“Dump the ‘intruders’ and instead allow the OGs to meet their ‘backup partners’ early in the season…”

With Married At First Sight (MAFS) done and dusted for another year, fans have already started speculating how the creators and producers of the show could make the next season even better.

We all know by now that MAFS can be quite the controversial and dramatic show and this year alone saw many, many dark moments from Paul Antoine’s wall punch, to Jacqui Burfoot taking out an interim restraining order against her ex Ryan Donnelly, and the absolute shitshow that was the relationship of Adrian Araouzou and Awhina Rutene.

In fact, the current season was plagued with so many scandals that NSW police and Safework NSW opened an official investigation into the show.

Naturally, the drama on and off screen was quite overwhelming for fans, and now people have taken to Reddit to discuss what MAFS could do differently in 2026.
This year’s MAFS hit unprecedented levels of drama. Image: Nine

MAFS fans debate how to make the show better going forward

On Reddit, one fan said there was “so much to improve” when it came to future seasons of the show.

“It may be fun to have a little discussion on how to improve the show? I understand they will keep it the same because it’s so popular,” they said. “My takes are: the experts should see more of the hotel [living situation] stuff. Morena, Veronica and Adrian behaved awfully and it didn’t really come out to the experts. [And they should] compress all the weddings to two episodes. Boring!”
MAFS fans think the experts should be more across the storylines playing out. Image: Nine
Another person agreed when it came to the footage the experts were seeing. “Totally agree that the experts should see all the footage we do! So much bullshit behaviour goes unchallenged because it doesn’t come out at the dinner parties or commitment ceremonies,” they said.

Other fans weighed in with their opinions, with a lot of people agreeing that the wedding episodes went on for a bit too long.

“I would like to see fewer cast members who are influencers, actors, or other media personalities,” someone else said, before throwing out a very rogue idea. “When one says ‘Stay’ and the other says ‘Leave’, the group get to vote. We’d then also see cast members forming alliances and strategising = extra drama!”

Another fan said the show needs to stop pairing up people with very different lifestyles, particularly regarding families and kids.

“Stop pairing people together where one has kids and the other said no to being paired up with kids,” they said. “I know they do this to create drama, but this one crosses the line.”

MAFS fan throws out wild backup matches storyline

One person theorised that instead of introducing intruders, the show could shake things up more by bringing in the backup matches earlier.
One MAFS fan thinks it’s time to cut the intruders, and bring in the backup matches earlier. Image: Nine
“Dump the ‘intruders’ round and instead allow the OGs to meet their ‘backup partners’ early in the season, and decide whether to stay or swap. If an OG wants to stay but their OG partner wants to swap, the one who wanted to stay gets booted. If they both want to swap, they both get to stay with new partners.”

Stream Married At First Sight 2025 on 9Now.