Yasmin’s Getting Married: Real story behind reality TV flop

It was a much-hyped reality TV social experiment that lasted just four episodes – so what happened to the poor girl at the centre of it?

It’s gone down in history as one of Australian TV’s biggest flops, launched amid much fanfare but axed just four episodes in – so what happened to the poor girl at the centre of it?

In retrospect, the Ten network’s 2006 reality series Yasmin’s Getting Married appeared doomed from the start. The show, which was to revolve around a single woman’s quest to find a partner and get married, was originally titled Rene’s Getting Married.

‘Rene’ got cold feet and pulled out of the show at the last minute, which was when then-29-year-old recruitment manager Yasmin Dale stepped in.

With parts of Melbourne in lockdown, Australia‘s newest streaming service Binge is offering new customers a month’s free trial to stay entertained at home. Visit www.binge.com.au/melbourne.

The show was meant to run at 7pm each weeknight for nine weeks as Yasmin got to know a selection of hand-picked bachelors – and hopefully walked down the aisle in a romantic final episode.

Yasmin Dale was ready to find love – viewers weren’t so keen.

Four nights in, it was axed due to poor ratings, replaced with episodes of the cartoon Futurama.

At the time, Network Ten’s then-chief programming officer, David Mott, said that “while we all had very high hopes for Yasmin’s Getting Married, it is clear at this early stage that our audience has not embraced this bold new initiative. We have therefore elected to cease production on the Screentime-produced reality program and move on.”

Now, 14 years on, Dale reveals in this week’s Stellar magazine that the sudden axing came as a shock.

Yasmin Dale photographed by Damian Bennett for Stellar.

“I was aware the ratings had gone down a little, but any discussions about whether that was a concern didn’t happen in front of me,” she said. “So I was surprised when they told me. And of course I took it personally – the show was about me!”

Dale enjoyed her brief time in the spotlight – she was wined and dined by a succession of men, put up in a penthouse apartment and had her own make-up artist and hair stylist.

But she joined the show with the promise of a lot more: A lavish wedding and a honeymoon in the Maldives. Ten was so apologetic about the show’s failure, Dale was told the network would pay for a wedding for her whenever in the future it might happen.

7pm weeknights! (for a limited time only)

So far, no wedding – but while she hasn’t walked down the aisle, Dale, now 43, is in a happy relationship and is a mum to a seven-year-old daughter, Millie. And she had no regrets about forever being linked to one of Aussie TV’s biggest flops.

“It was the best month of my life,” she said.

Danielle Spencer covers this week's issue of Stellar Magazine.

Read the full interview with Yasmin Dale in the July 5 issue of Stellar, available in today’s Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Herald Sun.