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As thousands tune in to Erin Foster’s culture-clash romcom Nobody Wants This, some viewers will be left questioning whether it’s based on a true story.

The plot and characters are inspired by creator and producer Foster’s real-life love story with her husband, the music executive Simon Tikhman.

Warning: spoilers for Nobody Wants This are below.

The newly-released romcom series follows an unlikely romance between Joanne (Kristen Bell), a serial dater who overshares about her risque love life as part of the podcast she hosts with her sister, and Noah (Adam Brody), a progressive rabbi who has just come out of a long-term relationship.

As the series progresses and their bond grows stronger, the pair spend months navigating how to balance their intense chemistry and their incompatible lifestyles – as well as fend off the naysayers in their families.

There are huge crossovers between the love story behind Foster’s own marriage and the series, including her husband’s background, her journey towards converting to Judaism and how they navigated their differing lifestyles.

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Though Foster describes the series as a “love letter” to her marriage, there are also some huge differences – her husband isn’t a rabbi and in reality, they faced fewer obstacles compared to what Joanne and Noah encounter in the series.

Find out the biggest similarities and differences below.

Foster has a podcast with her sister in real-life

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In the series, Joanne bears all about her love life on her podcast with her sister as she recounts her failed dates and biggest icks.

Foster actually hosts a podcast with her sister, Sara Foster, called The World’s First Podcast. There are several easter eggs pulled from the original podcast that have been added into the series, like when Joanne and her sister Morgan (played by Justine Lupe) list things a potential romantic partner can do to give them the immediate “ick”, such as “running with a backpack”.

Both comments were drawn from the Foster sisters’ real-life ick, which were discussed on an episode of their podcast earlier this year.

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Noah is based on Foster’s husband

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Speaking on her real-life podcast, Foster explained she based Noah entirely on her husband because she wanted to create a character who was “emotionally available, chivalrous, old-fashioned … but also really funny and confident.” She also added that Noah needed to have “rizz” – a word for “charisma” that relates to a person’s ability to attract a romantic partner.

Foster also based Noah’s family background on Tikhman’s own upbringing, since he is the son of Jewish Russian immigrants.

“We didn’t come from similar backgrounds,” Foster said of her husband on her podcast. “He came from a much more traditional place. I came from a more unconventional place. When we got together we were like, ‘How’s this gonna work?”

However, the real-life couple didn’t face pushback from their families like Joanne and Noah do in the series.

The real meet-cute didn’t happen at a party

While viewers see Joanne and Noah meet and hit it off at a dinner party, Foster and Tikhman’s meet-cute happened at a Los Angeles gym in 2018.

The real-life couple got engaged the following year and wed during a New Year’s Eve celebration in 2019. They welcomed their first child together, a daughter, in May.

Foster converted to Judaism before marrying her husband

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At the end of the series, viewers watch as Joanne tells Noah that she’s not ready to commit to converting to Judaism, which is a non-negotiable for him as someone dedicated to his religion.

This aspect has been pulled right out of Foster’s own love story. Foster actually wrote the idea down for Nobody Wants This while in the middle of the process of converting to Judaism ahead of their marriage.

In the series finale, we don’t find out whether Joanne ends up converting to Judaism, but Foster herself did end up coverting ahead of their New Year’s Eve wedding in 2019.

During her own conversion process, Foster’s producing partner and manager suggested she write a show about her experience, and she came up with the concept for Nobody Wants This.

The Sunflower scene did happen – minus the gym gear

In episode six, titled “The Ick”, a frantic Noah scrambles to get ready to meet Joanne’s parents for the first time. Awkwardly, he arrives wearing his gym kit clutching an oversized bunch of sunflowers. In the series, this scenario puts Joanne off Noah, and she seems ready to call off the relationship altogether as she develops “the ick”.

A similar thing did happen in Foster and Tikhman’s early days. When the two started dating in 2018, Tikhman arrived to meet Foster’s mother for the first time carrying a huge bouquet of sunflowers and it freaked Foster out slightly.

Speaking to New York Magazine, Foster recalled: “The flowers were so long, and they kept falling over. Sitting there, I was like, ‘Well, if someone cares this much, then that feels like a weakness.’”

However, Tikhman defended himself, saying: “I personally don’t remember the sunflowers being that big.”

Google and Meta account for 70% of digital advertising and should pay a levy to fund traditional media, according to a new report on media concentration led by researchers from several Australian universities.

The communications, media and internet concentration in Australia report, which tracked the country between 2019 and 2022, found it has the second-highest media concentration in the world. Its newspaper sector alone is dominated by four companies who control 84% of the market.

The international study examined the economic dominance of key players in 15 markets across the world. Only Brazil had a higher media concentration than Australia.

News Corp, Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and Australian Community Media have increased their share, which was 78% in 2019, due to mergers and acquisitions such as Nine buying Fairfax Media in 2018.

Prof Terry Flew and Dr Rob Nicholls from the University of Sydney’s media and communications department say funds from a levy on digital advertising could be invested in journalism.

“A public interest journalism levy, at a rate of about 2%, would generate funds equivalent to or possibly slightly higher than the payments being made under the news media bargaining code,” Flew said.

The proposal of a mechanism to slow down the demise of the newspaper sector echoes comments by Anthony Albanese in August that social media companies shouldn’t “essentially ride free” on the backs of traditional media.

The prime minister was responding to questions about the possibility of a levy after Meta’s decision to not renew media funding deals.

Flew said a levy would be on advertising revenues derived independently of content, and would include News Corp and Nine’s classified advertising of real estate and cars.

The Global Media & Internet Concentration Project’s analysis of the media, telco and internet markets found that Google and Meta dominated internet advertising and were the second and eighth largest communication and media enterprises operating in Australia.

The study defined media enterprises as any company involved in the communication process.

It warned the increase in concentration – due to the rapid ascent of the global tech companies and the deregulation of media markets – poses a major threat to local journalism.

As audiences desert traditional media for global platforms, the study noted, the ability to regulate for accuracy in news, TV and radio is compromised.

“Collating and analysing publicly available revenue and consumer data, we find that from 2019 to 2022, the majority of Australia’s media, internet and communication markets are moderately to highly concentrated,” the report said.

“These results reflect a long history of media concentration in Australia and a continuing trend seen in many developed economies abroad.”

But Flew said journalism faces an even bigger threat than concentration: the “wholesale dismantling” of news driven by the growth in news deserts, the disappearance of commercial newspapers and commercial news bulletins in the regions and the threat of AI-generated online searches no longer linking to news websites.

“The relationship AI will have to search is going to be quite profound,” Flew said.

He said an earlier study showed that the Seven and Nine networks had cut back their news and current affairs coverage from the early 2000s by 70 to 80%. News Corp closed 100 local print newspapers during the Covid pandemic.

“In the digital age of data-driven capitalism and AI and with the dominance of global digital conglomerates and the possible demise of the news media bargaining code, public interest journalism is in jeopardy,” the report said.

Rupert Murdoch owns the biggest media company, controlling a significant share of newspapers, as well as stakes in streaming, online news and pay TV, but News Corp is not locally owned.

Nine Entertainment is the largest Australian media company, with holdings in television, radio, and digital media.

The major four companies in broadcast TV (Nine, Seven, ABC and Network 10) increased their market concentration from 79 to 87%.

The top four players in radio (Southern Cross Media, ABC, ARN and Nova) jumped in market ownership from 57 to 77%.

16th May: Giovanni Pernice sensationally quits Strictly Come Dancing after nine years on the show.

17th May: Giovanni becomes the centre of an official investigation after three former partners – believed to be Amanda Abbington, Laura Whitmore and Ranvir Singh – make complaints to the BBC.

16th June: Giovanni releases an official statement vowing to clear his name and denies any wrongdoing.

8th July: Strictly confirms Aljaz Skorjanec will return to the series, replacing Giovanni, after initially quitting the show two years ago.

10th July: Amanda Abbington launches fresh legal proceedings to get the rehearsal footage from her time with Giovanni, after allegedly he refused to release the videos.

13th July: Graziano Di Prima is axed from Strictly for “gross misconduct” after footage of his treatment of Zara McDermott is brought to the attention of the BBC.

Graziano quickly broke his silence, apologising for his behaviour in a statement and saying he “deeply regrets it”, adding his “intense passion and determination to win might have affected his training regime.”

15th July: Strictly bosses implement new duty of care protocols, including having a chaperone present throughout all rehearsals.

16th July: Zara McDermott speaks out publicly for first time. She states while the production team were “amazing to work with”, she found the rehearsal room “completely different”, confirming there’s footage of “certain situations”.

19th July: Anton Du Beke is put under the spotlight for his “1970s attitude” and treatment of female celeb stars, particularly after allegedly referring to 2009 partner Laila Rouass as a “p***” after getting a spray tan.

21st July: Paralympian Will Bayley, who has limb condition arthrogryposis, revealed he was encouraged to leap from a table during a dance routine, despite fears. The stunt caused an injury that forced him to withdraw from the show.

22nd July: MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace admits he broke down in tears and got a nasty stress rash on his face during his time on Strictly in 2014.

22nd July: Despite ongoing issues, the Strictly professional cast begin rehearsals for this year’s series.

23rd July: Celebrity agent Melanie Blake claims she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed pro dancer while backstage on the show, and claims she witnessed ageism, rudeness and a rough treatment to the point of injury.

23rd July: Strictly is forced to beef up security after ‘an intruder scales the wall of the rehearsal studio’.

23rd July: BBC boss Tim Davie breaks his silence on the ongoing allegations against Strictly, saying he is ‘deeply sorry’, adding: “Hundreds of people, be they pros, contestants or crew have been part of it and had a brilliant experience.

“At the same time if someone thinks there was something wrong or they want to talk about their experience then of course we want them to raise that with us. Be in no doubt we will take it seriously, listen and deal with it as appropriate.”

24th July: Strictly 2023 star Krishnan Guru-Murthy holds a bombshell interview with Amanda Abbington on Channel 4 news, where she claims she was bullied, with some of the ‘humilation being of a sexual nature’.

27th July: Laura Whitmore releases a statement regarding her Strictly experience, saying “I thought my experience was specific to me but I’ve since learned I was wrong”.

She adds she is not part of the official complaint, but has come forward to support Amanda with the BBC, alongside others.

28th July: Laila Rouass speaks out against the accusations regarding Anton Du Beke, saying she “never felt pressured” by him and “personally insisted on six to seven hours training a day”.

10th August: Graziano breaks his silence on his Strictly axe, saying “these vile, false allegations have ruined my life.”

He also told of the “shocking” end to his friendship with Zara McDermott.

We also revealed that Amanda Abbington was also quizzed for a second time as Strictly execs recruited 15 new staff to monitor rehearsals.

11th August: Just as the investigation was expected to conclude, Amanda made a dramatic intervention. Giovanni was on the brink of being cleared until Amanda handed in more text messages.

24th August: Graziano Di Prima called in top lawyers to sue the BBC and to try to clear his name. He recruited big hitters Whitestone Chambers to fight his corner.

A source said: “They’ve also looked at his BBC contract and believe there are grounds to sue.”

Meanwhile, the BBC also delayed releasing the findings of the probe into Giovanni Pernice. The Sun revealed that the results of the three-month investigation were unlikely to be announced in August.