HBO Max has signed Sam Dean, showrunner for Netflix’s hit reality dating series “Love Is Blind,” to an overall deal, Deadline reported Thursday.
The agreement gives the weeks-old streamer first-look rights to all of Dean’s owned or controlled concepts for unscripted programming. Dean already worked on unscripted series “12 Dates of Christmas,” which will premiere later this year, for HBO Max.
“Sam is an outstanding unscripted storyteller and a top-tier showrunner,” Jennifer O’Connell, HBO Max executive vice president original non-fiction and kids programming, said. “After working with Sam on our reality rom-com, ‘12 Dates of Christmas,’ it was clear that her ability to tell stories with heart, humor, and a wink to the audience made her a perfect fit for HBO Max. We count ourselves lucky to be in business with a producer of her caliber.”
Dean has recently worked on shows “Married at First Sight” (and its spinoffs) as well as ABC’s “The Taste” in addition to “Love is Blind” – she also produced a number of episodes of both “America’s Got Talent” and “Britain’s Got Talent” in the late aughts.
“I am really looking forward to working with HBO Max; it’s a new and ambitious platform with an unlimited appetite to create fresh and innovative content, yet it also brings with it Warner Media’s history of excellence that has continually kept them at the forefront of creativity and storytelling,” Dean said, according to Deadline. “It’s a great time to get involved as an unscripted producer. I feel blessed to be joining an incredibly strong and talented team, who I admire greatly and have loved collaborating with on ‘12 Dates of Christmas.’ I am excited to get started on new projects.”
“Love Is Blind,” which is based on the premise that people don’t need to see each other to fall in love, debuted just ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the United States in full force.
It drew 1.5 million viewers aged 18-49 for episodes 1-5, 1.3 million for episodes 6-9, and the finale two episodes delivered 829,000 viewers in the series’ first full week on Netflix, according to Nielsen. Netflix reported 30 million households had watched the series at its Q1 meeting in April.