“Are You My First?” is a dating show โ with a twist.
The cast is compromised of 21 virgins. The goal? Make meaningful connections and one day take the next step with someone special.
“This show is not just about the label of being a virgin, it’s about the people and their triumphs and their insecurities and the way they’ve navigated life in this moment,” series co-host and former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe tells TODAY.com.
Bristowe hosts the show with fellow โBachelorโ alum Colton Underwood, nicknamed the “virgin Bachelor.”
During his Bachelor Nation debut on Becca Kufrin’s season of “The Bachelorette,” Underwood revealed he was a virgin.
“Having that conversation with Becca was really daunting, and there was a lot of pressure, not only on me, but on the person who you’re confiding in and trusting with that information,” he tells TODAY.com.
Underwood, who later came out as gay, says he knows all too well how hard it is to be a virgin on reality TV. He appreciates “Are You My First?” because he says the concept takes away the “pressure” that virgins face while dating.
“There are a lot of things that go into dating a virgin and losing your virginity,” he says. “I’ve watched women as I’ve told them over the years and they sort of have this impression that it’s a lot of pressure, like, ‘Do I want to be this person’s first? Are they ready for a relationship if they haven’t experienced this?’ There are a lot of things that go into dating a virgin and taking somebody’s virginity.”
“So I think having the opportunity to host a show like this, where people feel safe and they have that one thing in common, they know they’re not going to be judged, they know that they don’t have to have this crazy, emotionally, draining conversation that I’ve had to have is cool,” he says.
Underwood says his sexuality was the main reason he was “confused,” but that’s not the case for the cast.
“A lot of these people on the show have a lot of different reasons why theyโre virgins, and theyโre very layered,โ he shares.
To Underwood, “Are You My First” reflects the “new generation” that has done a “beautiful job of being patient with themselves.”
“They’re not labeling or mislabeling themselves before they figure out their sexuality,” he says.
Bristowe says audiences will relate to the cast, even if they’re not in exactly the same position.
“Everybody’s going to see themselves in these people,” she says. “Everybody’s going to laugh with them and cry with them and root for them.”
