation between Akhtar and actor Jim Sarbh to discuss what “healthy masculinity” looks like today.