MAFS companion show Talking Married returns, after being axed last season
Talking Married will return for season seven of Married at First Sight, premiering on 9Now straight after episode one, despite confirmation it was axed last year.
The third season of the companion show to Nine’s reality juggernaut will be hosted by Shelly Horton on the network’s catch-up platform 9Now, airing directly after each episode of what Nine calls “Australia’s most talked about social experiment”, which pulled 1.9m metro viewers for last season’s final episode.
Ben Fordham appeared on an episode last year
Horton’s former co-hosts Jayne Azzopardi and ex-MAFS star Cheryl Maitland will not be returning, with Horton solely in charge of interviewing contestants and experts, and featuring previously unseen audition tapes, extended clips and sneak peeks.
“I’m thrilled to be back hosting Talking Married in 2020. Four nights a week means I’ll be getting four times the gossip and four times the secret confessions from our newlyweds,” Horton said of the show’s resuscitation.
It’s the first time the show will be hosted solely on 9Now, previously airing on multi-channel 9Life and available on the BVOD platform. It’s also the first time the show will air four times a week, up from last year’s once a week format.
Talking Married was dubbed the “first television production for 9Honey”, Nine’s lifestyle vertical. It premiered to 90,000 metro viewers for its second season in January last year, while the final episode was watched by 315,000 metro viewers and featured Dan Webb and Jessika Power seemingly breaking up on air.
When the spinoff show was cancelled, some outlets pointed to the on-air break up as one of the reasons the show may have been dumped, given a renewed focus on the mental health of reality TV contestants.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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