Channel Nine has confirmed drastic changes will be made to Married at First Sight, beginning next year, due to growing backlash from viewers.
Nine's head of content, production and development, Adrian Swift, told The Australian on Monday that just like viewers, he too was shocked by the sleazy behaviour of contestants.
He said despite growing calls for the ratings juggernaut to be banned, it will return to TV screens for season seven but in a cleaner format.
Renewed: Married at First Sight will return next year despite calls for the Channel Nine reality show to be banned. Pictured (left to right): The show's relationship experts Mel Schilling, Trisha Stratford and John Aiken
'One of the first things is we tighten the rules up a bit because we don't want all the sort of cross-husbanding and wifing,' he said.
'They do things that we would not even conceive of. They come up with storylines that we haven't even thought of, and the problem we have, and you've seen it this year, is it went to places that we thought were just a bit tawdry, and we didn't want it to go there.
'Our guiding principle is that we don't make anything happen, but the corollary of that is if something does happen we can't excuse it from the show ... The brilliance of the producing in MAFS is that we managed to keep up with those f***ers (the contestants).'
'It was a bit tawdry': Nine's head of content, production and development, Adrian Swift (pictured), told The Australian on Monday that just like viewers, he too was shocked by the sleazy behaviour of contestants
The show sees relationship experts match complete strangers, who then get 'married' upon meeting each other for the first time - however the 'marriages' are not legally binding.
It comes after media watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), recently confirmed to Daily Mail Australia it was flooded with complaints about the show, which critics claim promotes 'infidelity' and 'bullying'.
'The ACMA has recently received complaints about [Married at First Sight],' the statement read. 'Complaints about broadcasts are referred in the first instance to the licensee for consideration.'
Drama: During Sunday night's explosive reunion episode, viewers were left stunned when Martha Kalifatidis (left) poured red wine over Cyrell Paule's (right) head which led to a fight breaking out
Sleazy: Jessika (left), 27, and Dan (right), 35, caused further controversy last month, when a graphic bedroom scene strongly suggested they'd had sex
In addition, a Change.org petition calling for the show to be banned has received more than 24,000 signatures.
The complaints mostly stem from Jessika Power's on-screen affair with Daniel Webb, which was revealed on the show last month.
Their spouses, Mick Gould and Tamara Joy, were left humiliated by the betrayal and left the experiment in tears.
