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A Friend Suddenly Asked, “Have You Seen This?”
A friend shoved her phone screen in my face and asked, “Have you seen this? It’s a totally new kind of dating show.” On the screen was the poster for Wavve’s new show “StandBIMe.” Released on Wavve at 11 a.m. on June 19, it’s billed as Korea’s first bisexual dating reality show. The title alone caught my attention, but once I actually looked into it, the whole thing turned out to be a real departure from the usual dating-show playbook.
The show is directed by the team behind the “His Man” series. PD Kim Hyun-kyung, who directed “His Man” Season 4, is back behind the camera — following up a gay dating reality show with one built around a bisexual cast this time.
What Does It Mean to Meet Without Gender Boundaries?
The biggest thing that sets “StandBIMe” apart is that its cast explores romance without predetermined gender boundaries. Contestants pursue relationships without a fixed framework set in advance, focusing purely on personal attraction and emotion as they figure out what kind of relationship they actually want. In the teaser, one contestant asks, “What gender were you expecting?” — a line that feels like it captures the question running through the entire show.
Most existing dating reality shows start by locking in a fixed frame — several male contestants, several female contestants — before anything begins. This show scraps that frame entirely. The poster itself shows three contestants seated side by side from behind, an image suggesting fluid relationships not fixed in any one direction. The tagline, “every possibility of who we might love,” captures that intent well.
The Crack It Puts in Korea’s Dating-Show Landscape
Korean dating content has, for the most part, never strayed far from a heterosexual matching structure. Balancing the gender ratio of contestants and watching who picks whom has long stood as the default format. But Wavve already opened up a new genre with “His Man” as a gay dating reality show, and now with “StandBIMe,” it’s pushing a step further.
This isn’t just a change in cast composition — it reads as an attempt to re-ask the question “what is dating, anyway?” By naturally handling the idea that sexual orientation isn’t fixed but can be fluid, within the popular format of reality TV, Korea’s dating-content landscape has widened by a notch. It may feel unfamiliar to viewers accustomed to conventional heterosexual matching shows, but that very unfamiliarity is worth sitting with — a reminder of just how narrow a frame dating has been portrayed in until now.
A Different Kind of Hook Than the Usual Format
Another interesting thing about this show is that it steps away from the usual dating-reality grammar of foregrounding conflict and competition. Instead, it focuses on the process of contestants getting to know each other and exploring their feelings. As the dynamics between contestants keep shifting over their time together, the show reportedly centers on the contestants’ journey of confronting their own real emotions as the main thing to watch.
That approach gives viewers a different kind of experience, too. Instead of wondering “who’s going to end up with whom,” you find yourself watching to see whether someone is actually figuring out what kind of relationship they really want. New episodes drop every Friday, and as episodes accumulate, it seems like it’ll become clearer how each contestant comes to accept their own identity and emotions.
Where Does This Trend Go From Here?
Looking at the line from “His Man” to “StandBIMe,” you can feel Korean dating content gradually moving toward capturing more diverse identities and relationship forms. It may still be a handful of attempts, but as these shows accumulate one by one, it feels like the way viewers imagine dating is widening along with them.
Reactions are mixed whenever I bring this show up with people around me — some find it refreshing, others still find it unfamiliar. But that range of reactions itself seems to say something about how relevant the question this show is asking really is. If you’ve grown a little tired of the usual dating reality shows, “StandBIMe,” telling its story in a completely different grammar, might be worth checking out.
Source: The Korea Times, “‘His Man’ creators return with Korea’s first bisexual dating show,” June 11, 2026; Wavve official announcement, June 2026.
