Current and ex-contestants join chorus of criticism of MAFS producers
Current and former MAFS contestants have flocked to slam the reality show’s producers in the wake of Poppy Jennings’ claims that she was manipulated into saying certain things on camera.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Married At First Sight contestants past and present have detailed the level of manipulation producers go to in a bid to get juicy storylines.
Current season contestant Chris Nicholls claims he felt like he was “verbally beaten” into “saying the end result of what they want you to say”.
“You are forced basically into saying what it is they want,” Nicholls explained.
“If they don’t get that, they will ask another 10 different questions in other ways to get basically what they want and that is what they will roll with.
MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Home And Away hottie: What I hate about myself
MasterChef’s brightest stars return for new season
Best and worst radio hosts revealed
“They manipulate you into thinking this marriage or this relationship needs to either be consummated straight away or you need to do things they say so they can get the storylines they need.”
Another contestant from the current season, who did not want to be named, claimed producers told her she was boring.
“They told me I was boring and Australia wouldn’t want to watch me,” she said. “So they told me to drum up the drama at the dinner parties.
“They said ‘we’re not telling you to, but it would definitely make you look more interesting at the dinner parties’.”
The revelations come in a week when the show was rocked by claims from outgoing contestant Poppy Jennings that staff manipulated her into saying things on camera by saying that if she didn’t “Australia will hate me”.
Instead of telling the real story about her relationship with TV husband Luke Eglin, the 38-year-old single mother of twin boys claimed producers portrayed her as a “bogan single mum”.
In its seventh season, Married At First Sight pairs 20 singles in what they label a reality TV ‘‘social experiment’’.
The couples marry in a fake ceremony and live as husband and wife with the aim of seeing whether or not true love blossoms.
The show is produced by Endemol Shine Australia for Channel 9.
Married At First Sight bad boy Dean Wells has long protested his portrayal on screen.
“The producers would encourage you to say or do certain things and … the way things would be edited if you didn’t do what they wanted you to do. You feel trapped.
“At the time, none of us were media trained, we didn’t know much about producing a reality show, so you feel cornered and you have no power. You feel like you have to do everything they say or you will get in trouble.
A book released last month from former contestant Sean Thomsen details his battle with producers.
In Married Lies, Thomsen was critical of the role that producers play behind the scenes.
“I realised that the producers … were treating us like their puppets, that there was never any intent of actually matching people up, that the commitment ceremonies were a lie, and that our sole purpose as human beings on the show was to play into the stereotypical roles they’d assigned to us,” he wrote.
“Every time I thought I understood how fake everything was on that show, they found a way to surprise me. Nothing about the commitment ceremony is real. The participants have no input whatsoever. Every decision, every development is dictated by these manipulative producers.”
Tracey Jewell, also from Wells and Thomsen’s, season, backed up the claims.
“We were told regularly that if we didn’t do what they wanted, we would be edited to look bad.”
Perth fireman Andrew ‘Jonesy’ Jones was also critical of producers.
“The common phrase they use is, ‘it will look bad for you if you leave now’,’ the 37-year-old said.