Too Hot To Handle Season 2: Everything We Know
What began as a gag in a Seinfeld episode (really) has turned into a cultural phenomenon: A bunch of hot singles forced to spend a month together in a villa in
Mexico but prohibited from touching each other—or themselves. That's the premise of Netflix's Too Hot to Handle, and if you're looking for another round of sexy rule-breaking, you'll be happy to know that more of this show is coming. In fact, Netflix renewed the reality favorite for season 2 and 3. Below, everything we know about the next installment of this popular pandemic-era show.
Netflix will film Too Hot to Handle seasons 2 and 3 during the pandemic.
On January 27, Variety confirmed that Netflix is, indeed, going ahead with two more seasons of Too Hot to Handle, and they're going to film, regardless of COVID-19. I mean, when you think about it, the premise of this show is to isolate a bunch of horny people in a villa and encourage them not to touch each other. If any show should be allowed to film right now, it's this one.
"The secret is out—we’re thrilled to bring back Too Hot to Handle for two new seasons in a tropical paradise," Brandon Riegg, Netflix's VP of unscripted and documentary series, told Variety. "Netflix members around the world fell in love with the hilarious antics of season 1, and now fans won’t have to wait long to see our new contestants try (and fail) to follow Lana's strict rules with plenty of twists and surprises along the way."
Production is happening right now
When I say they aren't waiting to get new content of this show, I mean it. Per Deadline, production on seasons 2 and 3 is already underway. Apparently, Netflix has already been working on these seasons for a "number of months" and has been shooting it under the pseudonym Parties In Paradise. As People noted last year, the show was originally presented to contestants as "The Retreat."If you're already a fan, you'll remember that the contestants didn't know the concept of the show until after they meet everyone else. The robot-host, Lana, delivered the news once the initial cast had a few hours at the villa.
It seems pretty likely that we'll get a second season in 2021, but Netflix has not yet announced an exact release date.
The next two seasons will not be filmed in Mexico, but an equally pleasant tropical location.
As the Kardashian-Jenner family has already figured out, Turks and Caicos is open for tourism (with COVID-19 restrictions). Netflix will be filming the competition show on the islands, Variety reports.
The pricing system for sex might change.
The price for sexual tension is high on Too Hot To Handle. As evidenced by taboo trysts between contestants Harry and Francesca, a clandestine kiss or not-so-hidden hookup will cost you. (That $6,000 penalty for a blow job particularly raised eyebrows.)
But that doesn't mean the prices will stay the same in future seasons. "We knew that the infractions had to be fair and uniform across the board," produer Louise Peet told People. "So a kiss was always $3,000, but maybe in another [season], if another [season] happens, then it could be another amount. There are no set rules. It's not a price list, inflation could affect it. We just don't know!"
The casting process and premise for season 2 might be different, too.
Obviously, the conceit of Too Hot To Handle is that contestants find out they can't touch each other on camera. Producers told OprahMag.com that even without knowing the true premise, more than 3,000 people signed up for the show.
After the show's popular first season, the number of applicants for season 2 is bound to skyrocket. A big question I had after season 1 was, how in the heck will anyone else fall for this celibacy trap? Won't they be aware that this is Too Hot to Handle, the show where a sentient babysitter watches where your hands (and lips and legs) are at all times? Netflix seems to have gotten around that just by simply not calling the show Too Hot to Handle and by keeping early production under wraps.
Netflix had kept pretty quiet about the show in the months following its release, despite Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos naming it the streamer's "biggest competition show ever." Perhaps this strategy was all part of the game to keep these new contestants in the dark about what they were really signing up for.
To summarize, Lana is still calling the shots, ya'll.