We dive into why this reality TV show will be so sorely missed
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY BBC
I have always loved reality TV. As a child of the noughties, I spent my Friday nights gorging on shows like X Factor, Big Brother, America’s Next Top Model, and I’m A Celeb. Heading into the 2010s, the reality TV gods blessed me with shows like Love Island and Naked Attraction. I loved these shows for their outrageousness, their controversialness and their campness. They weren’t just guilty pleasures to me – they were my gateway into the world.
But, even as a closeted teenager, I was acutely aware that a majority of these people on TV were not like me at all. They were fun to watch, laugh with (or sometimes at) and root for, but there was no one who helped me feel like I could be part of the party too. I was destined to be an onlooker, but certainly wasn’t fit for the screen.
At some point in my teenage years, the word “representation” was starting to be used to hold a standard for TV. More and more fictional shows were featuring LGBTQIA+ people in their narratives… although they were often just killed off or faced a tragic ending. These were exciting to me, but they weren’t nearly as juicy as shows like Married At First Sight, which were cropping up on the scene.
And then, in 2023, something that only the reality TV gods could have facilitated happened. An email appeared in my inbox. I had only been working at DIVA for a few months when the title I Kissed A Girl (IKAG) appeared. They were casting for a new sapphic dating show on the BBC. On the BBC! By 2024, the first episodes of IKAG had launched, and the response was electric.
Watching those first episodes, I understood why “representation” mattered so much. While there had been shows that depicted sapphic experiences I had connected with, these were often fictional. Deep down, I knew these people didn’t actually know what it was like to be a queer person living today. They didn’t actually exist. But IKAG had real people. Real stories, real crushes, real conversations, and they were really on mainstream TV.
And it wasn’t just me watching. My friends – straight and queer alike – were soon texting me about the show. Everyone had different favourite contestants, people they thought would end up together and theories about the following episodes. It reminded me of being a teenager again, lining up to take my GCSEs and gossiping about the episode of Love Island the night before.
After the show ended, its cultural significance did not. While the contestants may not have been super popular in the mainstream media, they were our new sapphic royalty. We finally got to have our own Molly Maes. People we could fangirl over who weren’t just A-list Hollywood celebs. These were people you could bump into at lesbian bars like La Camionera or find walking in Pride. Normal people who looked like us, spoke the same slang as us and held the same values as us.
The years following IKAG were, in short, euphoric. It felt like nothing could ever dull the shine that it had brought to the sapphic renaissance. People around the world were getting in on the action, making fan edits on TikTok and discussion threads online. It was too good to be true.
And, in the end, it was. The cancellation of IKAG, announced yesterday, feels a bit like a slam back to reality. A reminder that our stories have a shelf life, and in the end, will always disappear from screens. They will not be franchised like Love Island or Love Is Blind. We will get two series to be thankful for. Something to talk about in a few years’ time and say, “Wasn’t that show great? I wish they’d bring it back.”
The news of the cancellation made me more emotional than I thought it would. Maybe I’m just sick of my favourite queer shows being taken away. In a recent report from GLAAD, they found that 20% of all queer characters on TV will not be returning to the screen due to cancellations or endings. As we see the far-right continue their charge, I can only guess that this number will increase.
But what makes this cancellation even more devastating is knowing that it existed in the first place. Knowing that positive, funny, sexy sapphic reality TV shows are not just a possibility but something that actually happened.
Despite its cancellation, the legacy of IKAG will undoubtedly live on. We can still expect to see the final season later this year, which will hopefully feel a bit less sombre than a last hurrah. But I imagine in the end it will still leave many of us wanting more.
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