Lifetime in the US has placed one if its largest ever orders, with a six season pick-up for hit reality series Married at First Sight, produced by Kinetic Content. Overall the commitment for this and a number of other new series will see Kinetic produce more than 400 hours of content for Lifetime.
The huge renewal, for Seasons 12 to 17, follows the Seasons 10 and 11 pickup that the show received last year, which supersized the format to more couples and longer episodes. Season 11, which launched July 15 and airs on Wednesdays, is delivering strong ratings, averaging 1.7 million total viewers in Live+3, and performing +12% above comparable Season 9 to-date from last summer and even with Season 10 to-date from the winter.
Additionally, Lifetime has also greenlit a brand new spinoff series from Kinetic, Married at First Sight: Unmatchables, with an eight-episode order.
Over 65,000 people have applied to participate in Married at First Sight USA so far across its eleven seasons. InMarried at First Sight: Unmatchables, some of the past participants who have been hard to match by the experts and never made it to the show, are getting a second chance. The series aims to help polish up the diamonds in the rough, providing them with strong relationship advice and a lifestyle overhaul to give them an opportunity to shed what’s been stalling real romantic connections in their lives. In each self-contained episode, Pastor Calvin Robertson and Dr. Viviana Coles will mentor two unlucky-in-love singles who simply couldn’t be matched previously and follow as they go through their physical and personal transformations, as they are set up on a date to see if love is in the air and if they have truly found their match.
Married at First Sight: Unmatchables is executive produced by Chris Coelen, Eric Detwiler and Ally Simpson from Kinetic Content, along with McCarthy and Cat Rodriguez for Lifetime.
The network recently picked up an 16 additional episodes of new MAFS spion-off Married at First Sight: Couples Cam, which airs on Thursdays. The self-shot series features fan favorite couples Doug and Jamie (S1), Ashley and Anthony (S5), Shawniece and Jephte (S6), Danielle and Bobby (S8), Stephanie and AJ (S8), Kristine and Keith (S8), Beth and Jamie (S9), Greg and Deonna (S9) and Jessica and Austin (S10). Couples from season 11 will join the series in 2021.
In addition to these Married at First Sight deals, Lifetime has also given Kinetic a blind commitment to another, as-yet-unnamed new series.
“Married at First Sight: Unmatchables is an exciting new member of our Married at First Sight family,” said Gena McCarthy, EVP Development and Programming Lifetime Unscripted. “Each season we see so many amazing, complex and charming people that apply for the main show, but we simply can’t match everyone. Unmatchables allows these people a shot at love following our expert-led interventions and transformations.”
Married at First Sight and Married at First Sight: Couples Cam are produced by Kinetic Content. Executive producers on both series are Kinetic’s Coelen, Detwiler and Simpson and Lifetime’s McCarthy. Married at First Sight is also executive produced by Jason Sands and Toni Gallagher while Geoff Nuanes is also executive producer for Married at First Sight: Couples Cam.
The Married at First Sight format is created and produced by Snowman Productions for DR and distributed worldwide by Red Arrow Studios International. The show is one of the world’s most successful relationship formats, with productions in 29 countries.