Sam Pang brutally roasts Married At First Sight in take-no-prisoners monologue at the Logies - and one joke that wipes the smile off John Aiken's face
The Logies host wasted no time skewering the controversial reality show.
'Of course, my favourite, Married at First Sight, in its 12th season,' Pang began. 'And the big story this year was when Paul punched a hole in a wall after finding out his TV wife slept with a rapper. A story as old as time.'
With his trademark deadpan delivery, Pang added, 'By the way, a hole in the wall is something most of the contestants would be very familiar with.'
The audience erupted with laughter as Pang kept going, taking aim at the show's often-criticised casting process.
'This season MAFS was criticised for breaching ethical standards — producers strongly defended themselves, saying every contestant had to undergo a mental health evaluation, an STI test and an IQ test… and if they failed all of those, they were on the show.'
And in a final cheeky swipe, Pang referenced one of Australia's most infamous recent news stories, joking: 'We all know MAFS is famous for its debaucherous dinner parties — never miss a Sunday night. And I've actually got an idea for next season — I think they should cast the mushroom lady as the caterer.'
The cutting remarks were met with roars from the crowd, but cameras caught MAFS relationship expert John Aiken looking less than impressed at one point, his trademark smile slipping during the roast.
It comes after Aiken told Daily Mail this week that he was bracing himself to be in Pang's firing line.
'Yeah, look I love that. As I said, people love us, but people hate us,' Aiken said ahead of the awards.
'People make fun of us, whatever. It just doesn't matter. To me, it just means that we are topical and we're doing something right and people want to target us.
'That's fine. When you're in this industry, you gotta have a thick skin and you also gotta be able to laugh at yourself. So I suspect that when I'm sitting there on Sunday night I'm going to cop it.
I'll get a little serve from all sorts of people - and that's just a part of it and it's a lot of fun.'
The MAFS jokes were just one part of Pang's take-no-prisoners opening, which also saw him skewer the Home and Away cast, poke fun at Nine Network executives, and roast several of the night's Gold Logie contenders.
This year, like in the past, many MAFS cast members have been left off the official Logies guest list, something Aiken says is out of everyone's hands.
'It's a privilege to be invited, but it's completely out of my hands and out of the hands of the talent. Every year people are going to miss out, but you have no control over it,' he explained.
And even if the show did win a Logie, Aiken joked it would be risky to let some of the brides or grooms accept the award.
'You'd have no idea what they're going to say,' he said with a laugh.
'They're very brave people who put themselves out there and I'm grateful to them for doing the show, but you never know what they'll do once filming wraps.'
Aiken says that while the Logies may elude them, the show's reach is undeniable.
'It's now in its 13th season and it just keeps growing. It's sold into over 120 countries and it's consistently high in the ratings here. We keep putting out a high-quality product that people respond to,' John said.
Aiken admitted that despite dominating the ratings every year, the reality series has never been recognised with a win on Australian TV's night of nights.
'We have never won anything at the Logies,' Aiken admitted.
'But we're pretty happy with the ratings that we have. At the end of the day it all comes down to who's prepared to vote.
'The shows that win usually have people who get online and vote. With MAFS, while we have a lot of committed viewers, they don't seem to vote.'
Aiken said the team does not measure success by trophies.
'We don't do it to get a Logie, we do it because it's fun, it's exciting and a lot of people watch it. The real prize is the huge audience engagement we get every year,' he said.
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