It’s become a running joke within the community that any television show with prominent queer female characters will be cancelled quicker than you can say U-Haul (if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry). Vida, A League of Our Own, Orphan Black, High Fidelity, Feel Good, Betty, Warrior Nun, First Kill, The L Word: Generation Q, Lip Service – all cancelled, cut short or ended far sooner than fans would have liked, many after just one season, despite critical acclaim and, in some cases, strong viewing or engagement figures.

In GLAAD’s 2024–25 report on scripted television, there were 489 LGBTQ+ characters in TV shows. 41 per cent (201) of those characters will not return because of series cancellations, endings, limited-series formats, or a character dying or leaving the show. Although this was a slight increase on the previous season, the total remains well below the 2021–22 record high of 637. So it wasn’t surprising when the BBC announced it was axing its acclaimed queer dating shows I Kissed a Boy and I Kissed a Girl due to “funding challenges”. But it was heartbreaking.

I Kissed a Girl – which is currently airing its second (and final) season – follows the Love Island model of putting a bunch of attractive singles in a house together and watching as sparks fly, tempers flare, and, now and then, love blossoms. It is also the first UK dating show to feature an exclusively queer female cast. While reality TV has often been a platform for LGBTQ+ representation – from early on, Big Brother featured a wide range of gay and transgender contestants and sparked a few queer awakenings (including for this writer, shoutout Shabby) – dating shows have generally remained steadfastly hetero. Love Island producers infamously said that having LGBTQ+ contestants would bring “logistical difficulties”, while Netflix’s attempt at it, The Ultimatum: Queer Love, has reportedly been cancelled after two seasons.

By contrast, IKAG was a success from the start. The first episode pulled in 163,000 viewers back in 2024, 103 per cent higher than the average for that slot, with seven-day consolidated figures rising to 215,000. It also saw the highest proportion of viewers under the age of 35 of any show on iPlayer during its run. “Clips got 15m views across all BBC social media accounts, which is up there with existing big shows such as The Young Offenders,” Fiona Campbell, controller of BBC iPlayer, youth audience and BBC Three, told The Guardian at the time. She added that the popularity of the series showed the demand for LGBTQ+ representation in the genre.

The reason for this demand and popularity? IKAG showcases a wide range of queer people, experiences and conversations – something that is sorely lacking on television. There’ve been rugby lesbians, studs, femme-for-femme pairings, non-binary “slaggy golden retrievers”, mysterious pansexuals, fire-breathers. Where else are we getting masculine lesbians opening up about the expectations that they can’t be emotional or vulnerable, discussions around queer celibacy, or straight-passing lesbians sharing fears that they aren’t gay enough? It’s messy, beautiful, and real representation, where stereotypes are broken (and sometimes affirmed – Elise from season two tells her partner Elisha she loves her after approximately four minutes).

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” says Amy Spalding, season one cast member and founder of SLT Studios. “Little queer kids who don’t even know they’re queer yet, if they can’t see that on TV, it’s going to prolong such a heart-wrenching experience of self-discovery. Having it in mainstream media is just invaluable.” That was certainly the case for fan Joanna Peters, who told Dazed in 2024 how groundbreaking the show would have been for her as a young person. “If I had I Kissed a Girl on my TV growing up, it would’ve… shown me that being a queer woman is not something you have to hide away from,” she said. “Even [now I’m] 26, [it’s] had a massive impact on how I feel, proving to my younger self that being part of this community is something to be proud of.”

The show isn’t just a life-changing watch for the viewers. The cast members themselves have spoken out about the impact being a part of it had on them. For many it was the first time they were surrounded by queer people. In an early episode of this season, Elise revealed that she’s known as “Elise the lesbian” in her all-straight group of friends. Others live in small towns with no queer people. Through the experience, they build community, explore and evolve what their type is, or allow themselves to show vulnerabilities – cast member Blessing posted a video saying she had never had a big group of masc friends supporting her before, or felt safe enough to cry and receive physical touch from other people. Season one’s Georgia struggled to say the word ‘lesbian’ before her time on the show.

While these beautiful moments of self-discovery are vital, it’s not just about the teachable lessons. IKAG is also just plain good TV, scratching the itch that reality dating shows do. Because what’s not to like about watching hot queer people lounging around the pool in their bikinis, gossiping and flirting, straddling each other on sunbeds, women lusting after women, outside of the male gaze? We tune into IKAG for all the same reasons that millions of people tune into Love Island every year – love triangles, messy drama, cliffhangers, sexual tension – except for once, the couples are like us. And we get to see a whole group of them, not just a few token characters or couples. While there are without question more lesbians and queer women on television than in the past, queer women rarely make up the majority (let alone all) of the cast; not since the characters of The L Word were talking, laughing, loving and fucking in the early 2000s.

It’s no wonder then that people outside of the UK have been begging for streaming links, and that Hulu picked up the show to distribute in the US. This season, multiple clips have hit over a million views on the BBC’s TikTok channel. One – showing a bed-swapping couple – has almost 12 million views, while fan recaps of the show are also pulling in hundreds of thousands of views. It’s clear that the interest and demand is there – at the time of writing, more than 16,000 people have reportedly signed a petition to save the show – and the concern is that broadcasters and commissioners are still too quick to treat queer media as expendable, especially at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under pressure, hate crimes are rising and anti-trans legislation is being passed.

Considering that a growing share of young people identify as gay or bisexual, and the fact that the BBC is a public service broadcaster, does it not have a responsibility to represent the nation and its audience? And, at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under pressure, should it not be holding firm on representation rather than letting budget pressures narrow what gets shown? This is why we need to bring back I Kissed a Girl. We can’t let a revolutionary format become just another entry in the graveyard of sapphic shows. As Thea Hallow from season one says, “If you’re going to be revolutionary, stand on it. Change is not made by following trends. Being iconic doesn’t exist if you just follow what is safe.”