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A leaner run, wider net.
Twenty contestants, the broadest cast the format has run — and the first season to lean on shows well outside Netflix's own dating universe to fill the villa.
Eight episodes, one big villa.
Nick Lachey hosts a fourth season, again in Tulum, Mexico. For the first time the pool leans hard on non-Netflix franchises: Married at First Sight Australia and Vanderpump Rules alums mix in alongside returning dating-show veterans. The mixer mechanic returns to keep re-entries in play, folding eliminated contestants back into the matching pool mid-season.
The #04 slot.
Slot #04 of 4 in the Perfect Match Editor's Canon. Season four lands last for two reasons that work against each other. The villa grows to twenty contestants, the biggest cast the show has run, but the episode count shrinks to eight — the shortest season yet, down from ten and twelve before it. That's less time to let the mixer mechanic's re-entries and new matches actually breathe. The casting also leans hardest yet on shows outside Netflix's own dating universe — Married at First Sight Australia and Vanderpump Rules alums join for name recognition the crossover premise used to generate on its own. It's not a bad season, but it reads like a format reaching outward for a spark it used to make in-house.
3 moments, no spoilers.
- Ep 1 · twenty in the villa
The villa opens with the crossover cast fully in play — Married at First Sight Australia and Vanderpump Rules alums sorted into the season's first pairings alongside the returning dating-show regulars.
- The mixer · re-entry, again
The now-familiar mixer mechanic returns, giving previously eliminated contestants another shot at matching into the current villa.
- Ep 8 · the shortest run yet
An eight-episode season, down from ten and twelve before it, closes out a staggered release with the expanded villa still sorting its final pairs.