The Perfect Match Filming Timeline Has Already Sparked Drama

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Netflix dropped Perfect Match, the streamer’s latest entry in the reality dating genre, featuring plenty of familiar faces. Filmed in Panama City, the new series stars 23 of the most polarizing and “famously single” cast members from their unscripted shows, including Love Is Blind, The Ultimatum, Too Hot To Handle, and The Mole, as they compete to form relationships and become the last couple standing. Because the contestants were already in the spotlight, fans figured out when Perfect Match was filmed well in advance of the Feb. 14 premiere.

Love Is Blind Season 2’s Shayne Jansen is among Perfect Match’s singles — but according to his ex, Natalie Lee, that wasn’t his relationship status when he began the casting process. “I knew about the new dating show back in Sept 2021 because Shayne and I were both approached to apply for it while we were in a relationship (casting didn’t know we were together at the time),” Natalie explained in a January 2023 Instagram Story. “We told each other we declined the opportunity, but I later found out he actually didn’t decline and started the casting process in Nov 2021 without my knowledge at the time, while we were still together.”

Shayne and Natalie broke up in November but faced each other again when Netflix shot the Love Is Blind reunion in March 2022. That seems to be about when Perfect Match began filming, too, given Natalie’s claim that Shayne texted her “numerous times” from the Panamanian set. “He wanted to leave midway through filming because he still had feelings for me after we saw each other for [the] first time since our breakup at the reunion show taping,” she continued on Instagram.

Later, Shayne’s fellow cast member, Love Is Blind Season 3’s Bartise Bowden reportedly confirmed in his Instagram Stories that he filmed Perfect Match in March 2022. To put that in real-time perspective, Bartise shot his Love Is Blind season in Summer 2021, so he and Nancy Rodriguez had broken up several months earlier at that point. However, it’s worth noting that the events of the Season 3 reunion and subsequent After the Altar special took place later that fall — after Perfect Match production wrapped.

As for how Perfect Match works, the series is similar to ABC’s Bachelor in Paradise in that the contestants must pair up amongst themselves to share a private suite in a luxe Panamanian villa. However, anyone who is left alone at the end of the night is eliminated and sent home. Meanwhile, the couples also compete in compatibility challenges for the ability to determine which new singles enter the house and who they go on dates with. Creator Chris Coelen compared the show to a game of musical chairs.

“The producers aren't steering the ship,” he explained to Netflix’s Tudum. “If the participants choose to bring these people in or match ‘em up with whoever, it’s totally up to them. That’s much more real, and it's much more fun for them.”