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for inspiration is other game shows.

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- "Bachelor" is a super guilty
pleasure of mine (laughs).

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And I really thought this
was one of the funniest ideas

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anyone has ever pitched.

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- "The Bachelor" is one of
the most popular franchises

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in the world of reality
competition there is,

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and who better to do that
with than Grant O'Brien?

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- I think that we
ultimately did a good job

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balancing the creative of the show,

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and making it a good experience for Grant.

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- We've done a number
of different episodes

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of various different shows at Dropout

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that involved pranking Grant.

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- Oh, oh!

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God damn it!

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Holy shit!
- Oh my God!

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- Sam, I would've been
trying harder at this game

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if I'd known I was trying to
impress someone the whole time.

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- Tonight we're starting
off with a new segment

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called True Facts about Grant

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that are not jokes, they're
just true, actual facts

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about this gangly asshole.

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- Initially, the game mechanic
was on the meaner side.

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We're like, are we mocking Grant?

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Are we like...

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Are we actually trying to find him love?

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- The original idea here,

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which was something I think
we called Deal Breaker,

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was the notion that we would
do a reverse dating show

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in which the contestants are
eliminated based on learning,

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they eliminate themselves

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based on things they learn about Grant.

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And finally, I felt that
was too mean-spirited.

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And finally, I felt that
was too mean-spirited.

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We like watching people

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have a bad time on reality television.

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I'm not convinced we like to watch people

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have a bad time on "Game Changer."

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It would be far more
fun simply to put Grant,

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and create moments that were

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legitimately heartfelt and interesting,

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and be more about the
nature of human connection.

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- We were all rooting for Grant in this,

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instead of rooting against
him or laughing at him.

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We wanted him to make a
connection with somebody.

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And I'm really happy that
we took it in that direction

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because it just was more fun.

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- Ultimately, when we changed the mechanic

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to be super wholesome,

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that's when I think the show became a gem.

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- I shot emails and text messages
to some friends of Grant's

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to ask what kind of folks that
they think he would be into.

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Nick Kocher told me that Grant dates

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the kind of people who you could imagine

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as the lead in musicals.

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Ally wrote me back one word, "twinks."

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Not incredibly helpful.

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Grant loves banter, he
loves people to spar with.

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He loves good conversation.

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He's this odd sort of mix

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of very modern and very old fashioned.

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We had to reach sort of outside

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our usual casting infrastructure for this.

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Lallouz/Geller Casting.

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And Emily has been a part
of many actual dating shows,

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including "Are You the One" on MTV.

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With her help, was able to find

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10 great candidates for Grant.

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Men as well as women, right.

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Like we wanted to sort of honor
the fact that Grant is bi,

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Like we wanted to sort of honor
the fact that Grant is bi,

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which like you normally
don't see in dating shows.

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You don't normally have men, women,

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and non-binary folks competing
for one person's affections.

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- Early on we even talked about

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bringing a full-on jacuzzi

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into our parking lot so that
Grant could sit in a jacuzzi

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and have multiple one-on-one dates

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with his prospective romantic partners.

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- Yeah, originally it was
supposed to be in the parking lot.

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We're like, let's just
slide over the dumpster,

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we'll put a hot tub there.

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We're literally trying to
copy "The Bachelorette."

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And we looked at "The
Bachelor" production designer's

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Instagram and tried to copy her style,

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but she gets like
$10,000 per set probably.

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So instead of the luxurious
bachelor vibe of a hot tub

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we got a blow-up kiddie pool from Target,

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has like leaves floating in it.

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- We're gonna make it a boring, bougie,

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like gaudy living room kind of set,

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with a fake fireplace and a fur rug.

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But we're gonna do it
"Game Changer" style,

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make sure we're incorporating the colors.

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The couch is hot red.

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- The big difference between
us doing a "Survivor" tribute

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and us doing a "Bachelor"
tribute is I love "Survivor,"

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and I don't love "The Bachelor."

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Immediately the question was,

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how do we improve upon
the source material?

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And I think we did that
in a number of ways.

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I think we did that with the contestants

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we brought to the table.

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I think we did that with vibes.

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I think we did it by not
painting our bachelor

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as some sort of superhuman,
but showing him off

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in all of his pluses and
minuses, which we all have.

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I think we did it by offering prizes

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to the contestants as they were leaving.

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- Oh my God, you weren't lying.

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These are good gifts.

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- That's what I'm saying.

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- I think the wildest part

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of that episode was the ending.

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- Grant was having a really hard time

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as that episode wore on.

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I think his decisions felt more arbitrary.

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And by the time he had
whittled it down to two men,

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it was very clear to me

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that he didn't wanna choose between them.

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When Grant approached me
about offering the prize

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to both of them, I loved it.

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It felt different to me.

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It felt inclusive, it felt progressive.

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- No one saw that coming.

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And I think that is what made
for a really excellent show.

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At the end of the day,
when Grant couldn't decide,

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I'll never forget, there
was a moment we actually

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paused the show and Sam pulled us aside.

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The look on people's faces

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was one of surprise and
a little bit of shock.

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- The gamble was that either Reese or Abel

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would be too offended
by both being selected,

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that they wouldn't be into it.

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And then that would've
created its own energy,

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its own other vibe of an ending.

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But that didn't happen.

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And luckily we got our
poly-fairytale ending.

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It immediately begs the question,

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is this something that we're
gonna do in future seasons?

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Are we going to take on other
reality competition shows,

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and do our own full-day
two part version of them?

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I'm reluctant to fall into patterns,

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but I can immediately think of
others I'd wanna do. (laughs)