Oh.
There be something fishy going on.
On Monday night, the new season of Bride & Prejudice: The Forbidden Weddings premiered on Channel Seven. The show follows families who are trying to stop real life couples from getting married. Think overbearing mother-in-laws and disapproving dads.
The first episode featured some brides, some prejudice and also some planned forbidden weddings.
But there was something oddly… familiar about it.
You see, the new format of the show is somewhat reminiscent of rival Channel Nine’s Married At First Sight.
The couples come together each week for group dinner parties. The promos have promised bombshells, and drama, and possibly even infidelity at said dinner parties.
In one trailer a voiceover says, “Someone at this table is sleeping around,” as the camera pans around the shocked faces at the table.
The exact same thing happened on MAFS. Each week the couples got together for a dinner party and it ended up being a catalyst for the Dean/Davina/Tracey drama.
It also led to several of the cast members meeting up and dating after the show.
On this season of Bride & Prejudice, the couples and families also have to attend therapy together, just like the MAFS couples had to have regular sessions with the "experts".
Even the promotional material for the two shows looks eerily similar.
Both feature a Caucasian bride and groom, with red, black and grey text.
The series even ends with the couples deciding - once and for all - if they want to get married. Then the weddings happen, which are kind of reminiscent of the commitment ceremonies on MAFS.
It's not at all surprising that Channel Seven has chosen to go down this path. The first few seasons of Married At First Sight were relatively low key and the show didn't garner the huge ratings it does now until it ramped up the drama. And look - we love the drama.
It'll be interesting to see whether this change of format pays off for Channel Seven.
And also, we're always keen to see some unnecessary dinner party drama. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯