‘Love Is Blind’ Producers Pay Homage to ‘Dawson’s Creek’ With New High School Reality Series ‘Sweethearts’ on Prime filmed in Charleston, South Carolina

By Emily Longeretta

“Married at First Sight,” “Love Is Blind” and “The Ultimatum” all feature adults hoping they’ve found The One. Now, Kinetic Content — the production company behind all three hits — is looking at romance earlier in life. Prime Video’s latest unscripted series “Sweethearts” follows six couples in their senior year of high school in Charleston, North Carolina, who must decide whether to stay together or break up after graduation. 

Kinetic CEO Chris Coelen was excited to dive into a younger group of participants with the serires.

“Each of our shows have something very real and pressing at different stages of life. I did not have a high school sweetheart, but I know at that age, everything is magnified and everything feels like it has huge, life-altering stakes,” Coelen tells Variety. “Are they going to go to a different school than you? What does that mean? As you’re becoming an adult, does the person who you’ve been dating help you do that or are they holding you back from that? It just feels like one of those really fraught, fun and fascinating times in people’s lives. That’s really where the idea came from: It felt like there’s a natural ticking clock — come fall, you’ve gotta make a decision.”

All of the stories take place in Charleston, South Carolina. The team chose the location first — “there’s a certain flavor to it that feels like an homage to ‘Dawson’s Creek,’” says Coelen — then dove into casting the couples. Per usual, they did outreach through social media and had a team on the ground in South Carolina.

The added layer in this show was working with the parents teens’ parents.

“I really like the idea of leaning into the parents as well — really representing them as part of these kids’ lives and getting their point of view integrated into the storytelling,” Coelen says. “The kids are driving the story, but the parents are a real key, crucial part of that as well.”

The added layer in this show was working with the parents teens’ parents.

“I really like the idea of leaning into the parents as well — really representing them as part of these kids’ lives and getting their point of view integrated into the storytelling,” Coelen says. “The kids are driving the story, but the parents are a real key, crucial part of that as well.”

While there’s “certainly a different feel filming with younger people,” many of the participants were already comfortable with the cameras. “There’s a real fluency with them filming themselves. It’s a much more part of people’s lives today than it was 10-15 years ago.”

“Sweethearts” is also produced by Amazon MGM Studios. Executive producers include Coelen, Eric Detwiler, Paul Moore, Sunny Franklin, Lucy Bennett, Vivian Choi and Scott Teti.

Source: Variety

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