The 'Married At First Sight' Couples Don't Get Paid Much, An Inside Source Reveals
The Married At First Sight cast receive a stipend for being the show, but it's not much.
According to MAFS executive producer Chris Coelen, they're paid "almost nothing."
A previous contestant said the couples have to cover their own living expenses, too.
People have plenty of different reasons for going on hit reality TV show Married at First Sight, although they probably won’t publicly admit to them all. Of course, there’s totally the possibility that they ~actually~ want to fall in love, maybe they (also) want to become famous or jump start their career as an Instagram influencer. Or maybe they just want to make some decent money.
But that raises a huge question: Does the Married at First Sight cast actually get paid?
Because, ya know, getting hitched to a total stranger sight unseen is a lot to go through if all you get out of the experience is 15 minutes of fame and more Instagram followers.
Turns out, yeah, the MAFS cast does get paid, but it's not a ton. "They receive a stipend—essentially a per diem since we often film 50 to 60 hours a week with them," a source close to the show told Women's Health.
Each couple makes "almost nothing" from the show.
As for what that stipend entails, MAFS executive producer Chris Coelen told Reality Blurred that the couples are only given a "nothing stipend," adding, "We did not want people who were motivated by the wrong things." (Okay, that’s fair.)
But Coelen later talked to The Wrap and clarified that participants are paid something, it's just "almost nothing."
However, someone who identified themselves as a production assistant who worked on the second season of MAFS shared on an online message board that the couples are actually paid $1,500 per episode. The sourcing here is pretty weak, but $1,500 a pop is definitely not "almost nothing."
The cast has to cover their own living expenses, too.
Previous contestants have said otherwise, though. "You get $150 for the day, that's it," season five MAFS star Nassar Sultan said on Australian TV show Now to Love, per MSN. "But on top of that, you have to pay expenses—your living expenses with the woman that you marry."
"It's not $150 clear. You still have to pay rent if you're renting...and it's 12 hour filming days," Nassar added.
That was pretty tough to live on, he said. "None of our groceries were covered," he explained. "They filmed us going shopping, and we had to shop at the same grocery store—which was really expensive, but it was out of our own money." His fiancé, Gabrielle Bartlett, "would sometimes spend up to $70 a day on just living, so we didn't have much left after that," he said.
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