Following a record-breaking run last Autumn, Married at First Sight UK will be heading back down the aisle for a brand new and bigger series, launching in 2022 as part of a multi-series deal between E4 and CPL Productions.
The new series will once again follow a fresh batch of singles, whose search for love and a happy-ever-after will lead them to saying “I do” to a complete stranger, whom they’ll meet for the first time on their wedding day. With a longer run (30 episodes), the forthcoming series promises to be bigger and more dramatic than ever before!
Married at First Sight UK was All 4’s third most streamed series of 2021 and alongside Married at First Sight Australia, MAFS was the biggest programme of the year for the streaming platform. The first series of MAFS UK averaged 2.4 million viewers an episode across 28 days of linear and online viewing and was E4’s highest rating non-scripted programme ever. The show consistently pulled in the largest share of young viewers watching any TV channel from 9-10pm and the highest share of 16-34-year olds of any Married at First Sight (UK and Australia) series on E4 and on Channel 4.
Returning to bring their expertise to the matching process will be experts Mel Schilling, Paul C Brunson and Charlene Douglas. In the 2021 series of Married at First Sight UK, the expert panel had an impressive success rate. Couples Dan and Mat, and Adam and Tayah have gone from strength to strength, outside the process, and continue to build on their relationships in the real world.
Adam and Tayah said: “What can we say other than thank you to Mel, Paul and Charlene for helping us find each other. We don’t know how they did it, but we’re so grateful that they did. The Married at First Sight experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity and not a day goes by where we aren’t thankful for what we have gained from the process and the lifelong friends we have made along the way. We’ve now settled in Doncaster and are living our happily-ever-after with our dog, River!”
Dan and Matt said: “It was such an amazing experience to appear on the latest series of Married at First Sight UK and to be representing the LGBTQ+ community on a dating show with this sort of impact. We went in not knowing what to expect from the process, other than we’d be marrying a stranger. The experts truly worked their magic. We fell in love thanks to the process and are still together now, happier than ever before. We would heartily encourage anyone who is single and willing to take on something life-changing to apply for Married at First Sight UK – it’s worth all the drama!”
Karl Warner, Head of Youth and Digital said: “After a phenomenal first series that had the country bingeing and talking about it in their millions, I’m thrilled we’re extending the Married At First Sight UK brand even further, firmly rooting it at the heart of our plans to establish E4 as a reality and factual powerhouse. Married at First Sight UK is the real deal when it comes to finding love and with our expert match makers on hand, we’re back searching the country to try to create more love matches. It’s an intense, roller coaster format that bursts with emotion in every scene – bring on the first dinner party!”
Commissioning Editor, Lee McMurray said: “I’m extremely proud of the success of Married at First Sight UK and the team behind it – both at CPL and Channel 4. Having made such a successful transition to E4 and becoming the channel’s biggest ever unscripted hit, I’m looking forward to what we hope will be a bigger, bolder and even more popular second series.”
Murray Boland, Creative Director at CPL Productions said: “It’s a testament to the hard work of so many wonderfully talented people that Married at First Sight UK was the massive success that it was for E4. We are all hugely excited to start work on the brand-new series, as a fresh group of singles go on their search for that elusive happy ever after.”
Married at First Sight UK will return to E4 in 2022. Further details will be revealed in the coming months.
Married at First Sight UK is produced by CPL Productions and exec produced by Rachel Viner, Susy Price, Dermot Caulfield, Murray Boland and Danielle Lux. It was commissioned by Channel 4 Factual Entertainment Commissioning Editor, Lee McMurray, and Channel 4 Head of Youth and Digital, Karl Warner.
The Married at First Sight format is distributed internationally by Red Arrow Studios International.