WE DO
Married at First Sight NZ is coming
Married at First Sight New Zealand is a go — with Kiwi singles to be coupled up and married off all for reality TV.
MediaWorks have confirmed the global reality TV hit — which is produced in more than 20 countries — will make its debut here in late 2017.
The show will follow single New Zealanders looking for love, who will be paired up and meet for the first time at their wedding. The couples will honeymoon, meet their in-laws and set up home — all the while getting to know each other on TV.
“Married at First Sight is the show that has been on everyone’s lips for 2017 and we are really excited to be producing New Zealand’s first series of this hit show,” said Andrew Szusterman, MediaWorks’ chief content officer.
Matchmaking on the show is the result of a careful process involving experts who observe and counsel the love-seekers as they progress through their time living together.
At the end of the experiment, the couples must decide whether to remain married or file for divorce.
MediaWorks is launching a casting call for singles who are “genuinely ready to commit to love”.
Applications are open to New Zealand citizens or permanent residents aged 25 and over, from any background, ethnicity and sexual orientation. The show will air between October and December.
The announcement of the first ever New Zealand version of Married at First Sight comes in the same week as the finale of the latest series of the Australian version aired on Three.
The show has been the network’s highest-rating international programme this year, reaching an audience of more than one million viewers in the 25-54 demographic, and hitting more than a million views on Three Now streams. The series featured 10 couples, of which just two remain together — Simon McQuillan and Alene Khatcherian, and Sharon Marsh and Nick Furphy.
Both couples were in Auckland yesterday, and the Herald on Sunday spotted them out enjoying a beverage with Zac Franich, the male star of series three of The Bachelor NZ, at the Blue Breeze Inn on Ponsonby Rd.
McQuillan said he couldn’t “delve too deep” into why he and his TV bride were in New Zealand.
“I’m not up for lawsuits,” he joked.