The U.K. version of the “Married At First Sight” reality franchise will no longer air on Channel 4 after allegations that two women were raped during the production of the show.
Channel 4 chief executive Priya Dogra confirmed in a statement Thursday the network was cutting ties with the reality series following an external review of the allegations made while filming its sixth season.
The review found no wrongdoing by the network or the show’s production company, CPL, but Dogra said that the “right course was to bring Married At First Sight UK on Channel 4 to an end.”
“Whilst the review praised the welfare protocols in place and made no findings that … the format is inherently unsafe, I have to consider when is the right time for Channel 4 to move on from a format,” Dogra said.
The rape allegations were first revealed this summer in a BBC Panorama investigation. One of the two women alleged that the husband she was matched with raped her and threatened her with an acid attack, according to the BBC.
A third woman accused her onscreen husband of sexual misconduct.
All three men involved denied the allegations.
The premise of “Married At First Sight” is that a group of contestants agree to be matched with complete strangers and meet at the altar. Couples are then followed by the cameras as they navigate their relationship and discuss their problems on air with the show’s counselors. Version of the show have aired across the world, including the U.S., Australia, France, and Spain.
Channel 4 hired a law firm to review safety protocols at the time of the alleged sexual misconduct and how the production company handled them once they were raised, the company said in a press release. The network’s review did not seek “to adjudicate” the allegations, which it said “remain a matter for the relevant authorities.”
More than 30,000 documents were reviewed by law firm Clyde & Co in addition to hours of footage, according to Channel 4. The review found that the production company and network were compliant with regulations from the U.K.’s Office of Communications.
A full version of the review was not made available but Channel 4 did provide a summary of findings, noting that the report was a “legally privileged and confidential review.”
There was no overall breach of the broadcasting code, though the full “welfare framework” was not applied in some incidents, the review found. One of the incidents included contributors who broke rules regarding “prohibited substances” but were given a warning rather than being removed.
A report from former BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey, who was asked to examine if any protocols should be changed, said that there are elements of the show that could put pressure on individuals to be physically intimate. She recommended that the show consider discontinuing events such as Intimacy Week and Partner Swap Week.
Heggessey’s report said that the show’s stars could “become dependent on production and lose touch with reality,” which could affect decision-making.
She also recommended the show consider changing the mechanism in place that forces a couple to remain for another week if one person in a couple wants to leave but the other asks to stay during their weekly commitment ceremonies.
Among some of the recommendations were to install video and recording equipment in couple’s apartments to be monitored 24/7, provide couple’s separate bedrooms, provide “panic buttons,” and allow contributors to have at least one unsupervised visit back home during production.
The network said the full implementation of the recommendations “would entail a materially greater level of intervention, monitoring and supervision that would fundamentally alter the format and editorial proposition of the programme.”
“The recommendations are eminently sensible and feasible, but considering their wholesale implementation provoked fundamental questions about the editorial proposition of a show that, I believe, has now run its course over ten years,” Dogra said.
Dogra said that the money budgeted for the series would be reinvested into finding “the next generation of distinctive and disruptive British television.” She thanked the staff who worked on the series and credited them for their “significant efforts to protect the welfare of contributors.”
The production company, CPL, said it understood Channel 4’s decision to part ways with the reality program It emphasized in its statement that Heggessey’s report found the welfare protocols to be “extensive, extremely thorough and of a high standard.”
“CPL has always put contributor welfare at the heart of its programme making and will continue to do so,” the company said.
This is not the franchise’s first controversy.
The show’s Australia series has been criticized for subjecting contestants to potentially harmful situations, including a man who had a history of domestic abuse allegations. While the allegations were dismissed before filming began, the woman who was matched with him told The Guardian in June that the show “obviously needed a better vetting process.”
“We are strangers sleeping in a bedroom on our own on the first night, you’ve got no security, you’re by yourselves,” Awhina Rutene told the outlet.
She added that she was not subjected to abuse, but noted that the environment felt invasive and that physical intimacy felt “forced.”
“Every morning (in interviews) they’d be like, ‘Why aren’t you having sex?’” Rutene said.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has conducted 10 investigations, according to the Guardian, and no breaches of its code of practice were found.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call theNational Sexual Assault Telephone Hotlineat 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service athttps://www.rainn.org/get-help. Confidential chats are available in English and in Spanish.
