Netflix asks Will You Marry Me? with new Banijay UK format

Netflix has commissioned an ambitious 12-part live unscripted series out of the UK in which one man tasks the global streamer’s members with deciding who he will ask to marry him.

Syeda Irtizaali

Netflix, Will You Marry Me? has been ordered by Syeda Irtizaali, who joined the global streamer as its director of unscripted series in the UK from the BBC last year.

Produced by Banijay UK-owned companies Workerbee and Initial, the show will launch globally on Netflix in 2027 and air across four weeks.

It follows one man living in a custom-built house with a group of single women. The male contestant will hand over total control to the Netflix viewers to find his true love, with every big decision and every dramatic exit voted for by the streamer’s members, culminating in one live televised proposal.

The show has been described as Big Brother meets Married at First Sight and comes as Netflix pushes further into live entertainment, following commissions such as The Rest is Football, Skyscraper Live and Building the Band, all of which were made by UK outfits.

Netflix has also live-streamed Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, The Roast of Tom Brady, John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA, as well as major sports such as tennis, boxing and NFL.

Irtizaali recently said she is on the hunt for “bold, audacious and punchy” formats to rival the streamer’s more established roster of dramas and star-studded docuseries.

During a six-year tenure at the BBC, she served as editor of unscripted and, latterly, interim director of unscripted. Her credits include Top Gear, MasterChef and The Traitors.

Prior to the BBC, Irtizaali spent 10 years as commissioning editor for entertainment at Channel 4, where she commissioned, developed and oversaw series such as The Last Leg, Alan Carr: Chatty Man and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.