Love reality series have taken Sweden and the world by storm and have completely exploded in recent years. Bachelor, Bachelorette, Love is Blind, Hotel Romance and Married at First Sight are some examples.
On Monday, the tenth season of SVT’s hit series “Married at First Sight” premieres. In the show, experts pair up contestants who get married the first time they meet. Then you get to follow the couples as they get to know each other and live together. In the last episode, they are asked if they want to stay married or want a divorce.
Christoffer one of this year’s participants
After the ninth season, two out of four couples are immediately married. How it will be for the new season’s couples remains to be seen. Christoffer Sundén, 32, from Gothenburg is one of this year’s participants. He was the forever single of the group of friends and after his friends pestered him for several years, he finally took the plunge.
– I got tired of being single and trying on my own and left my fate in the hands of science and experts.
How have you prepared for the attention?
– The publicity was the difficult part when I decided to be in the program. I have worked a bit on it during the autumn with the help of the experts in the programme. I am proud of my participation and am eager to receive the Swedish people’s reactions and hopefully create some discussions out in the cabins.
“It’s been terrible”
But keeping the recording of the program a secret from his friends and acquaintances has been anything but easy.
– It has been absolutely terrible and many white lies when people have asked where I went last summer. Then it slowed down when you entered the winter. But then came the nervousness, so it’s nice that it’s out now.
The experts have been a support on several fronts during the journey.
– I realized when I met the experts that I have a lot to learn about myself as a person. I realized that at worst I’ll be better for one for a future partner and at worst we’ll live happily ever after.
That’s why we can’t get enough of love
Why are love reality shows such as “Married at First Sight” extremely popular among TV viewers? Emma Engdahl, sociology professor at the University of Gothenburg, researches love and believes she has the answer.
– We are hungry for romance and most of us have a hard time finding lifelong love. It’s about time we need a manual, we need experts, we want to know exactly how to find the right one, she says and continues:
– We lack a love manuscript. We are hungry for advice and for entertainment, where we see real people who don’t want to be alone and believe in love.
Yesterday 18:19
Here are the first images from Married at First Sight: “We hunger for romance”
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