Married at First Sight Australia casting producers have been spotted calling for UK citizens, widows and POC to apply for the upcoming 2023 season.
According to So Dramatic! one of their followers DM’d a screenshot of a since-deleted post on the show’s official Facebook page.
“Love knows know borders,” the post read. “For the first time ever, #MAFS is inviting British singles to take part in Australia’s biggest social experiment! If you’re a Brit living in the UK and are prepared to move across the globe for true love, head to http://MarriedAtFirstSightCasting.com.au and apply now.”
This comes after claims the show has been specifically searching for widows and POC for season 10, with one insider allegedly telling So Dramatic! producers had been reaching out to “all the POC content creators in Sydney” asking them to apply.
“A couple of Black TikTok creators are currently in talks with producers,” they told the outlet.
Yahoo Lifestyle reported yesterday that producers had several widowers asking if they may have any interest in applying for the controversial reality show, “with some having only recently lost their partners”.
One woman said the show’s producers had “lost the plot” after contacting her bereaved friend.
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“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,” she told the publication.
The search for diversity could be the result of the show’s international ratings, with audiences in the US particularly arguing the lack of diversity even two episodes in.
According to the Daily Mail, one viewer wrote online: “Why is everyone blond and white?”
Another commented: “No diversity/inclusion on MAFS Australia. I haven’t watched one season yet because of the lack of diversity. Other people due exist.”
A third added: “Are there no Spanish, black or Asian people in Australia?”
Last year, many Australians took to Twitter to point out the lack of racial diversity for the 2021 cast.
One user asked: “Is basically every bride and groom… white?”
While another wrote: “I want real people, like when then they first started MAFS. Not attention seeking wannabe social media influencers!”
The show’s lack of LGBTQIA+ cast members and lack of different body types has also been criticised in the past.
Adrian Swift, Nine’s Head of Content Production & Development, spoke with the Herald Sun recently about the upcoming season and teased that the show’s Logie-nominated sexologist Alessandra Rampolla will have a much larger role in 2023.
“We will get Alessandra a bit more involved in the sexuality part of it,” he said. “What we have always found is a complete bellwether for how a relationship [on MAFS] is going is how sexually they are getting on.
“And that getting on might be sexual tension, which is good, it might be sexual resolution, which is good, or it might be, and this often happens, sexual resolution and then nothing.”
Filming for season 10 is expected to commence in August.
