Three million viewers tune in. A cast member has been arrested on suspicion of rape. And the next series, already filmed and waiting in the can, has no broadcast date. These are the coordinates of the crisis now surrounding *Married at First Sight UK*, the Channel 4 reality programme that once marketed itself, with characteristic boldness, as a social experiment — and that now finds itself at the centre of something far less telegenic.

The show's troubles began to crystallise in May, when Channel 4 pulled every episode from its streaming platform in the hours before a BBC Panorama investigation aired. The documentary's allegations were described by Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, as "shocking and deeply disturbing." In a letter to Members of Parliament last June, Ofcom confirmed that it would examine the findings of Channel 4's own internal review into contributor welfare, and that it would urgently consider whether further regulatory action was necessary. Since then, BBC News has also revealed that one unnamed cast member was arrested on suspicion of rape — a disclosure that deepened the atmosphere of institutional unease around the programme.

Channel 4 has commissioned a welfare review that is expected to conclude later this summer, though it has indicated it will publish only a summary of the findings rather than the complete report — a decision that critics may find difficult to reconcile with any genuine claim to transparency.