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SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from the first five episodes of “The Ultimatum” Season 3, now streaming on Netflix.
Within the first few episodes of the third season of “The Ultimatum,” the cast was nearly cut in half. After the six couples chose new partners with whom to live out a “trial marriage,” two of those couples — Vanessa Hattaway and Dave Adams, and Micah Hardeman and Chanel Watkins — decided in the middle of the night to leave the show.
In Episode 4, during the third day of the trial marriages, both Nick Tramontin and Mariah Zernick were shown arriving at their apartments only to learn that their respective partners, Vanessa and Micah, had packed their things and left without a goodbye.
Title cards revealed, “Earlier in the day, Dave, Vanessa, Micah and Chanel secretly met off camera. That evening, surveillance cameras captured them packing. Dave, Vanessa, Micah and Chanel quickly departed, abruptly ending their experience.”
Popular on Variety For creator and Kinetic Content CEO Chris Coelen, he realized there was something a bit off during the selections, called “The Choice,” when each of the couples had to break away officially from their partners, and choose someone new.
“My understanding and impression was that people within that group were a little unsettled,” Coelen says. “But I feel like we’ve seen this in every season. You saw it when Lauren was going to pick Colby, then in Season 2 with Lisa and Brian. They ultimately decided to leave.”
While “most of the participants really commit to the experience,” not everyone can handle it, and it becomes too much. After filming The Choice, during which the cast members move in with their new trial partners, Coelen left Pheonix and headed back to Los Angeles. Shortly after, he received a call from showrunner Stephanie Boyriven, who told him Dave and Chanel let producers know they weren’t sure the experience was for them.
Chanel and Micah in episode 1 Courtesy of Netflix. © 2024 “Then they snuck around. As a group, they secretly met. And listen, they’re adults. We don’t put restrictions on what people do or don’t do,” he says. “But the expectation from the other participants is, ‘We’re going to be in trial marriages. Let’s actually do that, and not go hang out with our original partner.’”
He continues, “The next call I got was that Micah was gone and didn’t have a conversation with anyone.”
While Micah wasn’t reachable, Coelen did speak to Dave, Vanessa and Chanel and told them, “We support whatever you want to do.”
“You want to fully participate, awesome. If you change your mind, that’s OK too. We’re interested in the story, regardless of how it develops,” he says. “But it was very clear they wanted to leave. And we’re always going to be supportive of that.”
When casting any reality shows, producers are searching for people who want people who will throw themselves completely into the experiment. However, contract-wise, as Coelen has stated many times through the years, there’s no forcing anyone to stay in a show. But is there a way to tighten that?
Coelen says no.
“There isn’t. I think that the people who have gone through the whole experience on ‘The Ultimatum,’ the vast majority of them would say that it really affected them in a profound way, regardless of how it ended,” he says. “But it’s really difficult. Some people are very conflict-averse. For some, it’s really face to face emotion. That’s something that this process really calls for — to examine the things that are important to you, the things that are standing in your way, your real feelings about the person you’ve been dating. We’re committed to supporting the participants and to being very transparent with them about what the experience is and and that it can be very challenging. And if they are wanting to really commit to it and lean into it, then we are there with them the entire way, and if they aren’t, we’re also there with them the entire way.”
Sandy and Nick Courtesy of Netflix. © 2024 While Mariah and Nick were left without partners after the exits happened, producers didn’t want to just put them together to “gamify” the show. “I don’t feel like that would have been legitimate,” Coelen says. “The whole point of the dating week is for them to really choose — themselves — someone that they think has the qualities of someone that they could potentially marry, and then be in a trial marriage.”
Nick had an extremely difficult time during the season, and contacted his partner, Sandy Gallagher, while she formed a connection with her trial husband, JR Warren. Unlike other reality shows, the contestants are allowed to have their cellphones, which meant Nick and Sandy were communicating — and since they all live in the same apartment building, he also knew where she lived. During episode 5, Nick showed up at JR and Sandy’s apartment unannounced.
Coelen says that during Season 1, Jake Cunningham was hearing from his ex, April Marie, frequently during their trial marriages with other people. Afterward, Cunningham suggested to producers that in the future, cast members should be given “burner phones” just for emergencies.
“We thought about that. It comes down to whether people really want to embrace what this experience is. All of us in our real lives have cellphones, and if we want to text our ex, we can. If you’re in a new relationship and your ex is texting you, you’ve got to decide how to deal with that,” Coelen says. “It’s a balance, because we want them to have a real experience.”
As for the living arrangements, there have been discussions of possibly moving people to separate buildings. “I think in future seasons, maybe there are modifications,” says Coelen. “The truth is, it doesn’t really matter. I think wherever we put them, they can always get to each other, even if it’s virtually.”
Of the four contestants who left the show, Dave and Vanessa attended the reunion, which was taped recently. “Everyone’s always invited,” he says. Chanel and Mariah did not attend.
The next three episodes of “The Ultimatum” drop on Netflix on Dec. 11, followed by the finale and reunion streaming on Dec. 18.
