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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 returns to Tulum for a fourth season, but the shape underneath the new faces has changed more than the cast list. Eight episodes is the tightest run yet — down from ten and twelve before it — while the villa itself grows to twenty, the biggest group the format has run. That squeeze compresses the mixer mechanic's usual rhythm: re-entries and new pairings now have less time to settle before the season closes out.
The #04 slot.
Slot #04 of 4 in the Perfect Match Editor's Canon. Season four lands last because it inherits season three's breadth problem and adds a time squeeze on top. Season three at least had ten episodes to let its expanded door of newcomers and castoffs settle into real matches; season four's twenty-person villa gets only eight episodes to work with, the shortest run yet, leaving even less room for the mixer mechanic's re-entries to pay off before the season closes. It's not a bad season — Nick Lachey's hosting still keeps a growing structure legible — but it's the first time the format's expansion outpaces the time it gives itself to justify it.
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.