Hot Picks: Match My Ex

Finding a new twist on the dating format is no easy feat – we’ve had shows where contestants can’t see each other (Love Is Blind), where they can see everything (Dating Naked) and where they are matched by their children (My Mum, Your Dad). However, Austrian indie Madame Zheng has a different plan.

In Match My Ex, celebrities and their ex-partners play matchmaker to each other. Set in a luxury villa, the contestants must pair up to avoid elimination, as well as taking part in emotionally charged challenges designed to test the dynamics between the new pairings.

Executive producer Jelka Ninja Below says the team’s goal was to develop a format that wasn’t “just putting reality stars in a villa, giving them a bit of booze and a summer feeling and watching what happens”.

Instead, she says, there is strategy in how people choose new partners for their exes and, at the heart of it, genuine emotion sparked by the interactions with former partners.

“We all know that in the world of reality, there are lots of people acting. They fall in love, it’s very intense, they’re all in, and then the next day, they just fall intensely in love with someone else,” Below says.

“By giving people’s exes power over their future love lives, we break through to the raw emotions and real relationships. So it’s really honest, and you see people realise that it hurts to move on.”

The format allows for modern attitudes to love and dating – such as “it’s okay to be sad, and it’s strong to admit when you’re weak” – to be explored, Below says.

The group dynamics also make for compulsive viewing. “We had one situation where a girl revealed something bad her ex had done to her, and the girls all grouped together to support each other – until he showed an interest in one of them, and she was interested in him too,” she says.

“That element of trying to predict what’s going to happen or who a contestant might choose is fun for everyone – it somehow strengthens the bond between observer and contestant.”

The format for Match My Ex originated in Germany, where casting has begun on a second series, and the same version also played in Austria, while a dual-language (High German and Swiss German) version was made for the Swiss market.

“Germany is a very difficult market when it comes to emotion,” says Below. “But we’ve proved it can work there – so it will be easier in other countries, like the UK, where they like to laugh about themselves and are more willing to be emotional. You’ll get something very strong and explosive.”

Tobias Schulze, senior vice-president of global sales at distributor Seven.One Studios International, says the core audience for Match My Ex is 16 to 34 year-olds, and it skews slightly towards young women.

He sees the format as “a perfect match for AVoD/SVoD platforms around the world”, but also for linear broadcasters “looking for younger-skewing content with which to push their BVoD platforms”.

The regions Seven.One is targeting include Europe (especially the Nordics, the UK and France), North America, Latin America and select markets in Asia.