Earlier this week, the latest season of Married at First Sight Australia aired on American televisions. And due to the lack of reality TV right now, plenty of people were watching it.
To jog your memory, here is the trailer for Married at First Sight 2020. Post continues below.
And although many Americans were excited by the accents (despite finding us hard to understand) and the large amount of couples (the American season only has five couples, compared to our 12 last season) there were some negative responses that kept coming up, over and over again.
Here are the three questions that Americans have about Married at First Sight Australia.
1. Where is the diversity?
So far, only one episode has aired in the States. It introduces viewers to the weddings of Poppy and Luke, and Cathy and Josh.
Despite only seeing these four contestants and some short promos, Americans are perplexed by the fact that there is little to no diversity.
A thread on Reddit has various American viewers discussing the fact that although some contestants are mixed race, majority are seemingly white.
"I got into a few Australian reality shows a few years back when I watched the Bachelor AU and decided to dive into other Australian shows as well, like MAFS and Love Island AU," one user wrote.
"I've noticed none of these shows has a diverse cast. Maybe there is a random Asian thrown in, but it's mostly white. Is this an issue in Australia amongst viewers?"
While another user agreed, "It would be nice to see more diversity, it would probably be one or two of each of Indigenous Australians or someone from an Asian or Middle-Eastern descent. I think producers don't really care about the demographic quota if it's not their target audience, i.e. why put an Indian contestant if no Indians watch it - although I'm not sure on the numbers.
"It also depends who contestants are attracted to, it might be harder to match people of different races that are both of a smaller population and not open to it."
And on Twitter, the question continued to come up constantly.
2. Why do their faces look... plastic?
The next question raised was specifically about the female contestants.
American viewers were quick to notice how popular injectables were amongst the women. And although we could quickly think of various reality TV shows in America where the women do they same... it is interesting that this was the most commonly asked question and it wasn't particularly liked.
3. Why do they allow contestants with kids on the show?
Finally, Americans weren't too happy that contestants with children were allowed on the show.
On the American version, one of the rules applicants have to abide by is that they can't have been married before or have any children. So watching contestants that are divorced and have more than one child marry a total stranger on national television was a little strange to them.
Have you seen the US version of Married at First Sight? Which version do you prefer? Let us know in the comments.
Feature image: Channel Nine.
Top Comments