The Real Reason Netflix Had Trouble Making Dating Around Season 1

If you've watched Netflix's Love Is Blind, you're bound to have followed up with Dating Around, Netflix's other hit dating show. If you haven't, it's another social experiment that sees six singles of all different ages and backgrounds go on five blind dates each. And just like everything else Netflix creates, it's brilliant. However, according to showrunner Alycia Rossiter, it actually wasn't that easy to make.

One of the toughest aspects of making Dating Around was casting. "Casting was really hard because we were looking for people who wouldn't normally do this, and that doesn't just mean people that might not trust an outfit like Netflix," Rossiter told Vulture. "It was also people who weren't looking for attention. Or people who don't see faces like their own on TV." As a result, rather than putting out a casting call, producers had to go out and scout for participants. "The thing that surprised me the most, the number of people who were like, 'I never thought I'd be approached to be on a dating show,'" Rossiter revealed.

As those who have seen Dating Around could probably tell, diversity was a huge part of the show when it came to casting. And Lex Liang, a gay Asian American man who appeared in episode three of season one, was well aware of this. Speaking to Time, Liang admitted he was actually approached by a friend who ran the casting company. "When she first contacted me, I was on the west coast for my job. I said, 'Listen: I will do this and meet your diversity quota, because I'm pretty sure that's why you're asking me to do this,'" he said. "So that's that baseline subconscious self-loathing or insecurity. What do I have to offer? I don't look like that dude — I don't race cars. And interestingly enough, she said: 'That's exactly why I'm asking you.'"

Ultimately, casting with diversity in mind is anything but easy. However, with season two of Dating Around on the way (via Vulture), we can only hope that this time the casting team has found it slightly easier to find the right kind of ordinary people, given they may have now seen themselves represented on screen.