Welcome to the first episode of the Downfall of Married at First Sight Australia, an investigation by the Math Funny podcast hosted by me Joshua Fox trigger Oning. This investigation will cover topics such as anxiety, depression, domestic violence, misogyny, homophobia and suicidal ideation. What you're about to hear will shock you, infuriate you, and upset you as I revealed the outrageous truth behind the biggest show in this country.
Just reading up on this new television show, Married.
At First Sight.
Married at First Sight, What a great show it's been over the last couple of months on Channel.
Nine, Australia's biggest TV blockbuster.
This season was the best ever and I don't know if they'll be able to top it.
From negligence at the highest level, repeated failures in duty of care, the lack of background checks, cast members being pushed to the point of wanting to end their own lives, the enabling of domestic violence, etc, Etc.
Etc.
Now, I was eagerly awaiting Sunday nights all weekend to watch Maths.
Last night on Maths every season, you go, it can't get more drama, it can't get bigger and then it does, and I say the true award goes to the producers for creating that.
Every year, cast members of this show always come forward blaming their edit, blaming the producers, and trying to share their truth and just defend themselves.
The show is edited, and main thing with my eduit was we all know that you only see one percent.
Almost questions who you are?
You look in the mirror?
Is that the real me?
And also every year, us the fans of this show, we just instantly roll our eyes, thinking, here we go again, and we'll comment things like, well, you said what you said and no one made you do what you did.
You can't edit your bad behavior. You can't edit what came out of your mouth. And it's like, here you can it, and they're really good at it.
And we immediately disregard these rode posts and interviews from whoever has become the latest victim of the show, because we have whatever is just unfolded on TV in our minds as we make those instant judgments.
How do you react when your public enemy number one?
Now, yeah, look, if we're being honest, I've taken absolute beating plus given how fast this show moves, how relentless the twenty four to seven news cycle is, and how every hour something new and something more.
Shocking takes the spotlight and steals our attention. We forget these isolated incidents and interviews and we just move on. But when you compile what every cast member has said across every season for nearly ten years now, it isn't quite easy to just disregard that. I've spent weeks reading hundreds of articles and interviews, and I've listened to hour
after hour of podcasts with cast members. I've spoken to participant after participant after participant, and well, one person claiming something.
Against production is an accusation.
Two people making the same claim could be seen as a coincidence. But an endless stream of people all sharing similar horror stories across an almost ten year period, well, to me, that's a pattern.
That being said, in this.
Series, I won't be focused on specific participants and their individual issues. I'll be focusing on the show as a whole and the people who pull the strings behind the scenes. Those people are now the main characters they were always destined to become, and the biggest star amongst them. Former executive producer and current director of Content Tara McWilliams.
My first impressions of Tara were pretty good. I'd met her on a zoom chat, had a chat with her. Seemed like she was really nice and very open about the experiment.
When you meet her, you want her on your good side, like you want to impress her. It's just like something about the way that she carries herself like that.
Then meeting her in person, I guess I really did believe her that everything.
Was going to be good.
Tara single handedly made Married at First Sight the monster we all know it as today, and anyone who's worked with Tara has their own way to describe her pursuit to the top.
Ruthless, that woman.
You know that telling her no is going to be one of the worst things that you've ever done in your life.
The only person you ever hear in this whole process is Tara.
She gives this vibe that if you tell her no, She's going to make your life a living hell.
Tara took Married at First Sight to such new heights that the show's newfound level of success was credited for nine's four billion dollar merger with Fairfax Media in twenty eighteen.
She would scream at you she would manipulate it.
I've heard Tara say, I don't care if you're happy. We just need your story to evolve. You're here, you've signed a contract.
Your ass is mine.
I've been told that my ass belongs to her so many times.
A quick Google search of Tara will bring up articles calling her a mastermind from the most powerful woman in television, or because of how her work and what she's achieved led to that four billion dollar merger.
Can you deal would bring together television, radio, print, online and streaming on demand.
You know, we'll certainly be reaching more than half of Australia every day.
This is good for the public.
But at what cost did that come up?
Making money from someone's misery to their personal mental demise. I don't think I could do that on.
A six foot five hundred kilo professional fighting athlete, and even that woman scares me. I've got sweaty palms just thinking about it. When this eventualates and evolves, I guarantee you my fine will be ringing and she'll be on the other end of it saying I'm so disappointed.
Now, before I really deep dive into Tara, how she operates and the extremes she has to go to in order to ensure that every episode of Married at First Site continues to generate million after million after million.
Let's take things back to the very start.
Married at First Site first launched in two thousand and first seen in Denmark, and it quickly became a global franchise with spinoffs in Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, America and Australia, with our first season launching here in twenty fifteen on Channel nine. That first season had four couples, it was only six episodes long, and it was less car crash reality show and more Fly on the World documentary.
Take a listen to this.
I am looking for someone to settle down.
With roughly the same age as myself, someone who makes your heart beat three times faster than it ordinarily should.
I've always wanted to get married.
Eight Aussie singles are set to tie the knots. There's just one catch. They'll meet for the very first time.
On their wedding day.
But then over time, that wholesome premise and approach has morphed into this right And if you're wondering how that happened, that's the Tara effect, which I will get to. But before that, we must also ask why that happened. Well, well, us, the consumers, we're kind of responsible. Since Married at First Sight launched in Australia in twenty fifteen, how we watch TV has changed, how we consume content has changed, and while society has changed, our attention spans have become shorter.
Short form content on social media has taken over, and seventy five percent of people now admit to scrolling on their phones while watching the TV, which means traditional TV networks have had to continually go to new extremes just to compete and also to try and keep people engaged, which is something that neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has talked about previously.
When we first get on social media after a war, for the first time, or after a long period of time, the amount of dopamine that's released, we think is quite substantial. The dopamine quickly wanes and then you find that you're just sort and we've all been there. You're scrolling like, why am I doing this? This isn't that interesting? That
isn't this isn't that interesting? Now, the algorithms that they've incorporated function on the most powerful way to keep people doing a behavior or an animal for that matter, is intermittent random reward or random intermittent reward that you don't know when you're.
Gonna hit the jackpot.
So you're scrolling your going and then you see something a riot or a person that is jump based, jumping off of building, and then what happens is you start getting the system working for that next dopamine hit that you don't know when it's gonna come. It's just like gambling. If we were to look at ourselves through the lens of an experiment like we would an animal experiment, we
think that animal is sick. If you saw an animal digging in the corner, looking looking, looking, looking for a bone, the dog is looking looking, looking, looking, looking, looking, looking, looking, you'd think that's really sad.
That's us Getting someone to sit in front of that TV for an hour is no longer enough. TV networks are no longer just up against each other. They're competing with our news feeds, declining attention spans, and I personally curated algorithms, which means the reality of a reality show is.
Also longer enough.
Producers can't rely on having one big moment each episode and giving us one big dopamine hit. They almost need to give us one hit in every ad break. Alongside that, the bosses of these shows also need to ensure that each of those spikes doesn't just captivate us, but compels us to them want to engage with it on social media, share it to our followers, talk about it, and work
the next day. They need to make sure that we cannot escape what they are creating, which is why in twenty sixteen, endemill Shine Australia, who create Married at First Sight, brought in Tara McWilliams as the show's new executive producer, and in no time at all, Tara supersized the wholesome format we were all now familiar with, and she introduced sex scandals, cheating storylines, and weekly dinner parties full of drama.
Pregnancy obsession.
Isn't Married at First Sight Australia and in two episodes turns into three episodes, just.
The way that it's filmed, the way they it's edited.
The TV show I'm currently watching is Buried at First Sight Australia.
A friend of mine sent me like a couple of episodes I've Married at First Sight Australia and those.
It's intense, man, it's a vibe.
But how did Tara ensure that each scene went to such an extreme that it gives the dopamine hit our brains and our trains to want more and more of And not just that, but how did Tara, with her successes Molly and Alex by her side, then increase this year on year despite the fact that in real life and the fact this was meant to be reality TV reflecting the lives of these real people just doesn't have
those constant spikes of drama. Here's someone for Mozi from season nine answering that very question.
Yeah, so I was on Maths like three years ago and I remember this dinner party like it was yesterday. I would be like, this has actually been amazing. No one screamed, no one's cried, no one smashed anything, like it's fine. The head producer comes out and she goes, how are you guys going? And I'm like, oh, we're having a great time, Like this is awesome. Well I'm bored, and Australia is going to be bored, Like what do
you think you guys are here to do? We're here to make TV and this is boring and you guys are not leaving until something exciting happens, and.
If you don't, then deliver the drama that Tara wants. Michelle Curen from season seven claims that she has a file full of secrets on each cast member and she isn't afraid to use it.
You know, she already knows what's going to push your buttons, because you've spoken to the psych you've spoken to the doctor, you've spoken to the babysitter, So she already knows what is getting fed back to them. So she knows what buttons to push and what's going to cause a reaction. So yeah, she's the puppet master and where the puppets.
Like I was like vomiting nearly every like with nervousness, before every commitment ceremony, before every dinner party, like I was there, like physically vomiting, like just from nerves.
In an interview with Get Real Entertainment on YouTube after his season finished filming in late twenty nineteen, Michelle's co star David Cannon elaborated on this further. This just and go him and his co stars fund working with Tara.
She would scream at you, she would scream at you. She would she would manipulate you. She would talk about turn around and talk and say that we you know, this is what you signed up for. I believe Jonathan was was confronted by Tara and he was told to have a go at other cast members, and he didn't want to do it, and he ended up having a small episode of emotional trauma. She's very well practiced at at making you feel like you're the one that's doing
everything wrong. It's very well practiced and making us feel like we're the bad guys, very well practiced. That She's obviously seven seasons, isn't.
It Going into detail about just how dark things got for her during filming. Michelle explained in her twenty nineteen interview with Get Real Entertainment that she even contemplated ending her own life just to escape the experiments.
Like when it got to the point where I just I couldn't cope anymore, and I said, look, if you want me to do this, like I just can't do it. Like I wanted to actually physically jump off the balcony. And then they said, oh no, so they locked the balcony.
I said, okay, I'll.
Just you wanted to physically jump off the really really had suicidal thoughts.
Yeah I did.
I really did. It's not even like not even pretend thoughts. It's like, I just this is an easy way out at the time, you thought that was your best option to get out?
Did you think I need to reach out to somebody?
And I did.
I did ask.
I asked for help. So I went to see a doctor in Sydney who, like I spoke to at length about the whole process and what was going on and if she could help me like just set on my nerves. And then I also spoke to their doctor because I needed some value and more medication because I just couldn't cope. And so yeah, he gave me some medication so I would be a little bit calmer and maybe not vomit every three seconds. But yeah, it was like very hard.
But how bad did things get?
Oh, it gets so bad that you just want to end the whole thing, like you are willing to commit suicide or like jump off the balcony to get out.
In an email I sent on Wednesday, I asked Channel nine if they'd like to comment on this directly, as well as if they'd like to comment on so many other claims I've included in this podcast, and I have had no reply, but for the sake of journalistic fairness, Nine have previously shared this statement in regards to the mental health of the cast members. Nine and Animals Shine take their obligations in respect to the health and well
being of the participants of this program extremely seriously. All participants have access to the show psychologists and welfare resources during filming, during broadcast, and once the program has ended. Nine also have an additional service for the participants, should they like or need further individual and confidential psychological support. This service gives participants access to clinics to support those
involved in the program in relation to their experiences. This service is available to our participants for as long as.
They need it. It does not end. As shocking as that is to hear.
I assume you are now saying, well, why didn't Michelle just leave? Why won't any of the cash just quit when things reach that point? And unfortunately that isn't quite as easy as it sounds. I've spoken to so many different cast members from so many different seasons over the years, and all of them pretty much tell me that Tara uses the same threat to them if they ever say they want to quit.
As Michelle explains here, I wants to leave.
So many times, and you can't. You just aren't until your story is told. Unless your value has diminished, then you do not leave. You leave when when like you're boring, or when you're like like when you have nothing else to offer. You know, I had a few girlfriends that I could call and speak to who had said, Michelle, this place is killing you. You need to get out, you need to get out. I'm just like, I've got a plan with Steve. I've got a plan with Steve.
You know we're going to leave. We're gonna leave it the next one, and that would always come unfoiled, like some way, like we didn't get out. If you've worked in your life and you've established something to make yourself like and something for your children, then they use that, you know, against you, so that you know, you could lose your job, you could use your house, you could lose all your property, all your assets, because you've got assets. If you don't, then what have you got to lose.
You've got to lose your dignity, your pride, everything else. So not only going to lose that because you've also worked, you're gonna lose all the stuff that you've hoped to leave to your children.
The line about if you do leave, will ruin your reputation is one that Michelle's costar Poppy Jennings says terrified her when she made it.
Claire, from the very start that she wanted out.
You are told things like as Dred's gonna hate you. I was freaking scared, scared of being so hated if I didn't, you know, play to this.
Part.
I was pulled up a couple of days into the honeymoon and basically told you're the next Inness, You're treating him really badly. Just a whole lot of stuff that absolutely petrified me.
Earlier this week season eight, groom Brace told me that this fret wasn't just used if you wanted to quit. It was also rolled out if you said you didn't want to take part in a certain task for whatever reason.
So it turned for me when we had a task that involved writing a feedback letter for another couple in the experiment, and basically we've been asked to write a letter to Rebecca and Jake, and there was no secret that listening, I had a clear dislike and lack of respect for Rebecca due to her behavior towards us prior to being asked to do the task. We had no
issue with Jake. We thought Jake was a good bloke, but we just didn't think it was gonna beneficial for us to write I let her or give any feedback to Rebecca and Jake on their relationship. Anyway, long story short, our couple's produced. I tried to convince this for about
half an hour to write it. I refused, and then she dragged me outside of our room, had a bit of a gulp if not wanting to do the task, and then basically broke down in tears and then stormed off from our room because I said I wouldn't do it. Fifteen minutes later, she came back with a phone and said, Tara's on the phone and she wants to talk to me.
So I spoked her for about five minutes, and the conversation ended by Tara saying to me that if I don't participate in the feedback task, that she would make me look like the worst human being in the country, and that she will make sure that when the show is put together that no one will like me and
essentially serious pender as didn't. I guess she stuck to a word because we didn't want to do the task, which is the funny thing was eventually they sent another producer to our room, from a different couple, and we said, okay, we'll do the task and listen, I agree, just to fake it and write nice things about them, which we did and that's how it was shown on the TV. But yeah, I guess Tara just went through with her I guess promise of making me look like the worst
human of the country at the time. And yeah, that was literally one of many examples I could give. But that was the first time I thought that Tara definitely didn't have our best interest at heart.
Now, David, Michelle, Poppy and Bryce, we're all on the show a long time ago now, and since then, Tara has been promoted from executive producer to a production company and then We'll Shine Australia's director of content and in twenty twenty two, Tara's successors, Molly Harwood and Alex Spurway then took the reins as co executive producers. And although Tara's promotion meant she still oversees the show as a
whole and is across everything that's happening. It also meant she was no longer their day to day so maybe, just maybe things started to get better. I recently asked Marena from this year's season if that line about will ruin your reputation and you'll lose everything you work for was ever used to her or any of her cast members this year, and she told me this.
They sure did. How dare you threaten me that I will never work in Australia again? Guys, I know you put a lot of money into this show, but that's below the bell. I was counting the clock. How do I get out of here? I was looking for cameras, any opportunity I had to file away, I would.
Marena went on to claim to me that she asked to leave several times during filming, but was obviously told that would not be happening. She says it was only as she then threatened to call the police and say she was being held against a will that they then orchestrated an exit for her.
I said to them, I'm going to court your below. You're holding me against my will. This stops, This stops today. That's when I said, okay, she's really going to do it. I should have just done in hindsight, should have, could have, would have, should have. Instead, they wound me up and they said, look, we know you. You haven't had a good a good run with him. So they said, all right, let's let's plan this. We'll let you come on set. You can make this grand entry. And I promise this
came out of Alex's mouth. I promise that the experts will not give you a hard time. I said, really, because they've given me a hard time on every commitment ceremony, every single commitment seminary. They have given it to me. So they said, nope, they're not going to talk. And guess what, they didn't talk. So the next day they producers, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves, but that's okay.
You've got to live with what you've done. They accompany me to the lift because there's always a guard at the lift, and they just go bye bye, and I just went.
What From what I've been told? The subject of police involvement is one of the only things cust members can say in order to be taken seriously, which was made up parent during the infamous season nine retreat, when Dominica violently smashed the glass during an argument with Olivia, which she may remember, I.
Mean telling that mean that my voice isn't enough.
You don't you remember someone?
Why it's turning up? Why would you do that? Why?
Because she's having a guy At my point.
Olivia claims to me that after initially stating she wanted to pond the police regarding that incident, she was told that, well, if you do that, you're going to risk the jobs of the hundreds of people who work on this show, and almost guilty out of doing it. But as she then said, actually no, I do want to phone the police. I don't feel safe here. Olivia tells me what then happened next after the.
Glass smashing, like the next day she she had to drive down to Bargo from Sydney. And it must have been like my cycle, like my psychology was it called psychological evaluations and stuff that I am really really sensitive to authority figures like I can't. I have a really hard time sticking up for myself when it's figures of authority.
And so that's why I think her, Molly and Alex all three like them isolated and cornered me in mine, in Jackson's bedroom, they wouldn't let Jackson be there because they knew that if he was there, he would probably stick up for me, And they knew that they had a better chance of getting what they wanted, which was me staying even though I felt unsafe, and me sort of sucking it up and shutting up and taking it like taking the glass mashing and all that sort of
shit and not saying boo. They knew that they would be able to shut me up if the three of them sort of cornered me in my bed and shamed me for that.
Again, for journalistic balance and fanness, I must state that although so many participants have shared similar stories like the above, Sarah from season eleven last year did re state that when she attempted to quit, no one threatened her reputation, career, or you know, the loss of everything she's ever built for herself. Instead, Sarah tells Yahu Lifestyle that this was the response she received when I.
Did try to leave, like packed up my stuff and went. I had producers coming in constantly.
What do you need?
What do you need us to do? If you don't want to do this, you don't have to do this. Please just go talk to Tim or do this, like, I promise it it'll work out. They just they like pretty much tell you it's going to be okay, and then you kind of go, okay, well, if this is what.
You're saying, I'll stay.
They would have been like, we know exactly what's going on in your head, Like what you think about him is what we see and that's what the world is going to see. And that's how they convince them. That's what they said to me. They're like, we see what you see.
I was like, oh okay.
And in case you're wondering, well, did people end up seeing what Sarah saw? No, she ended up becoming hated Australia sided with her husband instead, and everything that that producer told her did not happen. And to me, that is just another clear example of manipulation. Having heard all of this, I imagine you're now thinking, well, why does anyone still go on these shows? Why would anyone make that decisions despite everything out there saying don't do it?
And that's a very valid point.
But as I've recently discovered, like most things with this show, how they get people on it isn't as straightforward as you'd think. It's actually quite shocking. And if you're also now thinking, well, hey, at least the cast of the experts back in them, right, you know, supporting them and looking after them and having their best interest at heart, you know, because they spent months back and forth with them during the application process and all those interviews with John Mel Alessandra.
Not quite No, I'm sorry. I came to you for advice.
What should I do? No? No, no, no, no, I'm sorry. I'm not here to tell you what to do.
You're not here to give me advice.
The things I've encouraged relating to those three the apparent experts will also leave you speechless. Episode two of the Downfall of Married at First Sight Australia will be live on the Math Funny podcast next Sunday at eight thirty pm.
Oh, We've heard everything we need to hear from you.
And this time John Mel and Alessandra, I think it's time to public learn the truth about you three.
The way you're talking right now, don't do that.
If you've struggled with some of the topics discussed in this episode, please call Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen. There's always somebody there to talk to, and if your life is in immediate danger, please call triple zero