‘The Ultimatum’: Producers Reportedly Picked Who Issued the Ultimatums

The premise of Netflix’s new dating series The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On involves couples at a crossroads as one partner is ready to get married, and the other doesn’t want to take the next step yet. According to cast members, the producers reportedly chose who issued the ultimatum.

‘The Ultimatum’ couple Lauren Pounds and Nate Ruggles explained how they were approached 

Lauren Pounds and Nate Ruggles agreed to participate in the show as he wanted to start a family, and she didn’t have the desire to become a mother.

Even though they didn’t resolve their issue, he proposed to her when the cast began picking their trial marriages. Nate claimed it no longer mattered to him, and the couple left the show early engaged.

A couple of weeks after the show premiered on Netflix, they talked to the Your Poor Dad podcast and revealed the production involvement with the show.

Nate claimed they were approached with the Austin Couple Project and looked for Austin, Texas-based couples who had dated for at least a year. The week before filming began, they claimed that producers told the cast the “working title” and explained that one partner wants to get married while the other is “dragging” their feet.

They claimed producers picked who issued the ultimatums

According to Lauren, the producers informed her that they chose Nate as the one who issued the ultimatum. “So, I’m the bad guy,” she jokingly added.

Nate claims he figured out his role while on camera for the first time during a confessional when the producer asked his reasoning behind giving his girlfriend his final proposition.

Madlyn Ballatori, Colby Kissinger, Jake Cunningham, and April Melohn claimed they were recruited for the show through an Instagram direct message in an April 2022 Buzzfeed interview.

They initially mistook it as a scam as Madlyn explained the message was “pretty vague” and “seemed like a weird clickbait thing.” Additionally, Madlyn and Jake, who were given the ultimatum by their significant partner, told the publication they discovered they would appear on the show only two weeks before filming started.

Jake Cunningham also said he didn’t know anything about an ultimatum going into the show

Jake claimed he wanted to “back out” shortly before but agreed because he believed then-girlfriend April only “wanted the fame.”

Additionally, he said he learned about the staple ultimatum part after producers had already selected the cast. He claimed no one knew about it beforehand.

“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.” However, after their first interviews, they discovered that one would have to give the other the final proposition to get married or break up.

“And that was a big shocker to us! A lot of us didn’t even know there was an ultimatum or that marriage was anything to do with the show,” Jake claimed. The Ultimatum is streaming on Netflix.