Is it possible to make dating reality TV shows safe for their participants?

A BBC Panorama investigation recently reported that two women alleged they were raped by their on-screen “husbands” during the filming of Married at First Sight UK. They have not been named. A third woman, who agreed to be identified, Shona Manderson, accused her on-screen husband of subjecting her to a non-consensual sex act. All the men deny the allegations.

Sirin Kale, the Guardian investigations correspondent and host of Unreal: A Critical History of Reality TV, tells Nosheen Iqbal: “When you have couples living together who don’t know each other, who are being thrust together in these really close living quarters and are sleeping in the same bed, I don’t know how you make that show safe.

“You also have the pressures and expectations of this show,” she said. “So one of the things that often comes up in Mafs if you’ve watched it, like I have, is the contestants clearly do not like each other very much, and that’s intentional. Reality TV producers are not putting contestants together who they genuinely think are going to be great matches and fall in love. You want one or two people to fall in love per season but you want the rest of them to fight, otherwise the show is boring.”

Channel 4 has said it commissioned an external review last month into welfare on the show “after being presented with serious allegations of wrongdoing”.

CPL Productions says its welfare protocols are industry-leading, and that it acted appropriately in all these cases.

ARCHIVE:

Celebrity Big Brother UK (Channel 5)

Come Dine With Me (Channel 4)

Panorama (BBC)

Married at First Sight UK (CPL Productions)

Married at First Sight Australia (Endemol Shine Australia)

The Great British Bake Off (BBC)

X Factor (ITV)

This Morning (ITV)

Lorraine (ITV)

There’s Something About Miriam (Sky1)

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