Need a MAFS fix? The Super Switch will be right up your alley. Photo / Channel 7
Need a MAFS fix? The Super Switch will be right up your alley. Photo / Channel 7
If you thought it wasn't possible to find a TV show more controversial than Married At First Sight, think again.
The Super Switch is coming to Channel 7 in Australia on June 11 and features cheating allegations, on-set punch ups and explosive claims from one contestant that they are being "held against my will" during filming.
But at the heart of The Super Switch, which as the name suggests is a supersized update on The Seven Year Switch, are six dysfunctional couples.
Each couple has agreed to living together with another more like-minded person in order to get space from their partner and hold a mirror up to their relationship struggles, news.com.au reported.
Controversially the switch therapy couples are encouraged to share a double bed together, a living arrangement which sees the experiment rocked by an incident of inappropriate touching between one pair.
The switch therapy couples are guided by relationships psychologist Jacqui Manning, who believes unhappy relationships shouldn't be threatened further by the bedroom arrangements.
"I guess that's always a risk, isn't it? But if someone was to go down that path, I think that danger would have always been there," Ms Manning told news.com.au.
"I think many of the couples dicussed their feelings about it and what their boundaries were ... what is cheating to any one person.
Expect to see head butting at the dinner parties. Photo / Channel 7
"For someone it could be texting someone too intimately, another person they might not be troubled if someone kisses someone, but they would if they had sex with someone.
"Everyone has got their own dealbreakers in a relationship and I think if your partner was going to challenge those they would do that inside or outside the experiment."
While The Super Switch features existing couples its pairing of strangers together and drama-filled dinner parties means it shares some similar elements with MAFS.
It's a comparision Ms Manning is expecting some viewers will make, however, she believes The Super Switch is a very different show.
"Look, I think people will try and draw those similiairites. From my perspective everyone that was there (for The Super Switch) was interested in working on themselves and their own relationships, and those relationships were real," she said.
A physical fight even breaks out at one stage. Photo / Channel 7
"They were really tryng to drill down into the reality of their lives. People will like to judge and comment, it makes me a bit nervous if I'm to be completely honest, but that's part of the world we live in, that people will judge from the sidelines."
This year's MAFS experts found themselves in the firing line after viewers accused them of condoning some contestants' behaviour and not other's.
Mel Schilling even faced a petition to get her sacked by Channel 9 over her treatment of Bronson Norrish at one commitment ceremony.
"I felt for them because I thought they're not making the show .... I think they were trying to their best giving insights," Ms Manning said.
"I could understand the viewer's reaction to certain things, but I think viewers aren't privy to knowing the logistics of how a TV show is made."
One of MAFS' biggest criticisms have come from previous contestants who have claimed pyschological care was minimal both during filming and after the show.
But in addition to the on-camera group therapy sessions on The Super Switch, counselling was also available from the show's two experts, Ms Manning and psychotherapist Guy Vicars, off camera.
"Certainly (no line was crossed) in the making of the show because we were there," Ms Manning said.
"With some of the participants if they were struggling they could call me, we could speak, they were quite well cared for in that respect.
"The producers were quite open to me and Guy giving them feedback on what we thought could be helpful, feedback from our perspective on what might be challenging for people so they were quite open about that."
The Super Switch will air on Australia's Channel 7 from June 11.
