The premise of Love is Blind is wild – and very intriguing. The show gives fifteen men and fifteen women ten days to date in pods that allow communication but prevent the couples from seeing each other. After ten days, one of the parties proposes, and if their partner accepts, they see each other for the first time.
The engaged couple goes on vacation before living together for four weeks. After a month of knowing each other better and meeting loved ones, the couple decides on the altar whether to get married.
It’s fascinating television, but is it real?
Love is Blind is partly real, as shown by the married couples
It takes roughly eight weeks for a couple in Love is Blind to go from ‘Hi’ to ‘I do’. Two months is a short time, especially considering they don’t see the person beyond the wall for the first ten days.
However, some couples have proven that love is indeed blind, going on to become happily married. Per The Mary Sue, four couples from seasons one and two are still married.
The contestants on the series aren’t actors – they are real people looking for life partners. It takes a long time for the showrunners to find attractive people willing to search for love on a reality show.
Creator Chris Coelen told Entertainment Weekly that the producers were worried that no couple would get engaged, ending the show prematurely. Coelen said that the producers didn’t expect that many engagements:
“As a producer I was kind of nervous like, is anybody actually gonna get engaged? Is anyone going to make it to the altar? And, in the end, we actually had more couples get engaged than we were able to follow on the show.”
Family members of the show have attested that the show is real. When a fan asked Mark Cuevas, a season 1 contestant, how much of the series was scripted, his sister, Mellisa, replied, “None of it!”
Cueva’s engagement with Jessica Batten fizzled out, culminating in rejection at the altar.
Some parts of Love is Blind are scripted for dramatic effect
The central premise of Love is Blind is real, but the producers script some scenes for dramatic effect. It explains why ‘story producers’ form part of the show’s crew; the series wouldn’t need story producers if it were entirely real.
Editing gaffes bring out Love is Blind’s scripted moments. For instance, after Damian Powers rejected Giannini Gibelli in season 1, she slipped and fell while fleeing the altar, staining her wedding dress.
However, when she returned to talk with Powers, the stain had disappeared, suggesting the scene was staged. Furthermore, keen viewers have spotted the contestants appearing to read from scripts. The show’s focus on some couples and neglect of others points to the possible manipulation of some scenes.
“It was this weird whiplash moment, like ‘What!?’ 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,’” Rory Newbrough, a season 1 contestant, told Women’s Health.
Contestants Kenny Barnes and Kelly Chase told Entertainment Tonight that the producers pushed them to the altar despite their insistence that they wouldn’t get married. Barnes said:
“What’s not shown is that she and I had conversations multiple times, also with the cameras recording, like we are adamantly not gonna get married. That was never something that we were gonna do.”
Therefore, Love is Blind is real but incorporates scripted scenes for dramatic effect.