How Much Did The Season 3 Cast Of Love Is Blind Get Paid?
Leave it to Netflix to reinvent reality TV with unconventional dating shows like Nick and Vanessa Lachey's The Ultimatum: Marry Or Move On and Love Is Blind — which is now going viral for its drama-packed third season.
But as much as viewers would like to believe the series are as real as they get, many suspect that it's all scripted. Recently, Love Is Blind has been slammed over some "fake" elements like a contestant faking his tears with eye drops during a confessional interview...
Is 'Love Is Blind' Scripted?
Fans have been questioning the authenticity of Love Is Blind for a while now. Recently, a Redditor wrote in a post: "My wife watches and thinks some of the couples are acting. I think they're ALL acting. This show seems fake AF! I'm not bashing it for people who enjoy it, I like WWE, but I know it's fake."
Commenters weighed in; many of them are convinced that the couples are just faking it for the cameras.
But during an Instagram exchange, Melissa Cuevas, sister of season one contestant Mark Cuevas, said that "none" of it is scripted. Even show creator, Chris Coelen, couldn't believe how their crazy concept worked out.
"As a producer, I was kind of nervous, like, is anybody actually gonna get engaged?" Coelen told Entertainment Weekly. "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." He also revealed that upon joining the show, cast members don't even realize the extent of the experiment.
"The truth is, for these people, when they walked in, they didn't really know what they were walking into," he explained. "They knew the general idea, but then they walked in and would say, 'I didn't expect this to actually happen. I thought it'd be fun. I'm going on a show and yeah, maybe I'll find somebody that I like, but I never expected to fall in love deeper than I've ever fallen in love.'"
How Does 'Love Is Blind' Get Contestants For The Show?
When asked if contestants audition for Love Is Blind, Coelen said that they have "a casting department" that finds individuals that are truly committed to the experiment's goal. "We have a lot of experience in doing these kind of shows. We have a great casting department and they reached out to people who they felt would be genuinely interested in this kind of commitment," he shared.
He added: "I think that's really key; we want people who aren't just doing it for the attention. There's certainly plenty of places for people who want to do stuff for the attention. We wanted to be really dealing with people who were genuinely interested in it."
Do 'Love Is Blind' Contestants Get Paid?
Recently, a source close to Love Is Blind told Women's Health: "The participants are paid little if anything. They are truly in it to find love!" Season 2 contestant, Jeremy Hartwell even filed a lawsuit against the show, claiming that they were only paid $1,000 per week up to $8,000 for the entire duration of filming.
One of the allegations is that they were paid "less than half of the applicable minimum wage rate of $15.00 per hour" in California when the cast worked up to 20 hours a week.
Who Pays For The Weddings In 'Love Is Blind'?
According to a production rep, the contestants shoulder the wedding expenses in the show. "Of course, production supplies some of the basics," they explained, "but because these are their real weddings, it's up to them as to how to spend their money."
Season 1's Amber Pike told the Los Angeles Times in February 2020 that Netflix took over "the financial part of the wedding" she had with Matt Barnett. She said that they were given options for dresses, food, etc. However, they were instructed to stick to the show's budget. Any add-ons were on them.
As for the engagement rings, Coelen said that the men are given a couple of choices once they've decided to propose. "Once they decided to get engaged, they were given a couple of choices should they want to take us up on that. That was, again, their choice," he said.
"Since they were in the facility and weren't able to go out into the 'real world' at that point, they couldn't have been able to go [to a shop]," he continued. "We wouldn't have allowed them to at that point. It's obviously such a gigantic moment in people's lives that we wanted it to be as authentic to them as it possibly could be."
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