‘Married at First Sight’: Do Couples Have to Stay Together Until Decision Day?

Married at First Sight has taken the world by storm. Year after year audiences have been intrigued by the couples who are willing to put everything on the line and marry a complete stranger.

The concept is so crazy that people are having a hard time distinguishing which parts of the show are real and which parts are for production value.

Are the marriages real?

The whole premise of the show is that the cast members marry each other when they meet, so the show would pretty much be a hoax if the marriages were not legally binding. The marriages are 100% real and contestants are actually required to sign prenuptial agreements.

“There is a prenup that is built in,” Kinetic Content CEO Chris Coelen told TheWrap. “It’s a very short, brief prenup. It basically says what they walk in to [the marriage with], is what they walk out of the marriage with.”

The purpose is to help the contestants feel safe.

“We want to give them some protection walking in,” he continued. “If for some reason it does not work out, at least you are protected with this basic form. You are not going to get yourself in to any legal trouble. Once they are in to the marriage, everything is completely up to them.”

Do the ‘MAFS’ couples have to stay married?

The show takes place over the course of eight weeks. This is the time that the couples are given to decide if they want to stay together and make things work or end their marriages. The couples are actually contractually obligated to stay married for the entire eight week period. After decision day, they are free to divorce one another as they please.

Are the couples paid?

In order to deter people from coming on the show for the wrong reasons, the show originally paid the participants next to nothing to appear on it.

When asked how much the cast was paid, Coelen told The Wrap that the amount was very little.

“Almost nothing,” Coelen said. “Honestly, almost nothing.”

The cast on the New Zealand version of the show reportedly received only $60 per day.

Later, it was revealed by Radar Online that the cast from the first season each got $15,000 for appearing on the show. As the series has become more popular, the cast’s pay has increased. By season 3, the cast was making between $20,000 and $25,000 each.

Why are there no same-sex couples on the American ‘Married at First Sight’?

Throughout the seasons of the show, there has yet to be a same sex couple matched and married at first sight. The reason for this is mostly logistics.

“It’s a casting thing,” Coelen said. “We’d love to but it’s very difficult. Because we have to put all the women and all the men in the same room  (by gender) in workshops [during the casting process], there is a chance they could see each other [before meeting at the altar]. If we could figure out logistically how do it, we’d love to do it.”

Read more:  How are the Contestants Chosen on ‘Married at First Sight’?

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