The MAFS Australia 2026 cast are whinging about how tough it was to film dinner parties

Watching the dinner party episodes of MAFS can take an age. But filming them was even more draining. The MAFS Australia 2026 cast are detailing how the dinner parties are actually filmed – and moaning about how tiring the whole process is. I’m exhausted just listening to them.

Filming the dinner parties was ‘a crazy long day’

In a lengthy TikTok video, Gia went into extreme detail about the process of filming MAFS dinner parties. She began: “The filming days are really long. I would get up for dinner parties at 6am.”

Apparently, many participants would strike deals with local make-up artists and hair stylists. So, Gia would leave the apartments to get her hair and make-up done at 7am, then return in time for the crew to film clips of her getting dressed up. The cameras would arrive quite early in the morning – often before 9am.

Joel was a bit less fussed about the call times. In a Q and A session on Reddit, he wrote: ‘It can be a crazy long day for the ladies. I used to just let the film crew wake me up with their camera – ’cause b*llocks their fake call times – get ready, get mic’d up, de-mic and then chill in my undies until we leave. Girls had to stay in their dress and make up all day. Soz ladies.”

Gia continued: “You’re pretty much staying alone in your apartment, or with your partner, but your partner will leave at a certain time, then you have to get in a car with them.”

Get in losers, we’re going to the dinner party
(Image via Channel 4)

Couples are driven to the studio where the dinner parties are filmed in the afternoon – Gia gave 2pm as an example, but Joel estimated 4pm.

Gia already felt ‘exhausted’ before dinner

Mel detailed how lengthy this part can be in a TikTok video. “Before I went on MAFS, nothing could have prepared me for this. I know everyone says it take a long time, but genuinely it takes a long time … This is the part I was not prepared for. Basically, when you get there, you get out of the car, and the first thing you do is you get taken to a little tent. They’re like marquees. And each couple has their own marquee, and they’re secluded from each other. You’re not allowed to talk to anyone. And you could be sitting in that marquee for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half, or two hours.”

Gia commented: “For me and Scott, we pretty much always went in last to the cocktail party, so we’d be in the tent for longer than anybody else, sitting there.”

Most Read

Revealed: The awful screenshot ‘receipts’ of texts Bec sent about other MAFS brides

Hailey Bieber gave an insight into her s*x life with Justin, and guys I’m actually blushing

Here’s when I’m A Celeb South Africa 2026 was filmed and the reason it’s not live

Mel recalls waiting behind the door to the cocktail party for 15 minutes, filming that part for one or two hours, then being herded back into the marquees. The cast would hang around while other couples were photographed and interviewed.

I’m now picturing half the cast hiding behind that door
(Image via Channel 4)

‘You’re not going into the dinner party until, like, midnight,” Gia continued, “And by then, you’re so hungry. You probably drank a lot. You’re exhausted. You’ve got no phone.”

Gia seemed particularly irked that the producers would collect participants’ phones at about 10am, and not return them until 6am the next day. She found this “very frustrating, obviously”.

The dinners were ‘an absolute disgrace’

In Joel’s opinion, the meals served at dinner parties were “worse than f**king dog food” and “an absolute disgrace”.

Their plates are giving girl dinner
(Image via Channel 4)

Mel reckoned filming the dinner took between two and three hours. “It’s a long night. And after all the drama has finished, they’re like, ‘Hold the chat, hold the chat.” And then you go back to that waiting area and sit there for another hour, because there’s more voxies [one-on-one interviews] that need to be filmed. And that’s why it’s so tiring, ’cause there’s so many steps … everything has a step, and there are points in the step where you pause, and you do other things.”

Woah, I’m exhausted just reading about all that.

For all the latest MAFS news, scandals, gossip and updates – like The Holy Church of MAFS on Facebook. 

Featured images via Channel 4