Married at First Sight fans have found an indicator regarding why the franchise has had increasingly poor success rates among the couples. Married at First Sight season 18 is currently airing, and is following the marriage journeys of five couples. This season is showing more promise for the couples than in recent years, but that is poised to change in the coming episodes. From season 14 to 17 alone, only two couples have stayed together, making the success rate only 10%. Looking at historical data, MAFS fans have determined what is contributing to the failure rate.
On Reddit, Married at First Sight fan u/Tom67570 started a thread about the experts’ overall stats since the show’s debut in 2014. Dr. Pepper Schwartz and Pastor Cal Roberson have been the longest standing experts, and a lot has changed regarding the structure and format over the years. The big takeaway they noticed between the earlier seasons with high couple success rates and the poor rates now has to do with the number of couples per season.
“Seasons 1-7 had only 3 couples. They experts worked them hard with a lot of therapy, challenges and exercises. Couples were also separated mostly throughout the show. This led to their most success.”
The failure of Married at First Sight in the last half a decade has to do with the changed structure of the show, and the lack of attention and tailored counseling given to every couple. Having only three couples per season gives each pair the time and attention needed from the experiment. The narrative of the seasons with fewer couples was also more about the couples growing together and less about the group dynamics between the matches.
“Clearly, bringing in 5 couples killed the show. Some people think there’s a theory that they’re deliberately bringing in awful matches for better trash ratings. A fair theory. But I truly believe they work less with them 1 on 1, and pushing them to hang out together yields a contagious negative impact.”
Give MAFS season 18, for example, there will be a cheating scandal and a couples swap that would likely not have happened if the couples didn’t co-mingle so much. The motivations of the show lie more with drama these days and less with giving the couples the tools and expert attention they need to build a solid enough foundation to say yes come decision day. If MAFS wants to produce more long-lasting couples, there should be less matches each season.
Our Take On MAFS Failure Rate & Structure Changes
Since Married at First Sight has steered in the direction of more couples with more interaction for heightened chances of drama and entertainment value through that, it shows production doesn’t care about the cast. If production did care more about the matches’ well-being and the longevity of the pairings, they would revert back to having less couples. As it stands, Married at First Sight’s failure rate is attributed to the number of couples and lack of expert attention, and fans are underscoring this as season 18 unfolds with ill-fated couples.
