Netflix dating series Too Hot To Handle has taken the world by storm – partly because it was released during iso when we have absolutely nothing else better to do, but mostly because it’s spicy as hell.
The goss lovers over at Cosmopolitan extracted a bunch of behind-the-scenes tea about the epic new series and I thought I’d break it down for you to sip on.
The contestants don’t cook
Notice how there’s never any footage of the contestants eating? This might lead you to think they don’t eat, hence why they’re all so fit, but they definitely do, they just don’t cook.
David told Cosmo they didn’t have to do any of their own cooking in the villa, and meals were an opportunity to hang out and bond without the cameras.
Some people were approached for the show, while others applied
Wondering how to get signed on for season 2?
Well, like most reality shows, you can either go to auditions, or be cherry picked by producers.
“I was actually messaged by a member of production to go on the show, and I didn’t really know necessarily what it was about. I just knew that it was an opportunity to meet attractive people,” Francesca told Cosmopolitan in an interview, whereas Harry said, “Yeah, so I applied, because I just suck at dating.”
The producers pulled the strings (duh)
Again, like most reality shows, the producers were behind-the-scenes trying to make drama happen by giving contestants a “nudge” to do certain things.
“In these situations if they know that you’ve got a problem or you need to have a chat with someone, they’ll just point you in the right direction to get a result, or to get that conversation happening and get to the end goal,” Harry said.
“They’re not forcing you to say or do anything you don’t want to. They just kind of help nudge you in the correct direction.”
Some of the contestants slept… on the floor
While it might be one’s dream to sleep in a room filled with sexy as hell people, the living conditions sound a little less than favourable, to me.
“To be put in that environment, where you’re sharing a room, and a bed with a bunch of other people, that was a big shock for me,” David told Cosmo.
“On a couple of nights I just needed a bit more space, so I ended up just snoozing on the floor, like completely spread eagle.”
No thanks.
There were cameras in the bathroom
Ok, another crappy living condition: according to Bryce Hirschberg, a contestant who joined the show later in the season, the cameras were on the contestants even when they were in the bathroom to make sure they weren’t batting off.
“There were cameras everywhere, even in the bathroom. But it was just for CCTV, it wasn’t for broadcast, the ones in the toilet,” Bryce told the Hollywood Raw podcast . Yikes.
There were debates about how to charge for certain sexual favours
Executive producers Viki Kolar and Jonno Richards told TheWrap they decided which actions were worth what amount of money. For example, a kiss is worth $3,000, while oral sex is a $6,000 penalty.
“There were these sort of long discussions to work out what was the right amount to be a penalty when they got it, but people could still work with that,” Richards said. “It wasn’t like there was a bar tab up on the wall saying, ‘this is what x costs, this is what y costs.’”
Kolar explained further, saying, “We wanted to make it acceptable to break the rules so that we would have a show, but we also didn’t want to be too much about the money…We felt that $20,000 for sex was big enough, but it was those middle ground things that were a big debate. We eventually settled on $6,000 [for oral sex], but I think that was a bit cheap, as well.”
Too Hot To Handle is now streaming on Netflix.
