14 DAY TRIAL // Now this is what you call a social experiment and / or certain recipe for disaster. As touted with much fanfare, FYI has unveiled its new reality show that aims to “prove” that a happy marriage can be based entirely on “science” and that the future spouses don’t even have to know each other beforehand: Married at First Sight.
The first episode ended with a major cliffhanger, after bride Jamie Otis completely freaked out at the altar when she laid eyes on her potential future husband and realized that she felt absolutely nothing for him.
Video of the final scene is also embedded below.
If the name of Jamie Otis rings a bell, that’s because she’s no stranger to the reality show circuit, having even tried to find love on another program before, on The Bachelor. She thought she’d give Married at First Sight a chance too because, she told the media before the premiere, she was never one to abide by conventions so she didn’t think she should now.
She clearly had a change of heart when she saw Doug Hehner, the man she was to marry – and didn’t like him.
“Walking down the aisle, I am so scared. This is the worst feeling,” Otis says in voiceover. “I just happened to be not attracted to the guy. I'm getting married right now to someone I don't know. I'm thinking I just made the worst decision of my life.”
Meanwhile, Doug can’t believe his luck at having had someone picked for him who is absolutely “gorgeous.” Unfortunately for him, he’s not too blinded by her good looks to see that she bursts into tears at the sight of him and is panicking because she doesn’t want to be married to him.
Producers of the show have already defended the idea on which it’s based, saying it wasn’t a social experiment promoting arranged marriages, but rather one to demonstrate that we shouldn’t look for the “perfect” man or woman in life, but rather for the best partner, the one who would be our perfect match.
Four experts, a spiritual adviser, a sexologist, a sociologist, and a psychologist, work together with each applicant to come up with the best-suited partner. For Jamie, that partner was Doug but, clearly, they didn’t take the physical aspect into account.
The episode cut before Jamie said her “I Do” or “I Don’t,” so viewers will have to tune in next week to find that out. THR reports that the network has managed to get a boost in ratings with this new unscripted program, to the tune of “64 percent [in viewership] and an impressive 122 percent in the younger demo.”
That’s not bad at all, especially for a show that has been as ridiculed online as this one for the idea of legally marrying perfect strangers.
By the way, if by the end of the show, any of the 3 featured couples decide they don’t wish to remain married, they will get a divorce at the expense of the network.