The juggernaut Married at First Sight Australia affectionately known as MAFS returns for its 13th season. Psychologist and love expert John Aiken was in Perth for the launch of the new season and Have a Go News spoke to him about MAFS 2026.
He says there will be lots of drama to keep people glued to their screens and promises this season will be a very, very spicy year. John says there are a lot of big personalities along with a range of ages.
“We have a lot of individuals on the show that make it quite different, and we got a lot of strong outspoken women,” he said. “This year there is a gay couple, a bisexual woman; women and men from different cultures and different age groups ranging from 23 to 55.”
In the days of waning free to air viewing MAFS bucks that trend and is one of the highest rating shows attracting audiences of a million plus in Australia and millions more around the world.
Every year more than 12,000 people apply to go on the show and that grows each year.
“We just want people that are curious about their partner and are prepared to throw themselves into the process and be authentic,” said John.
The show appeals to a varied age range with many people admitting it is their ‘guilty pleasure’ watching the series.
We get some of the nitty gritty about this season with expert John Aiken below:
HAGN – What do you think is the appeal of the show for the audience?
JA – I think there’s a number of key ingredients to it. The first one definitely is that people want to see if two strangers who are matched can have the fairy tale. They want to see if they can fall in love and that’s always at the core of the show. Outside of that people watch it to learn what not to do. Singles watch it so they avoid certain red flags in a person. Couples watch it so they can behave differently. They also watch it for the experts and the exchanges we have at the commitment ceremonies that are very firey and intense.
And I think the show is something that reaches out to people in a way where they kind of secretly don’t know if these people are real or not. So they’re intrigued to see what they are doing in this unscripted environment. It’s unpredictable and it draws people in to thinking… ‘are they real’ – ‘did they really say that?”
I can say that this is absolutely who these contestants are. There is a voyeuristic element to it where people need to follow it to see what they’re going to do next.
HAGN – Have you noticed a big difference in the dating rituals of the 50 plus contestants to the younger cohort?
JA – Yes there is definitely a difference, they seem to be a little bit more wiser about the world. They understand their preferences and while they have more age on their side they are more prepared to be a little curious about one another too. The younger people come in and are very set about how they view relationships and are very uncompromising and have a sense of ‘I am right’ and ‘you are wrong’.
HAGN – We had the Golden Bachelor last year will we see a series of a Golden MAFS?
JA – No, we prefer to keep a variety of ages on MAFS. The older dynamic is important to the show. It just brings a different layer but not to have as a separate show. I love the wisdom and experience older contestants bring to the show and it’s a different exchange when I call out behaviour from someone who’s 50 plus versus calling out a 25-year-old. There’s a different sort of back and forth that happens with the experts which I think is very interesting. And having older people on gives us a layer which separates us from some of the younger dating shows.
HAGN – Married at First Sight Australia is also a hit overseas and is broadcast into 120 countries with the UK audiences having a massive thirst for the show…
JA – The UK cannot get enough of the show and I think it’s for all the reasons we’ve mentioned along with the fact they love seeing Australia with the beaches, the cities, the beautiful weather and the amazing bodies. They really get drawn into the big personalities of the show as well. It airs in the UK about three weeks after our season starts because it’s so popular. My Instagram blows up once it goes on over there because they’re intrigued about who’s on and what they’re doing.
HAGN – Do you think social media has made the show harder or better?
JA – I think it’s better it the terms of the promotion of the show around the world and having people talk about it. But in terms of making the show I think social media has created challenges for us because it’s changed the focus for a number of our participants. And the fact they are thinking about life after MAFS. They’re thinking about social media and how it creates a real spotlight on them and that can difficult to manage especially with trolls and negative comments.
We’re very aware of all the challenges and our duty of care is incredibly important to us. We give them social media training before the show, access to psychologists, before, during and after the show and they have a 24 hour online call service they can access.
The production team are monitoring them every day and while they might say: ‘I’m young, I’ve got thick skin, I can cope with this” when you’re in it, it’s very intense and there are huge amounts of people right around the world watching it and that is very hard to prepare for.
Even for myself you have to have people around you that ground you and protect you and make sure you don’t go down rabbit holes and start living your life up against trolls. So you have to be very disciplined about how you deal with the challenges around you and in that spotlight because it’s very intense.
HAGN – How does your family feel about the show?
JA – I think they just generally go with the flow, and I think when a parent or a partner is on TV the family don’t get too caught up in it, they downplay it and I think that’s what my family does. They certainly keep me grounded.
HAGN – And the big question is…Are we going to see a couple find love this year?
JA – Categorically yes – we will get that! It’s wonderful, a couple of them actually have love stories. I guess what really impressed me about their love stories this year is that they had to fall in love in the face of a lot of chaos and a lot of conflict on the show. So they have really banded together, it got them to say: ‘you know what, we’ve got each other, we’ve got to be there and have each other’s back.’ It really created a strong bond for them at the end of the day and that what’s MAFS is all about!
MAFS airs on Channel 9 on Monday February 2 at 7.30pm on 9Now.
In a must-watch destination for every MAFS fan, the groundbreaking new Stan Original series MAFS: After The Dinner Party will stream exclusively on Stan weekly immediately following each explosive Married at First Sight Dinner Party. It will be the only place for viewers to find immediate participant interviews, exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, expert analysis and fan commentary.
