The upcoming First Date season will not see a same-sex couple – Here’s the reason – 2024-08-23 19:38:01

First date at the altar The 11th season of the program starts in September. The program again features six singles, from whom the experts form married couples.

So far, in the Finnish version of the series, all couples have been hetero couples. According to the program’s experts, this year it was close to seeing a same-sex couple in the program. However, this did not happen.

– The long process did not yet produce the possibility that a match would have been found, a First Date expert and a couples therapist Hanna Myllymaa comment.

Another program expert, vicar Kari Kanala, commented on the matter in a similar way.

– Since the match goes first, there was no exact match.

MTV executive producer Ellinoora Uusi-Kartano and executive producer of Banijay Finland production company Saija Simoni commented on the subject by e-mail to Iltalehti. According to them, the most important priority of pairing in the program is to find suitable people for each other.

– In recent seasons, the number of same-sex applicants has been gratifyingly on the rise, but is still substantially lower than the number of heterosexual applicants, comments on the production.

According to Uusi-Kartano and Simon, the production is actively considering ways to also bring same-sex couples together.

– The aim is that in the future all people looking for a spouse would see the program as a potential way to find even the love of their life alongside them and would put in an application regardless of their background or orientation, the production is commented on by email.

Iltalehti asked about the participation of same-sex couples in the series already in 2018. At that time, the producer of the program, Nenna Winberg, commented on the claim that same-sex couples should not participate in the program at all.

– Of course they can also apply, we don’t want to limit it. We hope all kinds of people will apply, Winberg commented.

Same-sex couples are generally rare in the series format, but they have been seen. In the Australian version, the first male couple was seen in 2016 and the next one this year. The first female couple in the Australian version was seen in 2020.

In the UK version, on the other hand, the first male couple was seen in 2021 and the first female couple in 2022. The program has been running in Great Britain since 2015.

The first date at the altar starts on MTV Katsomo and on the MTV3 channel on Tuesday, September 3. at 9 p.m.

Hanna Myllymaa, Kari Kanala and Tapani Alanen are experts in the First Date at the Altar program. Mikko Huisko