The streamer has recruited world-famous couples therapist and The Invite consultant Esther Perel to lead documentary series The Last Person on Earth, Apple’s first foray into the relationship genre.
In The Last Person on Earth, Perel and a team of matchmakers will bring together couples who appear to be polar opposites, before embarking on an adventure in one of the world’s most romantic and remote destinations. Billed as a social experiment amid increasing levels of polarization and social isloation, the show will then explore across eight eps whether opposites really do attract.
Perel is a huge get for Apple TV. The Belgian psychotherapist is a New York Times bestselling author who fronts the popular Where Should We Begin? podcast, which combines live recordings of her therapy sessions with anonymous couples alongside Perel’s reflections. She consutled on Olivia Wilde’s A24 movie The Invite, about a struggling married couple who host an awkward dinner party for the couple upstairs.
Apple TV’s high-end docs include Prehistoric Planet, The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy and Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars, but The Last Person on Earth is its first to focus on dating. The matchmaking element has shades of hits like Married at First Sight or Indian Matchmaking, although The Last Person on Earth eschews the competition or reality element and is very much being positioned as a documentary series. In that vein it has more in common with Netflix’s The Later Daters from the Obama’s Higher Ground, which followed six older adults embark on a journey to find love.
“Over the course of my career as a couples therapist, one truth has become undeniable: love may crave closeness, but desire is fueled by otherness,” said Perel. “The Last Person on Earth is a bold exploration of relationships that challenges everything we assume about compatibility; inviting people to drop the checklist and embrace dating as an adventure into the unknown. When we choose to step outside the narrow boundaries of what feels familiar or safe, passionate love stories can flourish.”
The Last Person on Earth has been commissioned out of Jay Hunt’s Apple TV Europe team and is produced by Fremantle-backed UK indie Boldprint Studios, which is run by former Channel 4 entertainment boss Phil Harris. Harris is exec producing with Dan Gray and Lou Hutchinson, with Josh Jacobs as series director. Olly Lambert is director on the series.
The news comes a day after Apple TV made its first move into the scripted romance space, landing rights to Rebecca Yarros’ upcoming novel Peculiar Stars.
Perel is represented by Ken Hertz, Jon Polk, and Cari Davine at Hertz Lichtenstein Young & Polk LLP and managed by Yuli Masinovsky of Silver Lake Entertainment, LLC.
Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.
Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.
Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );