How Peacock’s Changes Led to Success

Millions of viewers are saying “I do” to Season 20 of “Married at First Sight.” The Kinetic Content relationship reality series, which moved to Peacock during Season 19 after 15 seasons on Lifetime, underwent a few changes this year.

The finale and reunion dropped on Peacock on Thursday, revealing that all but two couples chose to break up on decision day. While Mecca Amen and BelléJolie Force said yes, they revealed at the reunion they ended their marriage shortly after. Cameron Mitchell and Michelle Le stayed together and, at the reunion, were still happily married. Unfortunately, all others split, and most are not on good terms.

Since the Season 20 premiere on July 12 — purposefully scheduled after the conclusion of Peacock’s culturally dominant “Love Island USA” — “Married at First Sight” has amassed over 1.8 billion minutes viewed, per Peacock. It’s ranked as the No. 4 highest-reaching original reality season on the app, with total streaming up +153% from Season 19.

Although the show aired on Peacock for Season 19, the 20th season is the first fully produced for Peacock, and it seems that the changes made really worked as it became a Top 3 reality title on streaming for five consecutive weeks, according to Nielsen.

“When we first acquired it, I was super excited — this is one of the great formats in unscripted history,” says Noah Samton, SVP of current production for Bravo and Peacock unscripted. “To have an opportunity to try to improve on what has already been established as something really strong, an opportunity to try to upgrade that and make it even better, is the most exciting challenge for me.”

Below, we dive more into those changes and upgrades with Samton — including the reunion that featured an audience for the first time.

Talk to me about what you first did when Peacock acquired “Married at First Sight.”

Normally, if we acquired a show like this, I would try to watch every single episode. It just is impossible with this one. So I watched about 40 episodes, and it became very clear to me that there were some things that we could do to make it work better for a Peacock audience, make it a more fun, more exciting show, and just kind of revitalize it without losing what made it special and magical in the first place.

Can you detail some of the creative changes?

It falls into two buckets for me. One of which is we wanted to elevate production value across the board, and that starts right with the weddings. To me, it’s a fantasy for the viewer. “That’s a crazy thing to do, but would I do it?” You’re kind of playing along as you watch the show, and you want to see yourself in a beautiful wedding, in a beautiful setting and incredible decor. That was really important to help the viewer immerse themselves in the fantasy by making the weddings even more beautiful.

Then, we wanted to make the cast a more aspirational cast. Traditionally, the most important thing for the cast is authenticity. But you can be authentic and aspirational. You shouldn’t have to choose between those two. That was a really big goal for us — to have a cast that really wanted to be there for the right reasons, and was still exciting and fun for a viewer to watch.

Did you see the casting process?

I went out west to Seattle. We spent five days with hundreds of cast members, and there’s a combined process of the experts looking for people who are suitable matches, and producers and network executives looking for people who make sense on television, and then, collaborating with those people to try to come up with the best cast possible. It’s extremely challenging, but also really fun.

This was the first time a former reality TV star was cast on “MAFS” with Nick Uhlenhuth. Was that something you set out to do — bring in a familiar face?

There were a lot of conversations around that one, and I wanted to do something that would get viewers to pay attention. In a crowded television landscape, it’s hard to get anybody to even think about your show. There are so many shows out there. So somebody that maybe viewers knew already [could help]. That was the original idea. Maybe there’s somebody who was on “Love Island,” who didn’t find love, and now they’re willing to get “Married at First Sight.” We looked at a lot of people on “Love Island,” and there wasn’t anybody that really made sense. And then the team at Kinetic said, “Let us look for some,” and the No. 1 qualifier for the whole thing was it has to be somebody who genuinely wants to get married, somebody who really makes sense. We’re not going to do it just for the sake of doing it.

After talking to a whole lot of people, a lot of former reality cast members, they pitched Nick to me. At first I was like, I don’t know about this guy. But then they sent me a really long interview with him talking specifically about the show, and he really did seem to make sense. I’m just a little sad that we couldn’t find the right match for him.

So would you bring back another former reality star?

Maybe at some point. They have to be somebody who is there for the right reasons, and who makes sense with the show. We don’t want to do it just as a gimmick. But if there is the right person at the right time, who knows? I was talking to Lindsey Hubbard from “Summer House” the other day, and she has struggled a little bit to find the right relationship. So I said, “Why don’t you come on ‘Married at First Sight?’ And she said, “Yeah, no. In about 20 years, I think I’ll be ready for that!”

We’ll be ready at Season 41! You also changed up the experts this year, replacing Dr. Pepper Schwartz, Pastor Cal Roberson and Dr. Pia Holec with Paul C. Brunson and Dr. Lisa Paz. What were you looking for with that change?

Initially, we were really looking for three experts. We wanted to find experts who spoke more to a Peacock audience, which was a little younger than the show when it was on Lifetime previously. We wanted people who felt younger, fresher and spoke to our audience. After meeting all these people, we realized the two of them stood out head and shoulders above every other expert we met with, and so we said, “Why do we need three? We have two great experts. Let’s just let them take the reins.”

Were there other changes you wanted to implement?

It was very important to me that we have seven couples instead of five. Originally, I wanted eight. I know it’s a lot for people to process, but I think one of the things that I struggled with in the 40 episodes that I watched of “Married at First Sight” is that you would see a couple who was clearly not right for each other. They didn’t like each other and didn’t want to be there, and because of the necessities of making a TV show, they were kind of strung along for every episode. I didn’t want that. If somebody was done with the relationship, they should walk away from the show. So that was one of the reasons we wanted to have more couples.

Before we get to the reunion, can you talk about Felipe Cruz choosing to tell Tori Dahl that he thought about cheating all the time off-camera? How do you avoid that happening?

This is the bane of the television producer’s existence. It’s something that happens on most shows. It’s a constant message from producers to cast members: Have those conversations on camera. I oversee all the “Below Decks” and “Summer House,” and one of the great things about those franchises is we have cameras rolling on the yacht 24/7 and in the house all weekend. So there are no conversations that happen off camera. On most shows, cameras shut down — they go home, they have the conversation. We’ve learned over the years a lot of ways of getting the information out, and you saw it in the diary cam with Tori. Good producers need to be on top of every situation, and they have to be able to sense when something is different in the dynamic. One of the biggest job requirements when you’re cast on a reality show is to be open and honest on camera and to share everything. That is literally what you’re hired for, and yet, still, people try to avoid it. And then the flip side, the job of a producer is to make sure that everything that happens is able to come out on camera.

Let’s get into the reunion a little — why invite an audience in for the first time? “MAFS” reunions have never had that.

I was really hesitant about that. Kinetic and Ally Simpson over there really wanted to bring in a live audience. She thought it would bring a different dynamic, a different energy to the show. I was resistant. I was worried about leaks. I was worried about the production logistics of having a live audience during the show. She pushed hard. I gave in, and she was absolutely right. I thought the energy was great as a result. I thought the show looked great. It just gave a different dynamic to the reunion.

It was kind of wild to see Adam Dehmlow’s new girlfriend claim the show was fake, which gave the experts an opportunity to defend it.

Look, it’s something that we battle with, right? People are always like, “Well, it’s reality TV. It’s not real.” It’s all real. It’s produced at times, but everything I do on every one of my shows, what you’re watching, is real. It’s great to be able to show that this is the cast’s lived experience, and that they will support that. Because it’s endlessly frustrating for me to hear that from people. It’s real!

Lastly, there have been some conversations online and rumors that the couples didn’t actually get married this season. What do you say to that?

I would say that their experience is that they are a married couple, and they are living their lives as a married couple, and every aspect of what they experience on that is a marriage. They have a wedding at the beginning, and then they have a divorce if they want to go their separate ways at the end.

This interview has been edited and condensed.