How Pop the Balloon or Find Love Blew Up
- UpRising Editors
- Apr 4
- 3 min read
[IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING]
The internet’s favorite dating series is hitting Netflix in a weekly live adaptation hosted by actress Yvonne Orji. Here’s a brief timeline of how we got here.
Sometimes execution is more important than originality. Arlette Amuli and Bolia Matundu (BM) understand this better than most. The married couple created Pop the Balloon or Find Love—a hit dating series centered around a simple premise: Singles keep bright red balloons inflated to show interest in a suitor or pop them to signal the opposite. Matundu has said their show’s inspiration came from seeing others make similar videos during the pandemic. He simply refined the concept by making it a little more mature than others. (Jay-Z once put this succinctly: “You made it a hot line; I made it a hot song.”
“I don’t claim that I owned this idea,” Matundu told The New York Times. “I was inspired by it, just like many other people are inspired by us.”
Already a social media personality, Amuli was a natural fit to host the series, which is filmed in Phoenix. In just over a year, the series has become a full-blown cultural phenomenon. And it’s taking its next leap on Thursday (April 10) at 8 p.m. ET, when it moves from YouTube to a live weekly Netflix reimagining. Yvonne Orji will serve as host while Matundu and Amuli stay on as executive producers.
UpRising serves up a brief history of the bingeable series for a look at how it has gone pop.
December 2023: The first episode of Pop the Balloon or Find Love is uploaded and published to YouTube—and it doesn’t take long for the show to blow up.
June 2024: Season two of Pop the Balloon kicks off with a viral episode that finds a 29-year-old plumber named Aaron Sloan downtalking his would-be companions (“You’re not qualified!”). One lady looking for love dishes the barbs right back: “You kindrrra look like a Ninja Turtle. You’re not that cute.” Cowabunga, dude! The views sit at 6.5 million and counting.
July 2024: Pop the Balloon gets its first engagement! Mike Braswell proposed to Nicole “Khe” Okeke during a catch-up special after the two matched in a previous episode. She did not deflate his plans.
August 2024: Amuli and Matundu announce via Deadline report that they have signed to Creative Artists Agency, positioning the couple for expansion.
September 2024: The Tamron Hall Show airs a Pop the Balloon takeover episode that features appearances by Amuli and Matundu, as well as a live recreation of the series.
January 2025: In his return to Saturday Night Live, Dave Chappelle spoofs Pop the Balloon by reprising a beloved Chappelle’s Show sketch: “The Playa Haters’ Ball.” Kenan Thompson, Donnell Rawlings, GloRilla, and Chappelle, himself, star in the hilarious segment. Ego Nwodim impersonates Amuli as host.
March 2025: Netflix announces it will air a reimagined version of the series—called Pop the Balloon Live—will air in a weekly format. A press release promises “higher stakes, fresh twists, and celebrity surprises,” which include appearances from Zaina Sesay of The Ultimatum and Chase DeMoor of Too Hot To Handle.
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