Given Married at First Sight’s high failure rate with successful couples, it’s important to look at how participants make it onto the show – and whether they applied or were recruited. In the seventeen seasons of Married at First Sight, 64 couples have been matched. Of those 64, only 12 are still together. That leaves the success rate of the show at 18.75%. In season 17 alone, all five couples opted for divorce and there was even a runaway bride situation, which could count as six failed matches.
Either way, there is something, or several things, the Married at First Sight casting department and the experts are not getting right because many of the chosen participants are questionable in their motives and emotional availability. The Married at First Sight couples that have been matched from the show and seen longevity in their relationships are couples to aspire to, and it’s been clear that when the process gets it right, it really gets it right. However, in recent seasons, casting seems to be one of the driving issues leaving couples divorced.
Married At First Sight Claims They Get Tons Of Applicants
In 2021, Married at First Sight Unmatchables ran its one and only season. At that time, seasons 12 and 13 were airing or in production. A stat for Unmatchables relayed that “65,000 people have applied to participate in the hit series,” which means each season had an average of 5,000 applicants (via mylifetime.com.) It seems that the application pool is dwindling, however, because, at the beginning of Married at First Sight season 17, the experts revealed how many applicants they got.
“Over a thousand Denver single applied to be matched with a total stranger.”
Since the experts have to go to great lengths to match applicants’ personalities, non-negotiables, appearance preferences, and value systems, matching is very tricky, and there needs to be a large number of applicants to make the right matches. Matchmaking between a pool of a thousand people does not seem viable. This is why Married at First Sight production also accepts and matches people who have been recruited.
Many MAFS Cast Have Been Recruited
Monsters and Critics reported that Ashley Petta spilled the tea about the casting process, and how many of the participants who make it into a match were recruited. The Married at First Sight season 1 alum said her husband, Anthony D’Amico was recruited for the process, while she had applied. She said Anthony was contacted by a MAFS casting agent through Tinder. She claimed her husband wouldn’t have even known about the show if he wasn’t recruited.
Most recently, Michael Shiakallis from Married at First Sight season 17 implied in a podcast interview that he was recruited. Moreover, more casting choices in recent seasons are recent transplants to the area they were cast in, and many cast members also don’t live close to the city of the season, which could also signal that they were recruited. In any case, there have been some recruitment admissions by cast over the years.
Both Clara Berghaus and Vinny Morales from Married at First Sight season 12 said they were recruited. Married at First Sight season 10 successful Austin Hurd also admitted to being recruited. Recruiting participants for MAFS is a very real thing that seems to happen a lot, and will likely continue to happen if the show keeps getting fewer and fewer applicants.
Why MAFS Recruiting Is Bad
Recruiting for Married at First Sight is not a positive thing for several reasons. It means people are being chosen who had not been a place themselves to apply for a show to get married. It also leaves the door open for people who may not want to get married but do want to be on TV and experience all that reality fame has to offer.
Recruiting takes away the base element of the participant being ready for marriage and taking it upon themselves to pursue being matched by professionals. By recruiting, they are also selecting “camera-ready” people who might not be better choices over other types of people who are more ready for marriage.
While recruiting does open the pool of eligible people able to be matched, it takes away from the show’s initiative that the cast truly wants to get married and not just get their 15 minutes of fame.
MAFS Also Looks At Applications
According to Ashley Petta, most of the applicants are women and the casting department has to go looking for men to recruit.
“Most men, are not watching Married at First Sight just because they enjoy it,” she reasoned.
During the MAFS season 17 Reunion, Emily accused Brennan of studying past seasons to figure out ways to control the optics in his season, which means he wasn’t a sincere Married at First Sight viewer. In any case, applicants are still looked at in the casting process, but recruiting seems to be a more prevalent way the show gets cast members.
