Nine has been forced to shut down claims that producers of Married At First Sight have been targeting those who had recently lost a partner to appear in their forthcoming season.
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A representative from Nine told New Idea: “The casting of the next season of MAFS is not targeting those who have recently lost their partner.”
It comes following rumours on social media that the controversial reality series had approached a number of widows asking if they’d be willing to appear in the tenth season of the show.
According to Yahoo! Lifestyle, one woman, whose widowed friend was reportedly approached by the show’s producers, said: “They are looking for a widow and literally messaging all the ladies that she knows that have and are going through this trauma and some are very recent.”
The woman added that the show has “lost the plot”.
According to The Wash, the above was one of two women to reach out to the media after they were infuriated about being contacted to apply for the show.
It comes following whispers that a Celebrity MAFS season was in the works, after Channel Nine veteran reporter Richard Wilkins revealed he was once asked to appear on the show.
In a chat with Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa, Richard explained how he was offered a lot of money to sign up to be on the spin-off.
“[Former Nine CEO] David Gyngell once said to me, I’ll give you – I won’t mention the amount of money but a lot of zeros – if you do Celebrity Married At First Sight,” he said.
In leaked texts obtained by NW two years ago, MAFS relationship expert John Aiken appeared to float two concepts for the all-star season past a mystery celeb named Reece.
“Producers are changing up the format. They’re going to bring back past participants and match them with celebrities,” a source told the publication.
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The source also claimed that producers reached out to former MAFS stars Jo McPharlin, Mikey Pembroke, Nasser Sultan and Tracey Jewel.
Last year, a producer at Endemol told New Idea that names like Richard Reid, Yvie Jones, Ash Williams, Tully Smyth, Harry T and Paulini Curuenavuli were “mentioned” by casting directors.
However, it looks like John Aiken has recently changed his tune after he shut down suggestions of a celebrity-lead season while on the red carpet at this year’s Logies.
“I don’t think we need to go down the path of Celebrity MAFS,” he said.
“I think we just keep 2023 with essentially the same ingredients: Singles looking for love trying their best to fall in love.”
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