Love Is Blind gives new meaning to “I’m not here for the right reasons”

It’s now a fact for any major dating show that people aren’t really there to find love.

That pattern has become so common that The Bachelor has coined a damning slogan for it. If a contestant is on the show only for fame and influence, or at least can’t hide that mentality, she is branded as “not here for the right reasons.”

However, even among shows that stand out for chasing glory, this season’s dramas Love is blind They have been amazing.

As the show has aired over the past few weeks, a series of off-screen accusations have recast several main contestants (here’s looking at you, Trevor and Jeramey) in a new and unflattering light.

Specifically, they suggested that these contestants were already in other serious relationships while filming the show or shortly before participating in it. (Jeramey has refuted these claims and Trevor has not commented.)

It’s a detail that further undermines any plausible suggestion that the show is dedicated to helping people fall in love and not simply a vehicle for more Instagram followers and a cushy influencer career.

As your vanity says, Love is blind asks people to go out and engage with others unseen to prove how much appearance matters in a relationship. The show’s dedication to that premise, however, is seriously tested by the persecution of its contestants’ influence and by the producers’ willingness to cast individuals who have no commitment to the concept on which it is based. .

This season’s off-screen scandals, briefly explained

two of the greats Love is blind This season’s dramas have focused on men who have a serious partner or a recent partner who chooses to go on a dating show.

The first concerns Jeramey Lutinski, a construction department manager perhaps best known on the show for staying out. until 5 in the morning with another woman – Sarah Ann Bick – while her partner – Laura Dadisman – was at home. Surprise, surprise: Jeramey finally breaks up with Laura and reconnects with Sarah Ann. In one especially notable scene, Jeramey attends a group event on the boardwalk and rides away with Sarah Ann on a jet ski after an emotional breakup with Laura.

“I don’t approve of how I acted during this.” then he wrote on Instagram about his behavior.

As the program has been broadcast, Jeramey’s ex-fiancee, Brittani McLiverty, and his mother.Jenni Gelven Daniel has made accusations, which he has denied, that make him look even worse.

“Someone was engaged and living with someone when they applied for this…” Jenni he wrote in a Facebook post. accompanied by a photo of Jeramey and Brittani posing with an engagement ring and a child. Brittani also posted comments on Instagram suggesting that Laura and Sarah Ann deserve to know “all the facts” about Jeramey’s ex-fiancé and how the couple sold their house a week or two before filming.

Jeramey responded to Jenni’s claims, saying that he “wasn’t living with anyone when casting came around” and that he wasn’t engaged when he applied for the show. He says that he had already been “living alone” for several weeks at that point, and claimed that the past engagement was openly discussed with the other contestants on Love is blind.

The second scandal, involving a contestant named Trevor, was even more shocking because it didn’t match the on-screen edit he received. Trevor, a project manager, was not part of one of the final engaged couples, but came in a close second to one of the main women (Chelsea) and has been described as a “Teddy bear“because of his warm personality and his penchant for talking about his dog (also named Chelsea).

Since the show’s debut, Trevor’s ex-girlfriend, Natalia Marrero, has alleged that they were together during filming and that they agreed that he could continue while the two were still dating. She points out that Trevor had framed the opportunity as one that would be financially beneficial to both of them. Marrero has since shared text messages showing Trevor telling her about the show and telling her that he wants to marry her, and Business Insider You have confirmed that the number linked to the messages is linked to your phone.

Marrero tells BI that he wanted to make it public because the truth of the situation was very contradictory to the representation Trevor received. She alleges that just two weeks before the show aired in 2024, Trevor broke up with her and then then he threatened her if she tried to clarify the situation. Trevor has not commented.

The alleged revelations about Trevor undermine both his TV personality and, theoretically, his main reason for being on the show, which is to find a long-term relationship.

It’s certainly not the first time a contestant appears to have misrepresented their relationship status to try to get cast on a reality show, which only adds to skepticism about whether this franchise, and others, are trying to help people secure love. . . (That idea was only half-plausible in the first season, if it ever was, when Love Is Blind had yet to become a huge hit.)

Other notable examples of people allegedly using these types of tactics include Jed from Hannah Brown’s season The Bachelor, who supposedly also had a serious girlfriend just before filming, and SK from the third season of Love is blindwho seemed committed to an engagement with Raven, her partner on the show, but who was later accused of cheating.

In another case from this season Love is blind While the contestants have goals contrary to those of the show, Clay, a member of one of the engaged couples, says “no” at the altar because he is not ready to get married.

As many fans have noted, having questions about marriage and commitment isn’t problematic in and of itself, but it’s strange to go on a show that ends in a wedding if you’re not ready to move on.

And to make the whole feigning single situation even more confusing, there are reality shows designed for couples who want fame (The ultimatumfor example), so there are options that people in relationships do have instead of faking their marital status.

The influence is blind

A great attraction to attend programs such as Love is blindduring which the contestants are exposed to the judgment of millions of people, is that even if you come out single, in the end there may be a professional reward.

Popular contestants from the past Love is blind seasons, as Lauren Speed ​​from season one and Alexa Lemieux from season three, each have over a million followers on Instagram, a massive audience that can be leveraged for brand deals. Natalie Lee and Deepti Vempati, two fan favorites from the second season of Love Is Blind, now have a hit podcast reviewing the show called Out of the pods. (In Love is blindThe contestants cannot see each other during the first part of the program and can only communicate by talking to each other in windowless “pods”). Previously, Lee and Vempati spoke candidly with Fortune about how they quit six-figure jobs in consulting and technology to earn three times their corporate salaries as influencers.

The sixth season’s revelations make it even clearer that this is the ultimate goal for many contestants.

That motivation is neither surprising nor necessarily worrying. It requires a healthy suspension of disbelief to think that someone appears on television for the sole purpose of finding a soulmate.

However, problems with this season’s contestants and their questionable romantic statuses continue to dilute the idea that the experiment is intended to achieve any of its stated goals. Understandably, producers are motivated to cast people who make for interesting and often combustible television, since drama (onscreen and off) is what makes watching a show like this entertaining, fun and worthy of wild debate.

However, what this casting is not necessarily conducive to is real and lasting relationships.

As Alex Abad-Santos of Vox has written: “Love is blind has shown that it’s not really about whether two people who have never met can find love. “No… There is no ‘winning’ in this show, as the ‘prizes’ group are men and women who have been chosen to cause the most drama and wave the brightest red flags.”