‘Married at First Sight UK’ Canceled Amid Rape Claims, Review Finds “Implicit Pressure” on Contestants to Be Intimate

Channel 4 has canceled Married at First Sight UK after the show was hit with allegations of rape by two former contestants. CEO Priya Dogra has decided that the "right course was to bring 'MAFS UK' on Channel 4 to an end." Channel 4 has canceled Married at First Sight UK after two contestants claimed they had been raped during the filming of the show. That decision was unveiled despite an external review giving the green light to produce future installments with improvements to the welfare framework. The suggestions for Channel 4 and production company CPL included installing CCTV, putting locks in shared bedrooms, and giving contestants access to a panic button.

“Whilst the review praised the welfare protocols in place and made no findings that Channel 4 breached the Ofcom Code or that the format is inherently unsafe, I have to consider when is the right time for Channel 4 to move on from a format,” said the broadcaster’s CEO Priya Dogra. “The recommendations are eminently sensible and feasible, but considering their wholesale implementation provoked fundamental questions about the editorial proposition of a show that, I believe, has now run its course over ten years.” Earlier this year, a group of ex-participants came forward in a BBC Panorama investigation, where it came to light that two women on MAFS