Dating at any age is a challenging endeavor, to say the least. Now imagine you’re in your fifth, sixth, or even seventh decade, are completely out of touch with the modern dating landscape, and you haven’t been in a new relationship in 10 years or more. Those are just some of the factors that complicate things for the six participants in Netflix’s new The Later Daters, the streaming giant’s umpteenth reality dating series — albeit, this one is a much more feel-good release that’s set apart by the age of everyone involved.
Think of it as The Golden Bachelor/Bachelorette, without that franchise’s annoying drama.
How it all unfolds: In the eight-episode The Later Daters, which is the #5 Netflix show in the US as of this writing, six baby boomers go on blind dates with potential partners who are around the same age. And they’re not just thrown into the deep end. Helping them navigate the challenges of modern dating, along with their children and close friends, is dating coach Logan Ury. Her mission is to help especially people find love, especially anyone who hasn’t dated in a while.
Ury does so by working with the silver-haired singles to set realistic dating goals and expectations, while also gently nudging them toward relishing the unexpected joys that come with meeting someone new. Netflix adds that Ury also “visits each of the singles’ homes to learn about their lives and to speak with their family members, which may include adult children and exes. Ury then works to identify what may be holding them back from finding their next partner — whether it’s because they’re emotionally closed off, or they haven’t been able to move on from a spouse who has passed — and helps them work through their obstacles.”
As The Later Daters progresses, Ury visits the home of each single and learns about their lives. The visits include time spent speaking with family members, which helps with identifying what might be holding back the lonely single from finding their next partner. Ury helps them work through those reasons, which range from being emotionally closed off to not having moved on from the loss of a spouse who’s died.
Ury also gives each of the singles a pep talk before the dates and follows up with them afterward for a debrief on how things went. The six singles include:
- Anise, a 62-year-old marketer whose husband died in an accident when their children were young
- Suzanne, a 63-year-old optometrist and a widow who was previously married for almost 30 years
- Nate, a 56-year-old former paratrooper and divorced father of two
- Pam, a 70-year-old former flight attendant who’s been married twice and widowed twice
- Lori, a 57-year-old behavior coach and media correspondent and divorced mother of two
- and Greg, a 61-year-old construction business owner who’s twice divorced
“I’m so proud to have been an executive producer of @highergroundmedia’s latest series — The Later Daters,” Michelle Obama, who’s credited as an executive producer on the show, said about it in an Instagram post. “I believe that we all deserve a chance at finding love and happiness — no matter how old we are.”
