A new reality show is like the Bachelor — on steroids.
So, each season of the bachelor is suspended to end with a proposal, but imagining meeting your new husband or wife at the altar.
What? It’s called Married at First Sight.
It focuses on six strangers who will get married, and then be followed by cameras for five weeks, and that’s causing some controversy.
“Married at First Sight is a social experiment that really seeks to determine if social science can play a role in matchmaking.“(Via ABC/”Good Morning America")
“But critics say the show’s premise makes a mockery of marriage.”(Via ABC/“Good Morning America”)
At the end of those 5 weeks, the newlyweds decide if they will stay married, or get divorced.
Express.co.uk spoke with Harry Benson, a critic of the show who is with the Marriage Foundation, which calls itself “a champion for marriage”, and supports long lasting, stable marriages.
He had a particularly strong opinion about that opt-out clause offered at the end of the show.
“Even when they get married they‘ll be thinking ’well I can back out of this’...This is not the way to get married.”(Via Express.co.uk)
But a writer for the Chicago Tribune loves the idea, saying “it forces us to reckon with, once again, our complete and utter hypocrisy about marriage.”(Via Chicago Tribune)
She points out that gay couples cannot legally marry in many states, but that this kind of reality show is allowed.
Dr. Logan Levkoff, labeled an expert on the show, wrote on The Huffington Post at first she wasn’t sold on the idea, but “I agreed to be part of the team with three other professionals...This experiment asks people to commit so that they have to fight for something.”
“They have to put work in — the work that we all need to put in — into partnerships.”
We should point out that at least one of the contestants — Jamie Otis, has vied for love before on reality TV in both the Bachelor and the Bachelor Pad.
This time, she’s taking the plunge and swimming all the way to altar.
Married at First Sight premieres on FYI Tuesday at 9pm Eastern Standard Time.
