{"id":383171,"date":"2026-04-09T12:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/383171\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:42:17","slug":"i-asked-netflixs-reality-tv-boss-why-so-many-men-on-dating-shows-are-terrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/383171\/","title":{"rendered":"I Asked Netflix\u2019s Reality TV Boss Why So Many Men On Dating Shows Are Terrible"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Brandon Riegg joined Netflix a decade ago to head up its reality TV programming, he had one main competitor in mind: ABC\u2019s The Bachelor.<\/p>\n

But Riegg felt that show\u2014which is currently in a tailspin after canceling<\/a> its latest season due to a domestic violence incident involving would-be bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul\u2014was \u201ccontrived,\u201d with its \u201ctug-of-war\u201d over group dates and outings at Italian chateaus. He wanted to create something that felt more \u201cauthentic\u201d to modern dating, he says.<\/p>\n

It worked. The streamer debuted its blind-date-turned-engagement show, Love Is Blind, in 2020, and it\u2019s since been viewed 215 million times and expanded into nine markets around the world, making it the cornerstone of Netflix\u2019s expanding slate of reality programming. The network\u2019s other popular offerings include Love on the Spectrum, which follows daters with autism, and the newly launched and already renewed Age of Attraction, where contestants\u2019 delay revealing their ages until they commit to each other. (One pairing included a 60-year-old man and 27-year-old woman.)<\/p>\n

Still, these successes have come with their share of criticisms, including from me.<\/p>\n

As I’ve previously written<\/a>, while Love Is Blind was refreshing when it broke onto the scene, the men in the last few seasons have felt increasingly plucked from the conservative manosphere. The most recent Ohio season featured Chris Fusco, who compared himself to influencer and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate, bragged about being \u201cdominant,\u201d and broke up with his fianc\u00e9e Jessica Barrett for not working out enough. Another contestant, Alex Henderson, was a crypto bro who professed his love for President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Combined with the constant talk (pressure?) around having babies and offputting racial dynamics\u2014several contestants appear to have struggled when their partner was revealed to be a person of color\u2014it made me wonder if Netflix is leaning into people with conservative ideals to appeal to the political right.<\/p>\n

Riegg, who is Netflix\u2019s vice president of nonfiction series and sports, tells me that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf the country voted for Trump, right?\u201d he says. \u201cDepending on where you go, you’re going to have just luck of the draw in terms of whether it’s more left-leaning or more right-leaning. And I think we’re neutral on that.\u201d (In addition to Ohio, the last few seasons have taken place in Denver, Minnesota, Washington DC, and Charlotte, North Carolina.)<\/p>\n

Barrett, a liberal doctor, has said in interviews that she screened all the men on Love Is Blind, asking if they voted for Trump\u2014but none of that was shown on screen.<\/p>\n

Riegg says Barrett\u2019s screening questions likely weren\u2019t included because producers prioritize \u201cstory,\u201d but that he witnessed the same anxiety when trying to set up a female friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s like, \u2018Just make sure he’s not MAGA.\u2019 To her, that was top of mind. And I was like, \u2018Oh, I don’t know what he is.\u2019 I hadn’t even thought of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a 2025 survey<\/a> from DatingAdvice.com in partnership with the Kinsey Institute, celibacy is on the rise among young people. And among Gen Z women who identify as voluntarily celibate, 64 percent identified politics as the reason.<\/p>\n

More broadly, Riegg concedes that it\u2019s hard to find \u201cquality men\u201d\u2014and not just for television purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how many great female friends I have? And I do not have nearly enough great guy friends to set them up with,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I think that’s probably a broader issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to working at Netflix, Riegg worked in reality TV at both NBC and ABC, overseeing hugely popular shows like The Voice, America’s Got Talent, and The Biggest Loser. The latter, along with America\u2019s Next Top Model, has been the subject of a Netflix documentary that exposes behind-the-scenes controversies and instances of psychological stress among the contestants.<\/p>\n

Riegg says he\u2019s not concerned about a tell-all about Love Is Blind popping up in 10 years because Netflix holds itself to a high \u201cduty of care\u201d standard, including providing cast members with access to therapy.<\/p>\n

Asked if reality TV is inherently exploitative, he says, \u201cYou’re not forcing anybody to do anything.\u201d And a quarter-century after Survivor\u2019s debut solidified the high-stakes template for modern reality television, he adds, \u201cI don’t think anybody’s unaware of the pros and cons of doing that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Brandon Riegg joined Netflix a decade ago to head up its reality TV programming, he had one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8627,146,85,46,400,9028,8443,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-383171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dating","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-netflix","13":"tag-streaming","14":"tag-television","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}