Chris Coelen Explained the Difference Between ‘Love Is Blind’ and ‘Married at First Sight’ Contestants
Love Is Blind isn’t the only reality series that Chris Coelen came up with. He has quite a few hit reality shows on Netflix, including Married at First Sight. Because of this, he might know better than anyone what the differences are between the shows.
‘Love Is Blind’ and ‘Married at First’ Sight have two different purposes
Married at First Sight and Love Is Blind both aim to see if two complete strangers can grow to love each other. But the Netflix projects go about this experiment in two different ways. In Married at First Sight, the contestants start off already married, and determine if their marriage will work out. In Love Is Blind, contestants have to feel out their potential partners without knowing what they look like.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Coelen went further into the differences between the two reality shows. He described Love Is Blind as almost the anti-Married at First Sight.
“I think Married at First Sight is a very different entry point. Those are people who want to be committed and are willing to let someone else match them,” Coelen said. “They know nothing about each other. This is almost the opposite of that. Every single person on Love Is Blind makes their own decision. No decision is made for them. They decide and they feel truly like they know everything about the person when they get engaged. They feel like they knew the people they were talking to and they got engaged to better than people they had dated for five years, better than their family numbers because they weren’t able to open up in new ways. It’s crazy.”
Chris Coelen created 3 of the four shows that once hit number one on their platform
Apart from Love Is Blind and Married at First Sight, Coelen is also responsible for shows like Perfect Match and Ultimatum. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he felt that his shows proved there was still creativity in the Reality TV space. He pinned the success of his shows on the hours of research he did on the sub-genre.
“I’m a crazy, weird research person. I put together lots of statistics and charts. I’ve looked at this really specific issue. And today’s biggest formats — the longest-lasting, still-a-hit formats — there are basically 25 of them. The vast majority of those were launched before 2010. And that’s worldwide. Back then, there was this rush to greenlight. It was so much easier to sell shows. Not only to sell shows but to get the audience excited about them. It was new and it was different. It kind of stopped after 2010,” Coelen said.
But he felt his reality shows maintained the kind of success that hasn’t been seen since those days.
“Since then, there have only been four new shows that have hit number one on their platform in their most recent season — and we make three: Love Is Blind, The Ultimatum and Married at First Sight. The other is The Masked Singer [on Fox],” he said.
Why ‘Love Is Blind’ and ‘Married at First Sight’ aren’t dating shows
Couples getting to know each other is a huge component of both Coelen’s reality shows. Because of this, dating was a huge factor for the series’ contestants. Still, casting director Donna Driscoll didn’t think they should’ve been labeled as dating shows.
“I would say Love Is Blind is a relationship show,” Driscoll once told Slate. “Married at First Sight is a relationship show. They are not dating shows. A dating show, I feel like you might be looking for influencer types or Instagram models or just, you know, hot, sexy, all of that. For a relationships show, you’re finding people who are still very attractive—that’s always a good thing—but you want to try and find people who are truly looking for love.”
