Netflix
Netflix’s ‘Love Is Blind’ Isn’t Fully Scripted: See What Former Stars and Producers Say Amid Season 4
It might be a reality show, but how much of Netflix’s Love Is Blind is actually real? Fans have debated for a while whether the series is scripted, mainly arguing over the producers’ involvement. And with season 4 currently underway, the question still hangs in the air. Keep reading to find out if Love Is Blind is real or scripted.
What Is ‘Love Is Blind’?
The Netflix dating experiment places 15 single men and 15 single women in separate living quarters where they attempt to couple up and fall in love with a wall between them. Each season has seen a handful of couples find their person and end up engaged without ever having seen their future spouse.
Season 1 took place in Atlanta, Georgia, and saw two couples say “I do” at the altar. Lauren Speed and Cameron Hamilton and Amber Pike and Matthew Barnett tied the knot in November 2018 and are still going strong today. Although two couples from season 2 got married at the end of the experiment, Iyanna McNeely and Jarrette Jones and Danielle Ruhl and Nick Thompson, both announced their respective divorces in August 2022.
Alexa Alfia and Brennon Lemieux and Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton tied the knot at the end of season 3 in the summer of 2021 and are still going strong. Hosted by Nick Lachey and wife Vanessa Lachey, season 4 found a new batch of singles, this time from Seattle, Washington.
Is ‘Love Is Blind’ Real or Scripted?
After season 1 began in February 2020, online users questioned the spontaneity of the show, especially regarding the multiple engagements that occurred.
On Instagram, the sibling of one of the show’s stars attempted to put everyone’s fears to rest. According to contestant Mark Cuevas’ sister, Melissa Cuevas, the whole show is 100 percent real.
“How much of the show is scripted?” one fan asked in the comments of the would-be groom’s post. Instead of Mark answering, his sister stepped up to handle the question for him. “None of it!” she answered simply.
Mark and fellow contestant Jessica Batten’s engagement quickly fizzled out by the season finale when she left him alone at the altar, fueling more fans to doubt the accuracy of the series and its relationships. Mark went on to date and propose to his now-wife Aubrey Rainey, whom he met after the season wrapped. He now shares two children with her.
However, it turns out that the Love Is Blind showrunners were just as surprised by how many couples they ended up with that season. “We had actually more success on this show, from that standpoint, than we were even able to document,” series creator Chris Coelen revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly at the time.
“As a producer, I was kind of nervous like, is anybody actually gonna get engaged?” he recalled. “Is anyone going to make it to the altar. In the end, we actually had more couples get engaged than we were able to follow. … We only have so much time to tell a story, but there are lots of interesting stories.”
Nevertheless, season 1 star Rory “Drybear” Newbrough seemingly spilled the tea about how many romances the producers had actually prepared for. After he popped the question to now-ex-fiancée, Danielle Drouin, he spoke with Women’s Health in February 2020. In the interview, Rory explained how the production team broke the news that not every couple would continue on with the show.
“They were like, ‘We were expecting one or two [engagements], not eight! We set up to film five!'” Rory explained at the time. “They just kind of gave us our phones back and said ‘Good luck, thanks for joining us, but we just can’t cover your story.'”
In April 2023, a cousin of one of the season 4 contestants dropped some behind-the-scenes details about how the weddings are conducted.
“I had to sign an NDA,” Alyson Eckmann, Chelsea Griffin‘s cousin, claimed via TikTok. “They took our phones during the wedding. They did all this s–t so we couldn’t talk about it; We’re not allowed to talk about it.”
