Today, Married At First Sight (MAFS) is a beloved fixture of the Aussie reality television landscape.
Ever since the series first appeared on our screens in 2015, audiences have eagerly tuned in to the “experiment” to see whether the experts can effectively match people based on their traits, ideals and interests and produce real, long-lasting relationships.
But while the series is incredibly entertaining, if you break down the numbers, it hasn’t resulted in too many couples.
During the show’s 12 season run, we’ve met 119 couples but only nine have lasted the test of time.
While most of them had been hand selected by the experts, some of them — like Evelyn Ellis and Duncan James or Clint Rice and Jacqui Burfoot— found their way together after the relationship with their on-screen matches didn’t work out.
So, that means that during the show’s 11 years on air, only 7.5 per cent of couples seem to have been real, long-lasting matches.
If we were to break it down by season, six seasons had a zero per cent success rate (Seasons one, three, four, five, seven and nine). Season two had a 25 per cent success rate with Erin Bateman and Bryce Mohr being the only couple out of four still together.
Season six had a 15 per cent success rate, with two remaining couples — Cam Merchant and Jules Robinson and Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli — out of 13 couples matched.
Meanwhile, season eight is sitting at an 18 per cent success rate thanks to only 12 couples being matched, with Melissa Rawson and Bryce Ruthven and Kerry Knight and Johnny Balbuziente still going strong.
Season 10 sits at eight per cent with Evelyn and Duncan. Season 11 is at 18 per cent with Ellie Dix and Jonathan McCullough and Jade Pywell and Ridge Barredo still together.
Finally, season 12 sits at 10 per cent with just Rhi Disljenkovic and Jeff Gobbells standing the test of time.
Despite the stats being admittedly low, when asked about the success rate of the show, relationship expert John Aiken isn’t fazed.
“Well, I’m delighted with it because I think we’ve got seven couples over the line so it shows us that the experiment can work. You can get the fairy tale. So I look at it as a huge positive,” he explains.
“Some people will say, the strike rate is not high enough. But relationships are not easy. And they certainly, you know, they break up all the time in the real world.
“You know, when you put cameras on someone and big personalities in the mix and challenges it’s going to make it difficult. But we do get love. And indeed, in this series, we do have some, a couple of strong love stories.”
According to John, whether the experiment is more streamlined than dating in the real world is up to interpretation. However, for the right type of person, it’s a great fit.
“It’s funny. Some of the people that come on our show say our experiment is more effective than dating because guys out there don’t want to stick around longer than one date. Whereas on our show, they have a chance of getting to know them over 10 weeks. It’s strange that they’ve said that but a number of them have said that over the years.”
From John’s perspective, it’s the experience of encouraged introspection that truly makes the show effective.
“That’s where I get a sense of it being very effective, more so than perhaps just being on an app and being involved in really transactional engagements that don’t last,” he continues.
“I feel that couples that do make it through they have an in to the real world, like they have such strong connections because of everything they’ve been through. Duncan and Evelyn, they’ve got this amazing bond that no one other couple will ever understand what they’ve been through. So it’s kind of more beautiful than any other kind of meeting naturally in the real world or meeting on an app, you know?”
Ultimately, there’s no science to love. Even if they’re few and far between, the series has been the start of a handful of beautiful love stories and that’s a pretty beautiful thing.
And maybe the stacked odds make it even better when we do get to see a love story unfold. Absense makes the heart grow founder, after all.
If you’d like to see the full list of MAFS contestants who are still together years after their experiment ended, click HERE.
