AN INVESTIGATION

TV’s Greatest Mystery: What’s the Deal With the Silver Wine Goblets in ‘The Ultimatum’?

A chat with the set decorator of Netflix’s dating show about its breakout star: the chunky, opaque goblets that fans on social media can’t stop obsessing over.

Before the word “goblet” is even fully out of my mouth, the set decorator for The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On is cracking up.

“The goblets! They’re iconic,” she giggles, as a once-college student might laugh about using Red Solo Cups to chug poorly mixed drinks—like it’s an ancient inside joke. “It’s funny. If you don’t notice it, it’s not a big deal. But as soon as you notice it, you’re like, ‘What is with these goblets?’”

Mandalynn Myers, who tells me she was a one-person department throughout most of the production on Netflix’s latest reality dating show, has heard all the talk about these (in)famous chalices. She had to clean dozens and schlep them around Austin, though she wasn’t responsible for their inception. They arrived in metallic silver boxes from Netflix storks as Myers and her prep team worked tirelessly to spin hotel rooms into glitzy apartments.

Seriously, though: what is with these goblets? They’re in every shot of the damn show, iconic in a way Emily in Paris is—tacky, campy, and horribly wonderful. A perfect fit for The Ultimatum.

The new dating show follows six couples as they swap partners, test out marriage, and eventually decide on their perfect match, be it with their original partner or someone new. In a word, The Ultimatum is ludicrous.

These folks (who are all, mind you, in their early twenties, and have only been dating their significant other for, max, two years) have a warped view of romance. Yet it’s also, perhaps, a modern masterpiece.

As these significant others demand children from one another after one calendar year together, they’re frequently slamming down giant chalices bigger than their heads (or, for another point of reference, their proudly self-financed breast implants). They gulp margaritas—or wine, or vodka Red Bulls, or straight tequila… We don’t know what they’re drinking or how much of it, thanks to these goblets, which have become a character bigger than Colby or April, and even more present than hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey.

Restaurant table? Place a goblet for water and a goblet for alcohol. Date night? Nothing’s better for setting the mood than a gargantuan goblet. Meeting the family for a picnic? Stick a goblet in grandma’s hand. There are even goblets on these folks’ bedside tables, though who knows if they’re there for water or a nightcap.

“We set up little bars in everybody’s room,” Myers says. “They had a welcome basket when they entered their room of fun things, where we kept candy and mixers and little card games where they could get to know each other. Just fun things for them to play around with.”

Because they’re young people in Austin, Myers tells me, “they’re looking to have a good time,” which is the reasoning behind the bars in each room. In one shot of Rae and Jake’s room, you can actually see a giant glass bowl full of gummy worms sitting right beside a half-full bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Again: iconic.

Though the metallic glasses are now infamous, the amount of drinking on the show is even more remarkable. As the show’s audience, we don’t know what kind of beverage is being ingested, but someone is drinking something in every scene. By the way the cast acts—constantly sobbing, shouting, flirting—we can assume that it’s usually alcohol. If that’s true, they’re drinking an awful lot, and they never stop.

Maybe, though, there’s less actual drinking than we think. “It’s just something that they decided would be good for editing and continuity,” Myers tells me of the chalices. “That’s just a stylistic choice. It’s fun, it brings something more interesting than a Red Solo Cup or just a plain dinner glass.”

These folks could be drinking water, or they could be taking the tiniest sips ever, and we’d never know. To be honest, though, a normal wine glass would allow me to focus on the actual show more than these bulky monstrosities.

Still, The Ultimatum manages to highlight a big problem in nearly every dating reality show. Young contestants are expected to flaunt a wine glass or a fresh cocktail in every scene, a glorified take on alcoholism. Now, thanks to Netflix, the issue is plopped in an unmissable, massive silver goblet that’s grabby enough that you just have to notice it.

There is, however, a certain brilliance to the faithfulness Netflix’s reality team has to these chalices. They’ve been used on The Circle, Too Hot to Handle, sister series Love Is Blind, and now The Ultimatum, all in different forms. Sometimes, the chalices are flutes. Occasionally, they’re gold. In The Ultimatum, there are three types: stemless, normal wine glasses, and extra chunky wine tumblers.

The crew even found a way to place these glasses in real, operational restaurants. The production team primarily worked with mom-and-pop operations, who Myers says were “so welcoming” of their glassware. (Sorry, Netflix: you wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near my restaurant with those things.) The set decorator dug her hands into “buckets of buckets of chalices,” scrubbing them clean before each new take began.

“We shot a date night at the Eleanor in downtown Austin,” Myers recalls. “That was a whole bar where there were tons of people. I just remember we brought so many goblets. It was like seven large tupperware boxes of just…goblets.”

How many goblets were there in total? Around 500 or 600, Myers estimates. That’s around triple the number of attendants at an average wedding, all for 12 lucky people. Just imagine all those king-sized metal glasses thumping around in dozens of big boxes around the set. You’ve got to admire the commitment.

The chalices’ appearance on the show has surely done numbers for any retailer marketing metallic glassware. But as hard as every publication has tried, there’s no definitive answer on where to purchase these goblets, not even from the production themselves: “We were like, ‘Where did these come from?’ No one ever knew,” Myers says, tossing a tentative “Amazon…?” in as a suggestion.

Apparently sent from the heavens above, the chalices don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon, especially since Netflix’s dating slate has grown to mammoth proportions. During the show’s reunion episode, after two cast members announce they’re pregnant, the couple is gifted with a silver sippy-cup. The legacy will live on in the next generation of thirsty singles.

Fletcher PetersEntertainment Reporter

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