How celebrity news is generated locally.
Melbourne has been one of Australia's most active reality television production hubs for two decades, and 2025–26 continues that pattern. Cost-of-living hits, streaming disruption to the traditional networks, and shifting demographics of the reality-TV audience are all reshaping which shows get made and where.
Nine's Married at First Sight, which uses Melbourne as one of its principal production bases, remains the network's highest-rated program in the ratings survey period. Seven's My Kitchen Rules and Farmer Wants a Wife both shoot regional Victorian episodes each year. Endemol Shine and ITV Studios Australia each maintain Melbourne production offices to service formats sold to the networks.
Local subscription-streamer commissioning has added new formats: Stan's Australian Wedding Crashers, Paramount+'s revival of Beauty and the Geek, and Netflix's continuing investment in unscripted originals with Australian production partners.
VicScreen data attributes roughly $180m in production spend to unscripted television in Victoria in 2024–25. The sector supports around 1,700 direct crew jobs and a larger tail of ancillary services — catering, locations, transport, post-production. Melbourne's location diversity (CBD, coastal, alpine, wine country) inside a short drive is a competitive advantage the state actively markets.
The Digital Games and Post, Digital and Visual Effects rebate does not apply to unscripted TV; the Producer Offset applies only to eligible drama. Reality TV productions in Victoria rely on the state's Screen Production Investment Attraction Fund and VicScreen production support grants — modest by scripted-production standards but material for the small independent producers making format-based content.
Overnight ratings for the flagship reality formats have softened over five years but remain among the highest-rated non-sport programming. The bigger shift is where audiences watch: BVOD (broadcaster video-on-demand) accounts for a rising share of total consumption, and social clips extracted by production companies drive significant catch-up audience.
Contestants have themselves become creators — Instagram and TikTok followings built on-air convert into ongoing sponsorship businesses. The line between "reality TV star" and "creator economy participant" has blurred.
The past two seasons of MAFS have again drawn regulatory attention. ACMA received a record number of complaints during the 2025 season; the network committed to strengthened cast wellbeing protocols and independent psychology support. Screen Producers Australia has argued the wellbeing standard for reality contestants should be codified.
The 2026 MAFS casting reveal (traditionally leaked in November); Seven and Nine's 2027 schedule launches at the annual upfronts; and whether ACMA's wellbeing consultation converts into an enforceable industry code. Melbourne's competitive position as a production base looks solid — the risk is not location, but format fatigue.