Int’l nets get Married at First Sight

Season seven of Australia’s Married at First Sight

Broadcasters in the UK, US, Netherlands, New Zealand, France and Africa have acquired further seasons of the finished tape of Red Arrow Studios International format Married at First Sight.

Channel 4 in the UK has picked up seasons six and seven of Married at First Sight Australia for its youth-skewing network E4, which aired seasons four and five earlier this year.

Lifetime in the US has also acquired season six of the Australian version, while RTL in the Netherlands has picked up seasons four to seven and New Zealand’s Mediaworks has bought seasons eight and nine.

Married at First Sight Australia is produced by Endemol Shine Australia for Nine Network.

Mediaworks has also acquired seasons seven and eight of the US version of Married at First Sight, which is produced by Red Arrow’s Kinetic Content for Lifetime.

Further international tape sales include M6 in France’s acquisition of seasons two and three of the Belgian version, produced by Never Ending Story for RTL, while A+E Networks-owned Lifetime in Africa has picked up spin-off show Married at First Sight: Couple’s Cam, which was produced by Kinetic Content for Lifetime in the US.

Meanwhile, the UK’s C4 is supersizing its own version of the format, with the sixth season increasing to 20×60’ episodes when it airs on E4 next year. Previous seasons of the UK version, which is produced by Red Arrow’s CPL Productions, consisted of three, four or five episodes.

In the US, Lifetime has renewed its own version of Married at First Sight through to season 17, with season 12 set to premiere in January.

New seasons of local versions are also being produced across Europe for broadcasters including France’s M6 and Poland’s TVN, which are both working on their fifth seasons. Second seasons are in production for Markiza in Slovakia and RTL in Croatia, while RTL in Belgium is working on its fourth season and RTL in the Netherlands its sixth.

Sat.1 has also just launched its seventh season for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while Nova TV recently debuted its first season in the Czech Republic. In Israel, Keshet has commissioned seasons four to six of its own version.

Originally created by Red Arrow’s Snowman Productions for DR1 in Denmark, Married at First Sight is now produced locally in 29 countries.

It sees a team of relationship experts match single people together, who then meet each other for the first time at the altar. After the wedding and honeymoon, the married couples move in together and start their new lives. Six weeks later, they must decide whether they want to stay together or file for divorce.