Set to premiere this upcoming fall, Finding Prince Charming isn’t another run-of-the-mill quest to find true love. Okay, it still may be that, it will be different in that it’s the first ever dating show in the vein of The Bachelor featuring all gay men. Though this title is a bit hackneyed, the forthcoming television series is already garnering a lot of media attention, social and otherwise.
The hype can be attributed, of course, to the show’s “pioneering” content (again, it’s a bit baffling how a show like this is just now coming to air), but due to its famous host as well. Former NSYNC member and attempted astronaut, Lance Bass, will be filling this role, acting as the equivalent to The Bachelor‘s Chris Harrison.
Bass made waves within the LGBTQIA community back in 2006, when he officially came out via a cover story published by People magazine. Though there had been plenty of rumors circulating around Bass’ sexual identity at the time, it hadn’t previously been confirmed. A slew of paparazzi shots showed the pop sensation leaving gay bars and nightclubs, while the ever-classy Page Six ran a piece on the singer spotted with his then boyfriend Reichen Lehmkuhl. Bass went on to marry Michael Turchin in 2014, and has been a prominent voice for the gay community since coming out.
As for the show, Finding Prince Charming will adopt a similar format to its contemporaries, bringing on 13 suitors who will all live in a house together, competing for the attention of one eligible bachelor.
While other networks have dipped their toes in the water of LGBT dating shows, this is the first that hasn’t made some sort of strange gimmick out of sexual orientation. Bravo, home of The Real Housewives, produced a series in 2003 entitled, Boy Meets Boy. The premise was some bizarre sport of choosing a fellow gay bachelor amongst a medley of straight and gay contestants. If he chose another gay man, the cash prize would be split, but if not, all the money would go to the chosen straight man.
[Editor’s note: What?]
Fox also released a similar series in 2004 that involved this same sort of trickery and strange attempt at deception. This time, however, it was with a straight woman attempting to select a heterosexual male out of blended group of gay and straight men.
Finding Prince Charming lacks any of these problematic ratings ploys, and instead, focuses on trying to find “true love” between two actual gay men.
The show will premiere on Logo (the home of other famed LGBT driven show–RuPaul’s Drag Race), and though the network has yet to confirm the identity of their leading man, there has been some serious speculation proliferating about who it could be. Numerous gossip sites, including the notorious Perez Hilton have made claims that the Prince will be interior designer, Robert Sepúlveda Jr.
Though it’s a bit disconcerting that a show of this nature is finally coming to fruition only in 2016, we’ll take what we can get.
Baby steps, America.
