Married At First Sight reunions ‘won’t be a regular thing’, says Nine boss

The Married At First Sight Grand Reunion delivered plenty of drama when it aired last month, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to expectations in the ratings.

And Channel Nine confirmed this week that pre-season reunion specials will not be a regular occurrence going forward.

Ahead of the season eight premiere on Monday, Nine’s programming boss Hamish Turner told Mumbrella: ‘The specials were good – they were kind of a snack before the main course.’

Mr Turner said the two-part Grand Reunion was a good way to generate buzz for Married At First Sight’s new season because ‘a year is a very long time in television’.

But he clarified that it wouldn’t be an annual tradition going forward.

‘I don’t think it’s a regular thing,’ he said, adding: ‘I think it’s one of those things where, when you get people who want to take part, and we had a critical mass of people, ex-participants, who we were talking to, and we thought, “Yeah, okay, given that we’ve now got some air time, why don’t we do it now?”‘

The returning brides and grooms were paid at least $2,500 each for the two-part series, while others were believed to be offered more.

Despite Nine’s high hopes, the Married At First Sight Grand Reunion didn’t beat Channel Seven’s Holey Moley in the five-city metro ratings.

The show attracted 866,000 and 781,000 metro viewers respectively when it aired on Sunday, January 31, and Monday, February 1.

Meanwhile, Holey Moley scored an impressive 983,000 for its launch on the same Monday evening.

However, the mini gold-themed show hosted by Sonia Kruger did lose a significant portion of its audience as the season went on.

The new series of Married At First Sight premieres Monday at 7:30pm on Nine