In March it was announced that the second series of the queer dating show I Kissed a Girl would be its last, with sibling show I Kissed a Boy also cancelled. The BBC cited “difficult choices in light of our funding challenges”, but the axing feels momentous: the shows were the first UK dating programmes to feature exclusively gay casts of men and women.
As well as being unprecedented, the series have provided a container for vital queer conversations not happening elsewhere on our screens, well within the remit of a national broadcaster. And they are ridiculously fun. Watching series two knowing it is the last is entertaining but bittersweet.
Dannii Minogue hosts in the vein of Love Island’s Maya Jama, while TikToker Charley Marlowe takes on most of the compering. The constant queer culture references may feel a little cynical, but where else can you make such references if not on the UK’s first gay dating show? The cast of women is wonderful: Faye, a self-described “chaotic” “feral” femme who wants “someone who’s obsessed with me”; bold but gooey Renee; and Ebony, a Geordie delivery driver with a cheeky glint.
Things feel more wholesome than on other dating shows, though there are red flags. One challenge skewers the idea that gay women “U-Haul”. Separate beds are appreciated, though not everyone stays in their own. The show is a perfect space for important conversations: femme-for-femme lesbian Elisha talks about how exhausting it is to prove she is gay; Renee discusses being a masculine lesbian treated unfairly; and one participant is frank about celibacy and seeking a similar outlook.
I Kissed a Girl fizzes with the excitement of young love and lust, with a soundtrack of Sapphic pop stars. It is a four-star series, but feels important enough for five stars, and more valuable to younger viewers than the BBC may realise. The Apprentice has had 20 series, Dragons’ Den 23 – the first gay UK dating franchise has managed only four.
