Talking Married, Nine’s companion show to the reality juggernaut Married At First Sight, has been dumped by the network, with co-host Shelly Horton confirming the news on Twitter.
TV Blackbox first reported the cancellation of the show which sees contestants from Married At First Sight talk about their time on the show and a panel of Nine personalities discuss the issues raised in each episode. Nine declined to comment.
Talking Married was closely tied with Nine’s lifestyle vertical 9Honey and was billed as the “first television production for 9Honey”. It was originally hosted by Jayne Azzopardi, Horton and ex-MAFS star Cheryl Maitland. Nine’s Kerri Elstub, then 9Honey network editor, now editorial director, was listed as the executive producer. 2GB presenter Ben Fordham also appeared on the program.
The show aired on 9Life and was available on 9Now. Earlier in the year when Married At First Sight was on, the show drew ratings of around 100,000 to 300,000 metro viewers.
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The final episode, which was watched by 315,000 metro viewers, featured couple Dan Webb and Jessika Power who, when questioned by Horton, Azzopardi and Fordham, seemingly broke up on air. Outlets are pointing to this as one of the reasons the show may have received the boot, with a focus on mental health in reality TV at the forefront of discussions and Married At First Sight often drawing ire for being ‘trainwreck TV’.
Horton confirmed the show’s axing on Twitter, responding to TV Blackbox’s Rob McKnight and calling the axing “brutal”.
Nine reportedly confirmed the axing with the Daily Mail but wouldn’t provide a comment to Mumbrella.
Married At First Sight performed incredibly well for the network in 2019, with 1.9m viewers tuning in for the final episode. Nine has already confirmed the program will return in early 2020.