Even before the days of mandated self-quarantine and pixelated Zoom dates, Hollywood was getting creative in its quest to help singles find “the one”—or at the very least a sizable Instagram following. The Bachelor continues to embrace champagne-induced drama and Netflix’s smash-hit Love Is Blind encourages singles to get engaged through a wall sight unseen. But what about viewers whose aspirations have surpassed fantasies of tropical islands and date cards from Chris Harrison? Labor of Love, a new reality dating series from Fox, hopes to fill this vacancy with a new type of happy ending.
Produced and hosted by Sex and the City star Kristin Davis, Labor of Love is a “modern-day mating story.” Starring 41-year-old Kristy Katzmann, the show aims to depict an unconventional journey to motherhood, matching its leading lady with 15 “fathers-to-be” eager to demonstrate their paternal skills. For eight weeks, the contestants, all in their 30s and 40s, were subjected to challenges designed to showcase their parental prowess—or lack thereof. Just how intense are these “drills”? Well, during the first episode, the men migrate from a cocktail party to a sperm collection exercise to asses their fertility, so make of that what you will.
“We knew that people might not understand the concept from seeing the promos about the show, but we really come from the best of intentions,” Davis tells V.F. “We worked very hard to find people—Kristy, as well as the men—who already wanted to be parents.”
Labor Of Love, like parenthood, is not for the faint of heart. In addition to handing out a trophy to a man based on his sperm count, the Fox series uses other creative methods—a fake bear attack in the middle of the woods, the last-minute planning of a child’s birthday party, etc.—to help Katzmann identify superior candidates amid her sea of potential baby daddies.
It’s a process that could overwhelm even the put-together woman, but Labor of Love isn’t Katzmann’s first trip around the block. After appearing on Brad Womack’s season of The Bachelor in 2010, and going through a divorce in 2015, the Chicago native went into the process knowing exactly what she was hoping to find in a partner. “For me, it was really important to find someone who wanted to be a hands-on dad. Who was accomplished in their own life, in whatever way that meant for them,” Katzmann says. “I knew I needed someone secure in who they were, and who was ready to step up and be a partner.”
Labor of Love is, to be fair, is another heteronormative dating show featuring a group of conventionally attractive people. But if you can get past the traditional reality TV tropes, the program’s willingness to acknowledge the societal pressure many women—and men—feel to become caregivers makes the show more than a throwaway weekend binge-watch. Katzmann is not required to pick a partner at the end. In fact, she begins the pilot by clarifying that if she doesn’t meet the right person, she is “prepared to become a mom on [her] own.”
As producer and host of the series, Davis hopes this underlying message won’t be lost in the attention-grabbing challenges. “I have many, many girlfriends and they’ve taken all different paths towards motherhood. Some of them aren’t mothers at all, and that’s fine too. I just think that we have a lot a lot of choices now, in terms of what we can do, how we do it, because we’re in charge of ourselves,” she says. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t people out there who are going to judge us, but it means that we still can choose and we can choose to follow our own desires.”