But now to entertainment, Australia’s biggest TV blockbuster and the ugly reality behind it:

VOICEOVER: Television’s biggest social experiment … BRONSON: I think I’ve struck gold. HEIDI: I just feel like I’m the luckiest girl in the world. VOICEOVER: … will deliver instant true love ... JULES: Fantastic. VOICEOVER: … at first sight. - Married At First Sight promo, Channel Nine, 2019

For the uninitiated, Married at First Sight - or “MAFS” - involves complete strangers, matched by experts, meeting at the altar and tying the knot.

And it is a massive hit for Nine, which runs it four nights a week in prime time.

But, with content like this, it’s no surprise:

PRODUCER: What are you feeling right now? INES: Um, I feel, like, horny. - Married At First Sight, Channel Nine, 4 February, 2019

MATTHEW: … I’m still of two minds to open up and tell Lauren, you know, that I’m still a virgin. - Married At First Sight, Channel Nine, 3 February, 2019

LIZZIE: … I can talk the talk and if I’m bored with you, you’re like a wet wipe and I’ll push you to the side. - Married At First Sight, Channel Nine, 28 January, 2019

Nine also pumps out these characters four mornings a week on Today and Today Extra, for live interviews about things like, well, consummating the marriage:

JULES: … watching that last night, I was like, aw, a little bit of me died inside. But in the experiment, like, you’ve got to be honest about every move you make … - Today, Channel Nine, 13 February, 2019

Nine also has a bunch of its top personalities and experienced journalists flogging this stuff.

And not just its new breakfast duo, Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight - Jayne Azzopardi and Allison Langdon, Ben Fordham and others are all part of the promotions juggernaut.

And that’s because selling true love is a massive money-spinner.

So, with five seasons already aired, how is Nine’s record on matchmaking? Absolutely terrible.

Out of 35 couples matched over five seasons, as far as we can tell, only one couple - from 2016 - is still together.

And even they don’t like how the show’s now being made:

ERIN: … It’s fuelled by drama and not people looking for relationships. It’s a quick way for people to get famous. In my opinion it’s lost the genuineness. BRYCE: ... Not sure I’d want to do it in its current format. - New Idea, 10 September, 2018

So, what is the current format? Brasher than ever:

DAVID CAMPBELL: ... the scandal that happened last year. How are you going to top that? JOHN AIKEN: Well, we will top it… Boundaries will be crossed, there will be temptation… … the personalities, frankly, get bigger and bigger. - Today Extra, Channel Nine, 28 January, 2019

And so do the headlines.

Day after day they come about the latest drama, twist or scandal, all hoping to piggyback on MAFS’ success.

But there have also been stories about its failure to look after contestants.

Dean Wells, the villain of last year’s series, recently took to YouTube to complain:

DEAN WELLS: There’s networks pulling strings, there’s higher up people making millions and millions of dollars off these poor sods on these TV shows that are silly and naïve enough to think that they’re signing up for love. - YouTube, 15 January 2019

Despite being one of the stars and making a fortune for the show’s producers, Dean now has little good to say about it, and he told Media Watch that Married at First Sight ruined his business:

I was the most hated man in Australia. There was no way I could turn up to corporate meetings. I had to shut it down for eight months or so. It cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars … Nine don’t support you. They don’t give a f--k about you as a human being. They drop you like a rock at the end of it. - Phone interview, 8 February, 2019

After his dramatic flirtation with another wife ended in tears, Dean says he told executive producer Tara McWilliams that he wanted to leave. But he claims he was met with threats:

They forced me to stay. They said ‘we’ll make you look bad’ if you don’t stay … - Phone interview, 8 February, 2019

Dean’s “wife” on MAFS, Tracey Jewel, has also had a rough ride with the constant media coverage and cyber-abuse:

… when you’re relentlessly bullied online every day. And you wake up and there’s a new article about you online that you know nothing about … And there’s viral content … it’s overwhelming. - Phone interview, 13 February, 2019

Tracey ended up in a mental health clinic last year after overdosing, and claims it was a direct consequence of being on MAFS:

I’ve never had mental health problems, other than a bit of postnatal depression, in my life. Now, I struggle with anxiety every day. I see a psychologist every week. I’m better than I was but I’m not the person I was before the show. - Phone interview, 8 February, 2019

Another MAFS star, Andrew Jones, says he’s still recovering from being on the show in 2017.

Also cast as a villain, he told Media Watch he too was threatened when he asked to leave mid-production:

I was emotionally unwell at that point, melting down actually and not getting any support from them. The conversation started calmly but I was told by Tara in a raised voice: ‘It will look bad for you if you leave now.’ - Phone interview, 8 February, 2019

The show has also had a negative impact on other cast members, like Davina Rankin and Sean Thomsen.

And they’ve spoken out in defiance of a clause in their contracts with the show’s producer Endemol which bans them from “criticising, disparaging or denigrating” the program or anyone associated with it, publicly.

And prevents them from doing any media work for up to two years without Nine’s approval.

And it’s not just contestants speaking up about the harm the show can do.

Two years ago, prominent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg slammed the program as, quote, “the psychological sewer of Australian television”, and warned:

“We are playing with people’s lives. I don’t think this is good entertainment, I know it rates its socks off, but so did the Colosseum in Rome because people liked watching lions rip Christians apart,” … - The Daily Telegraph, 16 March, 2017

Carr-Gregg also took aim at the three experts Nine was using on the show, saying they should “hang their heads in shame”.

And he’s not alone.

The Australian Psychological Society told Media Watch it also had a number of concerns that participants and relationship advisers are often cast in a negative light and the narrative is highly manipulated.

Endemol Shine, which produces the show, says the claim of threatening behaviour by the executive producer against cast members is:

… simply not true. - Email, 16 February, 2019

It also rejects the charge of not caring for its desperate lovers:

There is a dedicated show psychologist and support team available to every participant throughout the entire production, broadcast and beyond. - Email, 16 February, 2019

Meanwhile, amid all this flak, how is MAFS doing for Nine?

According to The Weekend Australian, unbelievably well:

The impact of this program on Nine cannot be overstated. Last year … Nine won the share of advertising dollars — for the first time in more than a decade. - The Weekend Australian, 28 July, 2018

And according to Alan Kohler, it essentially allowed Nine to take over Fairfax last year:

MAFS … almost single-handedly returned Nine to top spot in the ratings, thereby ­producing a 50 per cent lift in Nine’s share price … Almost overnight … - The Weekend Australian, 28 July, 2018

This year it’s driving all before it. Topping the ratings every night this month and hauling in millions of dollars for the network.

Which is why for Nine it is true love. Even if the promises for its newly married couples are nothing but fairy dust.

Read Endemol Shine Australia and Nine's full response here.

Read the Australian Psychological Society's statement here.