Netflix’s new dating series The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On follows couples as one gives the other a final proposition to tie the knot or walk away. Many fans have pointed out how young the couples are and wonder how they’re already ready for marriage. Creator Chris Coelen recently addressed the young age range.
The Ultimatum cast skewed relatively young, with Nate Ruggles, 31, as the oldest and April Melohn, 23, as the youngest.
Many fans wondered why the participants were already issuing final propositions to get married or move on when they were only in their 20s.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, who asked creator Chris Coelen how they decided the age range, he explained that “different people are ready to get married at different times in their lives.” Although he pointed out he got married in his late ‘30s and likely wouldn’t have appeared on the show at their age, he reiterated that everyone is in a separate place and comes from different backgrounds that might accelerate the process.
“Age is just a number, right?” he added. Coelen explained they were more interested in the couple’s “genuine intentions” and “less about how old they are.”
Many viewers began noticing that the age recorded for some of the participants didn’t match up to the social media on which they claimed age.
For example, fans saw the Netflix dating experiment listed Alexis Maloney as 25, but she recently turned 27 in November 2021. As the show was filmed in Austin, Texas, around spring 2019, she would’ve been at least 26 at the time of filming.
Lauren Pounds also noticed the change as she posted a photo of her confessional with the title that listed her name and age and circled the latter in red.
She captioned it, “30 and thriving,” and added, “Beyond interesting. So it’s OK for a man on TV to be 30, but we have to lie about age if the woman is?” Her fianceé Nate Ruggles was correctly listed at 30-years-old.
Lauren and Nate also called out the show for picking who would give the ultimatum in an interview with the Your Poor Dad podcast. They claimed they were approached with the Austin Couple Project, which looked for Austin, Texas-based couples who had dated for at least a year.
According to them, production revealed the actual title and premise of the show only a week before filming began. Lauren claimed producers told her they had already picked Nate as the one giving the final proposition to marry or move on.
He backed her story, noting he discovered his role while on camera for the first time during a confessional. Jake Cunningham also claimed the group learned about the ultimatum aspect after the producers finalized the cast in an April 2022 interview with Buzzfeed.
“We were told we were living with other cast members, we were going to be dating and moving in with them, and then after the three weeks, we’d be moving back in with our ex.” Jake claimed the group found out following their first interviews, which “was a big shower” as they didn’t realize the show had anything to do with marriage. The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On is streaming on Netflix.