TV

What you need to know about Love Is Blind, Netflix's wild new dating show

We spoke to hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey to get the inside scoop on Love Is Blind.

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Published on February 13, 2020 08:00AM EST

Over the course of the next three weeks, Netflix is unveiling a new kind of dating show: Love Is Blind, where 30 singles flirt and propose to each other by only hearing the other’s voice, separated by a thin wall like Romeo and Juliet, or Anna and Elsa from Frozen. So, basically, a confessional — hold the Hot Priest, and add a lot of commitment. It’s a lot to take in, so EW is here to help by answering all the questions you may have step-by-step.

For more of a taste for what to expect, read our review of the show.

When do the episodes drop?

Like fellow Netflix reality show The Circle, the streamer is going with the 3-week release approach with Love is Blind. The first five episodes are available this Friday, then the next four will be released the next week (Feb. 20). This all culminates in a nearly 90-minute finale on the third and final week (Feb. 27).

Who are the hosts?

Love is Blind is hosted by Nick Lachey and Vanessa Lachey. The couple met in 2006 during the shoot of one of Nick’s music videos and now they have the chance to co-host as a duo for the very first time. Their involvement dates back to early 2018, when Nick and Vanessa had a meeting at Netflix.

“We were actually talking about another show and the powers that be were like you ‘Guys, we want to see this idea,'” Vanessa tells EW during an interview with the couple. “Nick and I left that meeting and we were kind of like, why hasn’t this been done?”

From the moment of that meeting to the show actually starting took about four months, Vanessa says. Throughout the show, Nick and Vanessa jump in and out to explain what the name of the game is: make an emotional connection with someone in a time when we aren’t as in touch in our physical reality.

While you may not see it on camera, Nick and Vanessa both spent much of the process talking to the singles before and after the dates they go on.

“We would interview them when they came out of the pods. We would say, “Who was that with? Where’s your head at?” Nick says. “I think just in terms of editing, it just didn’t make sense for the flow of the show.”

But what if no one from the 30 singles fell in love across a wall? This is not really a spoiler since the rest of the series would become rather boring, but couples do go on through the whole process. That wasn’t guaranteed, however.

“We’re nervous,” Vanessa recalls of the dating process. “We were like, ‘What if nobody proposes?’ And then even the producers were like, ‘We don’t know.’ We just hope we can at least have one couple so we can follow them and their journey.”

How does dating work and what comes next?

The 30 singles are separated by sex and placed in two different dorm-like holding areas (basically a lavish living area with a kitchen and sleeping quarters.) In the middle are the pods, a set of intimate small rooms that hold a couch and a frosted glass divider. On the other side of the glass is a person in their own pod, and all they have to communicate with each other is their voices. Some carry notebooks to the dates and take notes, while others just play it by ear.

Now for some numbers. A person can propose whenever, but the dating in the pods ends after 10 days. The whole process is referred to as an “experiment” that spans a total of 38 days, and that includes a vacation for an engaged couple, meeting the fiance’s parents, and an actual fricken wedding!

Vacationing in Mexico

After couples begin to get to know each other, the way they get out of their living quarters is by proposing. If the other person says yes, then they are allowed to see each other for the first time. From there, they are shipped off to Mexico for a short vacation in order to get to know each other physically, as well as build on what they have emotionally.

Similar to shows like The Bachelor, these vacations provide bonding experiences for the couples to get to know each other. Couples are asked to go through the rest of the experiment until they either say yes or no to the “I do’s” at the wedding.

“With the proposal, it was all on them,” Vanessa says. “But once they propose, we had asked, since this is a love experiment, you’ll then go to the ‘I do’s’ at the altar and accept sight unseen or walk away from the person you fell in love with.”

Moving to Atlanta

Here’s where things get real. This whole time the couples have been isolated with no social media or contact with the outside world, but now they must all go to Atlanta and start living with each other. First, the couples get to see how their significant others lived before the show as they grab their bags. Then they all move into an apartment given to them by the show.

Before getting married, most people want their family or friends to meet their partner. An episode later in the season features just that, as couples that just weeks ago didn’t know each other have to explain to their mom, dad, or roommates that they’re getting married to the person sitting next to them.

Do they actually get married?

This whole experiment culminates in this moment. We see the couples at their respective outfit fittings and bachelor and bachelorette parties. Now it’s time to buck up or shut up. Each remaining couple gets up to the alter and has the choice to fully commit and confirm that love is blind, or turn around in front of their entire friends and family.

Who are the singles?

The Women

Giannina Gibelli, 25 – Retail business owner

Diamond Jack, 28 – NBA dancer

Briana Holmes, 26 – CEO of nonprofit/web designer

India Bridgeforth, 29 – Project manager

Amber Pike, 26 – Cocktail waitress/ex-military tank mechanic

Ebony Alexis, 30 – Journalist

Lauren Chamblin, 26 – Recruiter/account executive

Jessica Batten, 34 – Tech sales

Alyson Costa, 36 – Pediatric nurse-client relations director

Danielle Drouin, 29 – Yoga instructor/model