I Think Married At First Sight’s Low Success Proves The Show Needs A Complete Overhaul (It’s Doing Worse Than Any Other Dating Show)

Married At First Sighthas a historically low success rate, which I think proves the show needs a complete overhaul considering it’s doing worse than any other reality TV dating show. Throughout Married At First Sight season 18, viewers have been waiting to see if the couples who the experts matched up will be able to make it through the season successfully, or if they’ll fail the way so many others have. MAFS has one of the lowest success rates of any reality TV dating show, and in the past seasons, things have just been getting worse for the series.

While Married At First Sight season 18’s cast has been working hard to try and find a foundation for their relationships, many have been considering just how low the success rate has been on the show. With so few couples having stayed together after being matched up in recent seasons, viewers have been discussing whether or not the show can be considered a valid means of matchmaking anymore. While MAFS cites itself as an experiment, the series hasn’t been able to capitalize on building genuine relationships for quite a few seasons, which leaves viewers like me feeling uninterested and apathetic.

MAFS Has A Tremendously Low Success Rate

They Haven’t Had A Successful Match In Seasons

Throughout the most recent seasons of Married At First Sight, the show has had a tremendously low success rate. While this isn’t news to viewers, the show hasn’t been able to course-correct itself for quite some time, which has caused many to lose trust in the way the MAFS experts work on the show. Despite knowing that Married At First Sight has been suffering throughout the last few seasons, viewers are typically left with a renewed interest from season to season, hoping that the experts will be able to put couples together more successfully after learning from their previous mistakes.

Unfortunately, within the last six seasons of MAFS, only two Married At First Sight couples have made it through the experiment, choose each other on decision day, and wind up staying together after the show. Married At First Sight season 12 couple Vincent Morales and Briana Myles got together during their season and stayed married, welcoming their first child in 2024. After them, the most recent couple to stay married happily is Married At First Sight season 16’s Nicole Lilienthal and Christopher Thielk, who have been together since their season. The show’s low success rate has been a major issue.

MAFS Hasn’t Been Trying To Make Successful Matches

They’ve Been Focused On Mismatched Couples & Drama

Married At First Sight’s Experts in side by side images looking concerned — Married At First Sight’s Experts

Although Married At First Sight has been struggling to make successful matches on the series, I don’t think the experts are actually trying to build couples who are genuinely able to function in their daily lives. Instead, I feel like the MAFS experts are trying to pair couples who will bring drama to the show, keeping the plot moving on screen. With many of the couples in the last few seasons feeling slightly mismatched, their differences have brought their arguments, disagreements, and overall drama into the spotlight, taking precedence over their actual marriages. MAFS may have been looking for drama.

Throughout the last several seasons of Married At First Sight, I’ve been watching as the panel of experts dodges questions about their matchmaking process in a way that makes it clear they aren’t prioritizing actual criteria. Instead, it appears that Dr. Pepper Schwartz, Dr. Pia Holec, and Pastor Cal Roberson have been looking at the cast members to see who could potentially get along or pair up, but moreover, who will bring more drama to the series. Rather than matching couples up who could fundamentally work, the experts are matching couples who could work, but are more likely to fail.

The MAFS Expert Panel Needs A Complete Overhaul To Succeed

Things Need To Change Considerably

Although I’m merely speculating about the idea that the Married At First Sight experts are only trying to bring drama to the series with their matches, it’s become clear that there are issues with the way the experts have been matching couples. Rather than taking into consideration the genuine emotions of the couples, the MAFS experts have been making matches with more reckless abandon and then disappearing when the couples actually need their help to counsel their marriages on the show. With just two couples having been successful in the last six seasons,MAFS needs to make drastic changes.

Although I know Married At First Sightis the kind of series that’s left up to chance, the show needs to make major changes to its expert panel and their matchmaking process to continue and become successful. At this point, it appears that the series is okay with its incredibly low success rate. While not everyone working on MAFS is likely okay with the couples failing, the perception that they are has become commonplace among viewers, which has made it more difficult to watch and enjoy MAFS. Moving forward, Married At First Sight needs to make serious changes.

Married At First Sight airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on Lifetime.

Source: Married At First Sight/Instagram