Broadcasters buy controversial marriage format

A raft of broadcasters have acquired the US version of Married at First Sight, the controversial reality TV format in which total strangers are matched up by a team of experts and then wed upon their first meeting.

The couples then live together for six weeks before deciding whether to remain married or go their separate ways.

The show started out in Denmark before A+E greenlit a US version as one of the flagship shows for its FYI channel. A+E has now acquired that version for its Polish and sub-Saharan African services.

In the Nordics, free-to-air broadcasters SVT in Sweden and MTV in Finland have bought the US show, as has SBS Discovery in Norway.

Married at First Sight is distributed by Red Arrow International, which is part of the German ProSiebenSat.1 broadcast group. ProSieben has acquired it for its German digital channel Sixx.

The series was originally created by Snowman Productions for Danish channel DR3 where it has proved popular. Local versions have been ordered in the Australia, France, Germany and the UK.

Married at First Sight is TBI’s show of the week.