Move over Love Island 2024! There's a new kid on the reality TV block just waiting to steal your crown as the global phenomenon that is Love is Blind finally lands in the UK.
When What to Watch catches up with Matt and Emma Willis at Netflix’s London HQ to talk all things Love is Blind UK, it’s easy to see why the husband and wife presenting duo have been chosen to front the show.
Tying the knot in 2008 after four years of dating, The Voice UK host Emma and musician Matt - best known as one-third of pop-rock group Busted - are still clearly smitten as they playfully tease each other while discussing hosting the homegrown version of the dating show that’s become a global phenomenon.
"We watched one episode of Love is Blind US and binged the whole series over a few days. We couldn't stop," admits Matt, 41. "We all love watching people fall in love and it’s really hard to not get hooked in," adds Emma, 48. "So when Netflix approached us about hosting the UK version, we were like: ‘Yes please! We want this!"
The social experiment sees single men and women form strong emotional bonds in specially designed ‘pods’, through which they can only hear each other. After a whirlwind ‘romance’, our couples get engaged and finally meet face-to-face. But as reality bites outside the comfort of the pod, will they marry the person they fell blindly in love with?
Here, Matt and Emma - who share three children Isabelle, 14, Ace, 12, and Trixie, eight - talk playing Cupid and reveal how popular presenters Ant and Dec played a crucial role in their own romance…
Why have these 30 singletons agreed to take part? Do you enjoy playing matchmaker?
Emma: "Our singletons are basically sick of not finding love on dating apps so, feeling out of options, they think: “Let's try this option instead”. I LOVE matchmaking - I'm not very good at it but I like seeing people that want to settle down, finally meet someone and be happy."
Matt: "On the first day, I ‘matched’ all our daters based on their photos - and none of them got together! On a dating app; two people might look good together but are they compatible? Spending time getting to know someone, like they do on our show, really makes you find out."
Can you describe how the dates work in the pods?
Emma: "At first, it’s like speed dating. There are 15 girls and 15 boys; each girl stays in a pod as the boys move between them, spending eight minutes with one girl before moving on to the next. Over the next few days, they can then spend more time with the people they've had more of a connection with. Some couples were in the pods for hours!"
Matt: "I initially thought UK daters would be more reserved than they are in the US but they really went for it. They came with a real openness to embrace the experiment and it's hard not to fall in love in the environment of those pods."
Emma: "You're cut off from everything, you can't see any cameras and you're in this little warm bubble. Then you just hear this voice…"
It IS a TV show, is everybody truly in it for the right reasons?
Emma: "Let’s just say we have some successes…"
Matt: "…and some real shockers! There’s one guy who really is the gift that keeps on giving. Everything that comes out of his mouth is TV gold! I think he may have already found the love of his life… himself!"
The couples who decide to get engaged are then whisked off to a retreat on the Greek island of Corfu to build their connection. What was it like filming there?
Emma: "It was nice for Matt and I to have that time together and we may have stayed a couple of days extra! The retreat is the first step outside the bubble. That’s also where they meet the other couples, which could include someone they ‘dated’ in the pods…"
Matt: "After the retreat, the couples move in together. When you're living together, back at work and dealing with all the distractions of real life, that’s when it gets interesting. That little love bubble you've been in is great - but can you thrive outside of that?"
So, do you really believe people can fall in love sight unseen?
Matt: "There are marriages and kids that have resulted from the many versions of Love is Blind from around the world, so it definitely works. Emma and I filmed a teaser for Netflix from the pods and, being in one, I really understood how people can fall in love that way."
Emma: "Me too. Matt’s very charming, very charismatic and quite funny, too. So I totally would’ve gone for it!"
How did the two of you start dating?
Emma: "After first meeting socially with some mutual friends, we didn't see each other for a while but then I saw Matt with Busted on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway in 2004. So I called a mate who knew Simon Webb from the boyband Blue, who were also on the show that night and said: ‘Can you pass my number to Simon and get him to give it to Matt?’"
Matt: "So Simon knocks on my dressing room door, hands me his phone and on the line was [presenter] Tim Kash from MTV, who said: ‘Emma Griffiths is trying to get hold of you.’ I was like ‘YES!’"
Emma: "He still made me wait three days, though, before he called!"
In 2007, you got engaged in one of the most romantic cities in the world…
Matt: "That’s right. I took Emma to Venice on her birthday with the intention of proposing."
Emma: "He was acting really weird, so I thought he's either gonna propose or finish with me! Matt: We walked around for ages and stopped at the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal. I was about to get down on one knee when Emma grabbed me and said: ‘Don't. You. Dare.’ I panicked and thought: ‘Does she mean don't you dare propose’? So I whispered: ‘Will you marry me? She said: ‘Yes! But don’t get down on one knee because everybody will look!’ It was an absolute disaster but very ‘us’ - awkward and weird!"
You tied the knot on July 5 2008 in Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire. What’s the secret to a happy marriage?
Emma: "Is there a secret - or do you just bumble along and work hard at it?"
Matt: "We really like each other. I think that’s the secret. I really love her [Matt visibly chokes up]. Oooh, sorry, I didn’t expect that! That’s the most important thing."
Emma: "The feeling’s mutual. And that’s no secret!"
The first four episodes of Love is Blind UK land on Netflix on Wednesday, August 7, with new episodes weekly.
