Married at First Sight season 17 was a massive failure that can mostly be blamed on the experts, so they will need to be different in the upcoming season 18. Dr. Pepper Schwartz, Pastor Cal Roberson, and Dr. Pia Holec were the three experts tasked with matching the Denver hopefuls. Moreover, their role was also to guide the couples through the pitfalls of their new marriages and help them overcome their issues. That didn’t happen in Married at First Sight season 17, and furthermore, the experts were totally duped by the cast.
None of the five season 17 marriages lasted. Only one couple said yes on Decision Day only to break up the following day. It was revealed during the end of the season and at the Reunion, that the season 17 cast were all being inauthentic. They devised a plan to control the optics of their marriages and present a narrative that painted them in good lights, not transparently represent their marriages and partners. This led to the most animosity among cast members in Married at First Sight history, and the entire falsity made the experts look really bad.
The Married At First Sight Track Record Explained
The MAFS Success Rate Is Low
Dr. Pepper has been a Married at First Sight expert since the very beginning in season 1. Pastor Cal joined in season 4 and Dr. Pia is the newest expert, having only joined the show three seasons ago. Dr. Pia replaced Dr. Viviana Coles, who was an expert for seven seasons and left before season 15 in San Diego. Expert DeVon Franklin also joined the show as an expert for season 15 only.
That said, Dr. Pepper, Pastor Cal, and Dr. Pia’s skillset for matchmaking and therapy should be sharpened, but they have shown the contrary.
In the seventeen seasons of Married at First Sight, 64 couples have been matched, and only 11 of them have stayed together. That gives the experts a success rate of 17%. In the last four seasons alone there has only been one couple that stayed together. While the show is an experiment, its whole point is to pair people who have a great shot at marital happiness based on a variety of factors the experts take into consideration. Their failure rate suggests that they don’t know what they’re doing.
Have The MAFS Experts Been Bad On Purpose?
Do The Experts Have Ulterior Motives?
The Married at First Sight season 17 experts made themselves look really bad and incapable by not being able to sniff out the deceit, and for choosing inauthentic people and taking a backseat to what was at play. It begs the questions of whether they were purposely aloof for certain reasons. Given that Married at First Sight is a reality TV show where viewers like to be privy to drama, it’s possible they dropped the ball and let all the season 17 madness play out in order to raise production value.
However, it’s the experts’ jobs not to detract from the goal of the show and not to get swept up in TV drama. They are there for the couples. The experts are supposed to be safe authority for the particpants, and they missed the mark greatly in season 17. The experts’ credibility is shot and viewers will be paying close attention in Married at First Sight season 18 to whether Dr. Pepper, Pastor Cal, and Dr. Pia are more hands on and capable of matching the right people together.
The Experts Were Not Present in MAFS Season 17
They Did Not Follow Up With The Couples
The Married at First Sight experts were very removed from the issues each couple was facing during their eight-week journey. At one point, Dr. Pepper and Pastor Cal jointly had a therapy session with Austin Reed and Becca Haley to try and get them to come back to center and work on their problems after they clashed on optics and Becca feeling like Austin was “combative” and “dismissive” and rejecting her (via Lifetime.) The experts encouraged both parties to be more transparent but failed to monitor whether Becca and Austin were responding well to the suggestion.
The Becca and Austin therapy session is an example of how the experts stepped in when a situation spiraled too far and how they never followed up with the situation to see if it was improving.
The experts did the bare minimum with their guidance of the couples and it was to everyone’s detriment and the show’s success rate. In season 18, all three experts should be more present in the participant’s marriages so situations don’t get out of control and become unfixable like they did in season 17.
Do The Experts Play The Victim?
They Took No Accountability
At the Reunion, it became clear that all three experts at no intention of taking accountability for falling prey to the dupe and for not engaging with the couples enough when they needed them. The experts failed to recognize the issues going on in each couple and therefore, failed to help them, but they painted themselves to be the victims at the Reunion and put the onus on the participants ( via @mafslifetime.)
Dr. Pepper remarked, “I think on our side we felt like you did have the equipment to tell us how you felt and to come to us.”
The arc of redemption for the experts could something they will be playing into next season, but if that were true, than they would have taken more accountability for their mismatchings. The experts should have widely recognized where they fell short. That way, viewers could know that the experts know what to do differently in the upcoming season with the new couples. Now, since no accountability was taken, it’s unlikely the experts will make many adjustments, but they need to for the show’s benefit.
MAFS Season 18 Has To Be Different
MAFS Fans Need More From The Show
It is paramount to the Married at First Sight’s viewership and success as a franchise that the experts start doing a better job matchmaking and guiding the couples. The experts need to have their finger on the pulse of each couple and stay a lot more connected to the issues the pairs are facing. If the Lifetime show continues to steer away from actually matching quality pairs, viewers might fall off since the drama and the bad pairings seem to be manufactured. If more couples are successful, they show will have better credibility and keep viewers engaged.