Nine cleared as watchdog finds MAFS handled domestic violence issues ‘with care’
Paul Antoine punched a wall during an argument with his MAFS wife.
Nine and its top-rating program Married At First Sight (MAFS) have been cleared by the media watchdog over its treatment and presentation of domestic violence, following dozens of viewer complaints.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) received “approximately 50” complaints throughout the most recent season of MAFS, and investigated two – one related to a participant punching a wall, and another in which a man appeared to try to control what his partner said.
While the watchdog acknowledged that “domestic violence and other abusive behaviours, including coercive control, are issues of significant and serious concern in Australia”, its powers lie in assessing whether a program was appropriately classified.
The episode with the wall-punching incident carried the M classification. The episode that viewers felt depicted coercive control was rated PG. ACMA found these classifications were appropriate, and that Nine did not breach the Commercial Television Code of Practice.
One framework ACMA uses to assess appropriate classifications is the context of the show. This appeared important in its investigation of MAFS.
“The 2025 season of MAFS was its twelfth season, and the format of the program has not substantially changed over the twelve seasons. The program is popular and is widely discussed on social media. The program’s exploration of relationship dynamics is well established, and the audience would be familiar with what to expect,” the investigation said.
It added: “The program essentially presents a social experiment which shows the way different people develop and manage relationships, and the intense adult theme of domestic conflict was justified when considering the context of the program as a whole.”
It is also obliged to look at a program through the lens of an “ordinary reasonable viewer”, which in a 1998 court case was deemed to be: “A person of fair average intelligence, who is neither perverse, nor morbid or suspicious of mind, nor avid for scandal. That person does not live in an ivory tower, but can and does read between the lines in the light of that person’s general knowledge and experience of worldly affairs.”
The investigation contended that pushback from the show’s “experts” and fellow contestants about questionable behaviour would have enabled parents to have delicate conversations with any children who had been watching with them.
“The conflict between Participant G and Participant H was discussed openly, and in a sensible and reasoned way, and presented a realistic portrayal of an adult relationship and how people work through issues,” it said of the coercive control episode.
“The material was presented in a way that would have enabled parents to provide guidance to children on the issues that were discussed.”
During the investigation, Nine deflected its responsibility, contending it does not control or endorse the participants’ behaviour.
“Whilst Married At First Sight seeks to capture and depict the experiences of the couples as they participate in the social experiment, the conduct of the participants is their own and the depiction of that conduct does not suggest any endorsement by Nine,” it said.
Previously, the network’s head of content production and development, Adrian Swift, conceded that the show can go ‘too far’, but said it makes some of the best television in the world.
Nine’s Adrian Swift says MAFS is some of the best TV in the world (Nine Network)
“We don’t make things happen and we don’t excise anything that has happened,” he said.
“I’ll give you an example about that. [In] Season 7, a groom used a bride’s toothbrush to clean a toilet. More than anything in the world, we didn’t want to put that to air. We thought it was just stupid and mean and awful and undergraduate, just everything. But it was so material to all the relationships in that group, that we couldn’t excise it.
“So we’re kind of hoist on our own petard a bit here. We put things to air that we don’t want to go to air, but we certainly don’t believe all publicity is good publicity and we believe that it is absolutely possible to go too far on these shows.”
Nine declined to comment further on the investigation and its findings.
