In an unprecedented move, the Married At First Sight Australia experts have kicked a couple off the show.
On Sunday night’s episode troubled couple David and Hayley took to the couch at the commitment ceremony to reveal whether they wanted to remain in the experiment.
It had been a hell of a week, with David discovering his wife had hooked up with another groom – Stacey’s husband Michael – during a night out on the town, and then retaliating by using Hayley’s toothbrush as a toilet brush.
All hell broke loose when it all came out at Wednesday night’s dinner party, with Hayley showing their cast mates a video of David taking out his act of revenge. A friend of his had sent her the footage, presumably because it was just too good telly not to.
Their cast mates were left shocked and appalled. “That’s going too far,” many of them commented, but David brushed it off.
“It’s not even that bad,” he said. “Practical jokes – my friends have done worse to me.”
But it was that bad, and now sources behind the scenes are saying that Hayley is considering taking legal action.
So how was it then, that when it came time to show their cards, quite literally, and reveal whether they were going to stay or go, it was David that wrote “Leave” and Hayley who wrote “Stay”?
Why? was the question on everyone’s lips, not least of all their fellow cast mates as well as the experts.
“This is a sick joke,” Stacey said in disgust. “She’s being spiteful.”
And it turns out she kind of was, with Hayley revealing she wanted to stay because she was “enjoying this too much”.
“He can sit there for another week and think about his actions because what have I done as a woman to be treated with such disregard?” Hayley asked.
But the experts were having none of it.
“No,” expert John Aiken told Hayley, and we all rejoiced from our couches because the experts were actually doing something proactive and useful instead of just spying on everyone at their dinner parties.
“It is very unhealthy what you’ve got going on between you. We have certain standards and it is not in the spirit of the experiment.
“This is a decision we don’t take lightly but we’re doing it in your best interests. Your relationship is clearly beyond repair.”
To David he said, “There are boundaries that have been crossed that should never have been crossed.”
And that was the conclusion of David and Hayley.
The experts have been criticised before for taking too much of a back seat with the couples.
When Jessika Power and Dan Webb hooked up behind their spouses’ backs last season and demanded they be put in their own apartment the experts said yes.
And then when expert Mel Schillilng called out last season’s groom Bronson Norrish for calling his wife Ines Basic a terrible name, many viewers felt Mel had failed to acknowledge that Ines had exhibited some fairly terrible behaviour towards Bronson too.
A petition was started to get her sacked from the show.
Expert Mel Schilling was criticised by viewers last year for calling out Bronson out for calling his TV wife Ines a terrible name, but not acknowledging that Ines had at times behaved pretty badly towards Bronson. A petition was mounted calling for Mel to be sacked.
It seems this year the experts have finally listened and taken into account viewers’ reactions from past series.
And while John Aiken has admitted that even he needs psychological help to deal with being a part of the show, telling Woman’s Day, “It’s tough enough having to play bad cop with all these big personalities on the show, but then people stop me on the street to have a go at me and they’re outraged on social media”… all we can say is YES!
The experts have some responsibility to take in the way this series plays out too.
