Is Lifetime Canceling ‘Married at First Sight’?
Amid the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the entertainment industry, some Married at First Sight fans have been worrying about the future of the Lifetime reality show. However, these fans can rest assured — MAFS is not on its way out. On the contrary, Lifetime just made a big renewal when it comes to their marriage experiments. In fact, fans won’t be seeing the end of Married at First Sight anytime soon.
Lifetime makes huge ‘Married at First Sight renewal
As reported by Soap Dirt, Married at First Sight has made major strides since its inception with the FYI network in 2014. Since then, it has expanded in scope, progressing from three couples to five, and extending episodes up to two hours in length.
While some fans might feel as if the show is starting to bloat, others seem happy to have more of the drama ready at hand. And while fans may have been concerned that COVID-19 would be impacting their source of marriage drama negatively, they can rest assured — Lifetime is bringing six more seasons of MAFS their way.
As reported by Red Arrow Studios on Instagram, “[Lifetime] in the US has placed one if its largest ever orders, with a six season pick-up for hit reality series Married at First Sight, produced by [Kinetic Content]. Overall the deal will see Kinetic produce more than 400 hours of content for Lifetime.”
In a major first, Lifetime ordered seasons 12 through 17 of the show — a serious investment in the series that should have fans feeling comfortable. If Lifetime is willing to order that far ahead, the numbers must be good — and Soap Dirt confirms that Married at First Sight is pulling in a life-plus-three average of 1.7 million viewers. This is higher than the previous two seasons of the show.
A new spinoff is on the way
It seems as if Lifetime knows a cash cow when they see one. The network is aiming to ship a spin-off to MAFS entitled Married at First Sight: Unmatchables.
As the title suggests, the show aims to focus on singles who experts weren’t able to match for the usual show. Lifetime will be producing eight episodes for now. Perhaps if it does well, fans will be seeing more of the spinoff in the future.
Fans had mixed reactions to the spinoff announcement. One Redditor wrote, “Perhaps there wouldn’t be ‘unmatchables’ if we had better ‘experts’ that matched people on better things than ‘we both have cats’ to get more drama.”
Meanwhile, most others seemed excited to have more Married at First Sight to look forward to. “I figured MAFS wouldn’t go anywhere for a while due to its growing popularity, but wow, six more seasons! That means the show is safe until at least the end of 2023 if it continues it’s two season a year format,” wrote another user.
‘MAFS Season 13’ is coming to Houston, fans react
With so many seasons in the works, fans are surely wondering where they might be filming. Lifetime announces that Season 13 of Married at First Sight will be filming in Houston, and fans seem excited.
Kinetic Content posted to their casting account on Instagram for the season, writing, “CALLING ALL SINGLES IN HOUSTON! Married At First Sight is headed your way! If you are single, brave and ready to take the ultimate leap of faith, APPLY TODAY! LINK IN BIO!”
“I can’t wait to see the train wrecks happening at places I’ve actually been to!” joked one Redditor.
“Wasn’t Tristan from the Dallas season moving to Houston for his job? Maybe he can get a second chance,” suggested another fan.
One Instagram user asked, “How about a bigger variety of states instead of going back to Texas? What about Denver, Colorado, or Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon? Why only the East Coast and south?”
Kinetic Content replied, “So many factors go into it but a big factor is when we have active interest from a certain area! A lot of those states you mentioned are on our shortlist!”
