Here’s How Long Ago The Ultimatum Was Filmed

Following the dramatic events of The Ultimatum Season 1, the cast had plenty of time to process their journeys before watching it all play out onscreen. Star April Marie recently told Bustle that filming ended the second week of May 2021 — almost an entire year before The Ultimatum’s premiere on April 6. Given that Netflix described the process as taking “just over eight weeks,” that means production likely began around early March 2021.

The reality dating series features six couples. One person in each pair has issued an ultimatum to their partner: get engaged at the end of the experiment, or break up. They’re all tasked with dating people from the other couples and choosing a partner for a three-week trial marriage. At the end of those three weeks, they embark on the same trial marriage with their original partner, and then have to decide whether to commit to marriage or move on — either with a new partner or alone.

Whatever the outcome, the cast has had to keep it under wraps for a long time — and even delay celebrating engagements and marriages. Love is Blind Season 1 — which is from the same production team and is also co-hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey — filmed in November 2018 and didn’t premiere until February 2020, meaning that the couples who got married at the end couldn’t post photos of each other online for well over a year.

The Season 2 timeline was a little shorter, but still difficult. Spouses Danielle Ruhl and Nick Thompson explained to BuzzFeed that they weren’t supposed to go out in public while the show was airing in order to avoid spoilers. “The last few weeks of the show promotion, we’ve just spent a lot of time at home bingeing Dawson's Creek, which, ironically, I forgot that we talked about when we were filming,” Nick said. “Before that, it was, ‘Live your life and don't post about it on social media.’”