The show's host is reacting to a claim from its former star that the show is cutting out Black women.
Nick Lachey is reacting to Lauren Speed-Hamilton's Love Is Blind commentary. While speaking with ET's Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner at the Sheraton Waikiki in Hawaii on Wednesday, the 48-year-old dating show host discusses Speed-Hamilton's allegation that the Netflix series aired limited scenes with Black women during its third season.
"LIB be cutting all the black women. How come they are always in the trailer but not the show," Speed-Hamilton tweeted last month. "I know it's slim pickings but about 85% of them couples be forced (just moving forward for entertainment purposes) anyway. Y'all could at least force some more sisters to move forward throughout the show."
Lachey, who hosts the series with his wife, Vanessa Lachey, calls Speed-Hamilton's tweet "a fair observation" and says that he does "understand where she's coming from with it," but notes that he's "not sure what exactly you can do about that except continue to cast with diversity, which they've done."
"People gravitate to who they gravitate to," he tells ET. "That's not something that producers or anyone else can dictate or strip or have dictated or stripped. People make connections in the pods for whatever reason, and those connections are then followed through to the rest of the season."
"I think that all you can do in terms of being in the show and being in the casting department is casting fairly and with great diversity. I think that they've done a good job of trying to do that," Lachey continues. "How it plays out, I can't really answer to that part of it other than I know it's not dictated or manipulated... who moves forward. It's really, truly the connections they make blindly in the pods."
Speed-Hamilton and her now-husband, Cameron Hamilton, met on season 1 of the series. For Lachey, the couple is a perfect example of how the show's experiment can really work.
"We've seen people that have gotten together and discovered something unique about someone and fallen in love with someone on this show that they probably never in the normal, superficial dating world would've connected with," he says. "Is it enough? No. Physical definitely plays a part at some point, and that connection has to be made as well."
"Lauren is a perfect example," Lachey adds. "Lauren had never dated outside of her race in her life and met Cameron on the show, made a connection, and are happily married to this day. It kind of lays the groundwork for everything else."
Amid all the ups and downs of the show, Lachey loves being on hand to witness it all play out.
"Vanessa and I, we step into this every season, it's totally different, totally new script, totally new set of people, and the outcomes are totally different too. It keeps it interesting for us," he says. "... These are people who are there mostly for the right reasons, trying to find love, but you never know how it's gonna play out. You never know what you're gonna get... That's why I think reality TV works so well."
Seasons 1-3 of Love Is Blind are now streaming on Netflix. Tune in to Wednesday's episode of Entertainment Tonight for more of ET's interview with Lachey.
RELATED CONTENT:
