Karl Puschmann: entertainment reporter on SafeWork NSW launching a wider investigation into Married At First Sight Australia

The latest season of Married At First Sight Australia has been plagued by scandals on and off the screen - and now a regulatory body has launched a wider investigation.

SafeWork NSW is investigating Channel 9 and production company Endemol Shine, generating uncertainty over the future of the series.

Entertainment reporter Karl Puschmann says this investigation follows an incident where one of the grooms allegedly punched a wall in frustration - prompting safety concerns for the impacted cast members.

"By all the accounts that have been on the show, it does sound pretty serious - you can't go around punching walls just because you're a little bit upset about something. And the show's response hasn't been particularly great either." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now, has reality TV gone too far? This is
Married at First Sight in Australia. It's always been a
controversial show, but now there's an uproar because the equivalent
over there of Work Safe is investigating Channel nine, and
that's the production company that makes Maths, raising questions about
its future. It's all after an episode where a groom
punches of wall and frustration. Entertainment reporter of Carl Pushman

(00:24):
is with us Carl good evening, No, right, how are
you good? Thank you? So the debate here is apparently
they're hiring casting people with domestic violence issues, right, And.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Some people say, well, that's bad.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
But then isn't this reality TV?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
I mean, isn't that what it should be?

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Well, reality TV should be bad. That's what makes it
so good to watch, the entertaining to watch. Should you
be hiring people with domestic abuse violence in their past?
Probably not. You can still get good bad people that
don't necessarily have that in their past. That incident wasn't
actually shown on the show, so there's no way we

(01:03):
can tell what happened or see exactly what happened. But
by all the accounts that have been on the show,
it does sound pretty serious. You know, you can't go
around punching wolves just because you're a little bit upset
about something. And the show's response hasn't been particularly great either.
They have kept the guy on obviously, ratings, viewings, we're
talking about it now. It's all this, you know, what's

(01:25):
the old saying, no publicity is bad publicity. Yeah, perhaps
it is if their safe workplace is getting involved. Maybe
that is when we've found that line.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Is there a because I feel like we have this
debate sut of every couple of years about particularly maths
in Australia, it's a particularly feral version of the show.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Is there a genuine risk this time it could be
shut down?

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Do you reckon? I don't. I don't think they'll close
it down. I mean that risk is there, like once
the authorities are involved, possibly if they get stung with
some massive, multimillion dollar fine that makes it impossible to continue. Perhaps,
But it's such a juggernaut of entertainment and it's become
so much part of like the yearly viewing calendar that

(02:08):
I think they'll fight pretty hard to keep it on screens.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, and it's making them too much money. Carl, thank
you for that Carl Puschman Entertainment reported.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
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