‘We are not there to be sycophants’: The MAFS spin-off promised nothing was off limits. Did it deliver?

In 2019, Married at First Sight’s official companion series, Talking Married, was axed after two seasons. The live format, aired on 9Life, was too unwieldy. A couple’s relationship had just awkwardly broken down in real time in front of Nine news presenters Jayne Azzopardi and Ben Fordham. There were reports the network was concerned about the mental health of the participants.

Six years later (after a brief reprisal in 2020 that switched to a pre-recorded show), we’re back. On Wednesday night, Australians got their first taste of MAFS: After the Dinner Party, a new companion series that promises “MAFS like you’ve never seen it before”.

“Nothing is off limits,” said co-host Laura Byrne in the show’s opening. But did it deliver? Well, I don’t think there’s anything revolutionary about MAFS stars calling each other a “fake f---ing bitch”, but it’s historically the kind of thing the audience is looking for.

What was in the first episode?

A mix of unaired footage, interviews with contestants and commentary by co-hosts Laura Byrne, Brittany Hockley and Jules Lund, After the Dinner Party offers a really decent mix of content for diehard fans. And, in a business sense, it’s a smart move from Nine (which owns Stan and this masthead).

There is already a sprawling cottage industry devoted to recapping and memeing each episode of the ratings’ juggernaut, as well as covering the off-screen drama. This kind of companion show – in the same vein as Love Island’s Aftersun and Drag Race’s Untucked – gets the host broadcaster in on the action, undercutting the competition with exclusive content.

“No one has access like we do,” Hockley said in the introduction. “Welcome to the inner circle.”

In the show’s first episode that included interviews with Stella and Alissa about the way they were treated at the just-aired dinner party, with Chris about his relationship with Brook, and with Danny about whether he controversially told Gia she was his “type”. But the real drawcard is the footage they have access to. The show aired an old conversation between Chris and Brook, for instance, where she discusses her ex, Harry – information that is newly relevant with this week’s news she is now pregnant to Harry. It also played footage from Danny’s audition, where he discussed the kind of woman he’s attracted to (bombshell: it doesn’t sound like Gia!).

‘We are not there to be sycophants’

This sort of thing is reality gold when deployed effectively. In a world of gossip, it (literally) pays to have the receipts. Netflix dating show Love is Blind made headlines in 2022 when it played footage of a controversial moment the cast couldn’t stop debating on its reunion special, After the Altar. Nine, through Stan, now has the capacity to do that every single week.

The trick, however, is ensuring that a show like this – which has direct corporate ties to the host network – is authentic enough to be embraced by fans. That means offering hard feedback not just to the contestants, but also the show’s production. Have the edits been fair? Are the contestants treated well? Should there be more punishment for people who behave very badly? These are all questions the show’s fandom regularly grapple with and, if they’re not reflected on screen, the whole thing risks being written off as PR.

There’s already been at least one moment that raises questions. Early in the premiere, Alissa read an apology that Brook had sent her claiming she had been “going through a lot mentally” during production. In the message, she reportedly said, “an executive” had pushed her to “keep stirring shit up” and she regretted “not trusting [herself] instead”.

Though Alissa also criticised the lack of accountability, Lund couldn’t have jumped in faster. “That apology, we all agree, is pretty lame – blaming producers,” said the former longtime host of Nine’s Getaway. He then quickly asked if producers were even in the room while filming, which Alissa denied. Moments later, they played backstage footage where a producer is talking to Brook right alongside the dinner table. Despite this seemingly contradicting the statements just made, no one said a word.

It’s the kind of thing that could break trust with viewers. And, judging by a post in the private Facebook group for their popular podcast-turned-radio show Life Uncut, it’s a critique Byrne and Hockley are trying to get in front of.

“We are not there to be sycophants of the show – we are there to have our own thoughts, to give participants a voice beyond ‘production’, to hold the terrible behaviour accountable and to give more insights into the BTS of the biggest show in Australia,” Byrne wrote. “We will never compromise our beliefs along the way.”

Even this acknowledgment shows that Byrne and Hockley, both former contestants on The Bachelor, are the right people for the job.

Byrne, in particular, shone in this first episode, offering insight and understanding for those on the inside of the reality-TV experience (extending some grace to Brook, noting how difficult it would be to suffer viewers’ wrath while pregnant), while still maintaining a fun and gossipy tone. The pair’s familiar dynamic, built via six years’ broadcasting together, is a natural fit for this format. And it helps that the show has also ditched the weirdly formal breakfast TV-style table of Talking Married for a big old couch.

The test now is how well they can all settle in among the chaos.

MAFS: After the Dinner Party airs at 9pm on Stan each Wednesday.

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