Random Behind-The-Scenes Facts From 'Married At First Sight' (13 items)

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  (#1) The Vetting Process Is Intense

  As you can imagine, producers don't let just anyone participate. Each contestant is put through an intense vetting process to ensure their motives are genuine.

  "Each candidate goes through a very thorough background check to determine if they have significant debts or any sort of criminal record," Rachel DeAlto, one of the relationship experts on the show, said in an interview. 

  "We're looking at things like their psychological testing, their core values," counselor Calvin Roberson added. "These are legally binding marriages. Annulment is not an option."

  In Season 4 alone, there were a shocking 30,000 applicants, yet producers only chose six people to participate. 
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  (#2) The Relationship Experts Are Really There Every Step Of The Way

  The marriage experts are one of the most interesting aspects of the show, as they help the couples through different steps of their relationship and assist them in navigating their unconventional matrimony. The work these experts do isn't just for TV - they help the couples in every aspect of their marriage regardless of the cameras.

  Jamie Otis, who appeared on the show in 2014 with her husband Doug, explained: 

  Not only did the experts find someone who I could fall in love with, but they helped guide me along the process. Going into this marriage, I had struggled with commitment. My first two relationships were with men who were quite jealous. They were mentally and emotionally abusive...

  There was an incident with Doug where he lied to me. In the past, that would have usually been a red flag and I would have ended it. But the experts (especially Dr. Cilona) showed me how to work through obstacles. I am so thankful to all of the experts for their guidance and support. I've claimed them as family!
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  (#3) The Show Wants To Include Same-Sex Couples But The Casting Situation Makes It Difficult

  According to the show's executive producer Chris Coelen, they've discussed including same-sex couples in the cast but ultimately deemed it logistically challenging because of how they structure the casting process.

  While potential candidates are vetted, the women and men are kept in different rooms, separated by biological sex, which means there's a chance a same-sex couple could meet before the show. Coelen said in an interview, "If we could figure out logistically how do it, we’d love to do it." 
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  (#4) Some People Have Serious Regrets

  Some cast member revealed they had pretty significant regrets while filming, including Nick Pendergrast, who told The Knot he felt terrible about how he handled himself during a fight with his wife that made it onto the show. 

  "I could only imagine how she must have felt," Pendergrast said of his wife, who was not aware of just how upset he was during the argument in question until the day that the episode aired. The fight, which had to do with attraction, prompted Sonia Granados to defend her husband on social media and implore people to refrain from criticizing him. Pendergrast continued: 

  It was a hard week for sure, and I tried to stay away from social media and focus on other things to distract myself from being sucked into reading comment after comment... 

  I now entertain social media in a different light for sure! Not everyone is going to like you or view you how you want them to. I kept to the theme of wanting to be authentic, though, and the tweets, Instagram posts, etc. are really me and my thoughts and photos portraying my mood in that moment.
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  (#5) Couples Are Required To Sign A Prenup

  In an interview, producer Chris Coelen revealed the couples who appear on the show aren't just signing a real marriage license, they're also signing a prenuptial agreement included in their binding love contract.

  "There is a prenup that is built in... It’s a very short, brief prenup. It basically says what they walk in to [the marriage with], is what they walk out of the marriage with." Coelen also said the prenup is required so participants are given "protection" in terms of their assets before they get married on the show. 

  "If for some reason it does not work out, at least you are protected with this basic form. You are not going to get yourself into any legal trouble. Once they are into the marriage, everything is completely up to them," he added.
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  (#6) The Show Helps To Pay For Divorce

  As it turns out, the show helps cover the cost of divorce if a couple decides not to stay married over the six-week course of the show. It's not exactly cut and dry however, and there are certain rules that dictate just how involved the show's executives are in the divorce process.

  "There is not any money specifically built in for divorce costs," producer Chris Coelen revealed in an interview. "We will contribute within a certain period of time if they get divorced. We will help them cover the costs of an attorney if they choose to do that. I don’t know what the amount is. It’s nominal."

   
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  (#7) For Some Contestants, Marrying A Stranger Was Not Hard To Do

  Surprisingly, the wedding portion of the show wasn't the most difficult part for some participants. Sheila Downs, who appeared in Season 5, said the chemistry between her and her husband was real from the moment they saw each other on their wedding day.

  "I didn't have to force it on my wedding day. Like I felt like I knew him and he was easy to be around," Downs revealed.

  Another contestant, Danielle DeGroat, agrees with Downs. DeGroat said she and her husband's families "vibed" and the wedding was the easiest moment of the whole process. 
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  (#8) The Australian Version Of The Show Featured Scandalous Cheating

  On the Australian version of Married At First Sight, one couple revealed the cheating that apparently takes places both on and off camera. Contestant Dean Wells said not only did he and his wife cheat on each other while participating in the show, other non-paired couples also messed around on the side. 

  "We’re not supposed to party and that’s completely against the rules but pretty much every night it happens," Wells said. "All I will say is a lot of stuff happens in the hotel rooms that no one really knows about."

  The Australian version of the show does not include a legally binding marriage certificate due to federal law, but couples do commit to one another in the first episode during a ceremony. 
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  (#9) Couples In The Same Season Have Never Spent Time Together

  The show's format allows for each couple to live in a different city, meaning they don't have a chance to interact with each other prior to taping. Series producer Chris Coelen said this was a strategic move, as otherwise making the couples meet up and spend time with each other would be perceived as "fake." Coelen continued: 

  It’s not that we don’t want them to [meet the other couples in the show]. If they did, they do. We just want it to be real. We don’t set anything up, really. It would be a lot easier from a production standpoint if we said, ‘Why don’t you all move here? Why don’t you all come to LA?
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  (#10) Producers Didn't Tell People What They Were Signing Up For

  According to executive producer Chris Coelen, he and the other producers withheld the twist of the show from potential cast members who showed up to be part of it. According to Coelen, there was a good reason to keep things secret: 

  We wanted to make sure people were brave and bold. They would probably get a lot of people telling them not to do it. We wanted people who felt confident enough and independent enough that they would choose to go through with it.

   When participants finally learned about the twist, their reaction were extremely mixed:

  People were stunned by that. Some people got angry, some people laughed, some people were just dumbfounded... We had to tell them why we did the casting this way. We thought if we told people, from the beginning... the the kinds of people who we would attract are people, as they would say on The Bachelor, are in it for the wrong reasons.
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  (#11) Lots Of People Left Casting When They Found Out They'd Have To Get Married

  Producers' decision not to tell potential participants about the show's biggest twist proved risky. Executive producer Chris Coelen revealed around half the people who showed up for casting decided to opt out when they learned there'd be a wedding involved. Coelen elaborated: 

  About half said they didn’t want to [do] it... It was really scary as a producer; we didn’t know that we were going to get people who would agree to do the show. We thought we might come out of these workshops with nobody - with nobody agreeing to do it, let alone people we thought we could match.

  Finding the right people for the show was crucial, Coelen added, "because what we wanted to accomplish with the show was real, was genuine, we wanted to be successful, that was the motivation to do the show."
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  (#12) There Was A Bidding War Before The Show Found A Network

  Even though Married At First Sight landed on the FYI channel, Coelen revealed that there were plenty of other networks and options the crew considered before landing where they did.

  Despite there being "far bigger–really, really big networks–which were interested and bid on the show," FYI was the only one who expressed a genuine belief in what the show was trying to accomlish. "‘We so believe in this show, and so are committed to what it is you guys want to do with the show,'" the network said, Coelen recalled.

  He added that other networks wanted to change things about the show, but FYI trusted the vision and ran with it.

   
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  (#13) Most Of The Show Is Extremely Real

  Vaughn, one of the husbands from the show's first season, revealed in a Facebook post that although some of what happened was taken out of context, the majority of what happens is real.

  "Dinner scene and very few things were ever ‘staged,'" he said of the time he spent with his wife, Monet. 

  Courtney, a first-season bride, agreed with the assessment and said she was grateful the show did a good job of portraying what was really happening throughout the bizarre process:

  One of the good things about everything with me and Jason and our relationship is we were real the entire time... There were a lot of conversations that we had on camera for the first time ever, and there were a lot of times where we would say 'real talk.' Whenever we said 'real talk' that was like our code to our production [team] that this was the first time we were ever having this conversation.

   

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