MAFS EXCLUSIVE: 2024 cast 'broke and unable to become influencers'

This year's MAFS cast is said to be "furious" that their dreams of becoming social media influencers will not become a reality, with many now scrambling to make money after giving up their day jobs during filming.

Yahoo Lifestyle can reveal that despite the show currently airing across Australia and the UK, fans have failed to warm to the participants like in previous years – with most of them failing to attract enough followers to launch them as full-time content creators.

Lucinda Light is the only cast member the public has really rallied behind. The Byron Bay celebrant is currently this year's most-followed participant, with 138,000 fans. Lauren Dunn is in second place with 67,500 followers, Eden Harper is in third place with 66,700, and Cassandra is fourth with 53,100.

The least popular participants are Madeleine, who has just 1,200 fans, Ben Walters, who has 3,800 followers, and even Jono, who is generally liked by fans and hasn't been involved in any controversies on screen, who has only 6,800 followers.

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Although Lucinda's following may seem impressive, it's nothing compared to the stars of previous seasons of the show. Jules Robinson and Martha Kalifatidis currently boast over 700,000 followers each, and Domenica Calcaro and Ella Ding both have over 500,000 fans.

A source tells Yahoo Lifestyle that many of this year's cast is "furious" they've failed to build a fanbase off the back of the show, and were "banking on" becoming social media stars.

One unnamed participant from the current season recently told The Daily Telegraph that they're "broke" after giving up their job to appear on the show, saying: "I couldn’t even make my rent payments with what we were being paid. We would film late, so I would be ordering takeaway most nights. I spent a bomb on outfits, hair and makeup, and to top it off, they didn’t even let us wear what we wanted."

As the Married At First Sight cast are not employed by Nine or Endemol Shine Australia and are classed as "contributors" instead of employees, they're not paid a wage. Instead, they're given $1,175 a week to cover their living expenses back home.

Earlier this month, fans also noticed Tori Adams was selling her possessions on Facebook Marketplace. She listed her 2011 Mercedes Coupe in one post for $65,000 and her fridge/freezer in a second post for $1,400. This could be a sign that Tori is leaving Victoria to move to Queensland to be with her groom Jack Dunkley.

This year's participants ranked by followers:

• Lucinda: 138,000

• Lauren: 67,500

• Eden: 66,700

• Cassandra: 53,100

• Sara: 39,100

• Andrea: 35,900

• Timothy: 31,300

• Jade: 28,900

• Tristan: 26,900

• Tim C: 26,500

• Tori: 24,800

• Ellie: 20,500

• Jack: 16,600

• Michael: 14,600

• Natalie: 14,200

• Ridge: 12,300

• Richard: 11,900

• Stephen: 7,800

• Collins: 7,300

• Jono: 6,800

• Ash: 4,000

• Ben: 3,800

• Madeline: 1,200

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