When Love is Blind season seven was filming in Mexico last year, the show’s executive producer, Ally Simpson, got a call.
It was from a field producer, with some startling, yet encouraging news about the six couples they had chosen to follow out of the pods post engagement and into real life.
“He called at the end of the getaways and he said, ‘I think there’s a chance we get all ‘yeses’ this season,” she tells Glamour.
Yeah, not exactly. Thus is the unpredictability of our favorite love “experiment;” even the production team can’t accurately predict what will happen. When season seven—which features singles from Washington DC—premiered earlier this month, some fans grumbled that after a deliciously drama-filled season six, the couples from the nation’s capitol were a little too stable.
But this past week’s episode drop turned that notion on its head. Once arriving home, the couples have dealt with drama ranging from three (!) secret sperm donor kids to a sexting scandal involving a sleep study (?), and one of the couples, Stephen and Monica, have already broken up (due to the aforementioned sleep study sexting).
And if you thought episodes 7-9 were wild, Simpson promises even more shockers to come.
“I think with each batch [of episodes] there’s new, interesting things…Each couple had at least one very, very, very surprising moment for us,” she says.
Simpson and Chris Coelen, the show’s creator and executive producer, answered our burning questions about Love is Blind season seven, from WTF was up with that duck lady to how they try to ensure they aren’t casting a bunch of wannabe influencers.
COURTESY OF NETFLIX
Glamour: This season has had a lot of twists and turns, from love triangles in the pods to some, let’s just say, interesting revelations once the pod-sters returned home. Which couple’s journey overall surprised you the most?
Ally Simpson: Probably Ramses and Marissa. They were two people who took the entire experiment very seriously. They’re not the only ones who did, but they did. And part of that process was really questioning, digging from beginning to end, so that you find layers with them.
Ramses and Marissa did have some pretty intense and ultimately fascinating conversations, like when they discussed their differing views of military service.
AS: I think that’s something we really are proud of on this show and feel lucky that we get to do. You’re not going to have people having those conversations on most unscripted shows out there just because it’s not the setting for it. And I think what’s so cool on this is we are just portraying the conversations that they actually have. Of course those are conversations you’re going to have before you get married, and so we feel like we get to dive into topics that you really don’t see on TV and it’s something we get really excited about.
Of course, the cameras can’t capture everything. There was one fight in particular, between Tim and Alex in episode 6, where fans felt a bit thrown off because the actual argument wasn’t shown. Did it just happen when you weren’t filming, or was there a reason it didn’t air?
AS: It happened off camera. We’re pretty respectful; they can have that conversation the next morning and they say their piece. It’s not really on us to say, well, what exactly did you call him? What exactly did you say? I’m not even going to ask that question at the reunion. To us, it’s like there are certain things that are just not icky but it’s not the point of Love is Blind. They both know what they said and know what happened specifically and they felt comfortable enough to continue moving on based on the conversation they had the next morning. And I truly don’t know what she called him. I don’t know.
Speaking of episode 6, let’s talk about the Duck-Gate. Who was the woman who rode the duck with Nick? Where did she come from?
AS: She was hanging out on vacation. We didn’t know her. She came up while he was over there, she could see cameras. She was asking him what show it was and probably joined in because there were cameras there and some people want to be a part of that. We ultimately had her sign a release because she had done that, but that was it. She went away. That was it.
After Duck-Gate, Hannah told Nick she got the “ick,” which ended up being a buzzword for the women this season. Why were they all saying that? Did a producer say it at some point and it just caught on?
AS: Not at all. The first time I ever heard it, I’m 47, I remember going, oh my God, if I wish that [phrase] existed when I was young. You knew that’s what it was, but people would just say you were picky. Using that phrase, the ick, is like, that’s exactly what it is. So I have no idea where it came from. I will say every season, every group they have their catchphrases and I will come home and be like, oh my God, I know what the latest, what the kids are saying. But it’s also regional.
Let’s talk about Leo and Brittany. A lot of fans were surprised when they were chosen not to go to Mexico, especially given the possibility of, let’s be real, good TV. Why were they not picked?
Chris Coelen: Every season we have a budget. I don’t want to get too in the weeds on production, but we’re budgeted with five crews and sometimes like, oh my God, can we stretch to six? We have never figured out a way to follow more than that. We’ve had more people, we’ve had eight couples get engaged some seasons and we just can’t. As cool as it would be, it just becomes a logistical nightmare to both follow people on the field, but also to tell their story on the program. It’s just a lot of story. To tell that many stories in an hour gives short shrift to everybody.
AS: We took more couples than we ever have all the way through…We ultimately are choosing to follow the couples that we feel have the best chance of getting all the way through the experiment.
Last season there was a lot of drama, and ultimately only one couple ended up getting married. Some fans love the drama, some hate it, but did that season change your approach in any way?
AS: I think it’s hard for people to believe that we have no goals…Chris and I hardly know the ins and outs of what’s going on until the weddings. You can’t begin to shape it and tell these stories until you know who gets married. We truly, truly, truly just document it…there is no goal for it.
If anything it is regional. There can be a feeling about a cast; whether it’s maturity or immaturity or they’re a little bit more partiers and they’re not. I love season six. I love the season six cast. I think they’re, they’re funny. The season six cast is really funny and they’re very lovable. I think the DC crowd is mature. It’s not that things don’t happen. They absolutely still had bumps in their journey, but they were handled largely in a more mature way. So it was thoughtful conversations more than, or tears more than yelling.
Would you ever consider doing a different demographic for the show, say a “golden” Love is Blind?
AS: I would love to. It’s not ever come up in a serious conversation between us and Netflix or anything like that.
The show is now in its seventh season, and as a lot of reality dating shows mature it becomes harder to gauge who is actually there “for the right reasons.” Have you changed your approach to casting now that the show is such a known entity?
AS: I think the only shift has been, and I wouldn’t even call it a shift, I think it was there from the beginning, but we agree that skewing a little bit more on a mature side, whether that’s age or general maturity, does help. I think we want successful endings, we want successful marriages and relationships, and so when maturity is a part of that, it definitely, I think you can see that in the end result. There’s little things where we’ve said, like season one or two, we weren’t going to consider anyone who had children. We have become a little more open-minded.
There are so many people who have an online presence of some kind, but we are really, conscientious of trying to find people who seem to have sincere intentions in coming and are not just doing it to boost an online profile. I think those two things can exist together, but you can kind of tell what the primary reason is.
CC: Listen, we’re not infallible, right? We are not holier than thou at all. But I will tell you…for the people who choose to get married in the end the vast majority of them have stayed together…The people who have chosen to get married, there is no other method that I’m aware of in human history that has a better percentage rate of people staying together than Love Is Blind, which is cuckoo.
It’s such a rigorous process. It’s very emotionally intense…to be part of that and to watch these people form these relationships for real, that last their lifetime or at least five years so far since we’ve been doing it, is incredibly cool. And on a personal level, that’s really cool.
