‘Love Is Blind’ Is Making Big Changes After Accusations Contestants Were Deprived Of Food & Water

I spy with my little eye... a sprawling breakfast buffet on Love Is Blind 5.

The show was raked over the coals last season for snafus ranging from harmlessly cringy (we’re looking at you and your LIB baby-begging, Vanessa Lachey) to downright bizarre (never has the nation stared so hopefully at a blank screen as we did during the reunion episode). But the most upsetting misstep were contestants’ claims that they were underfed and sleep deprived on the show.

Although they kept Uncle Nick and Aunty Vanessa (will Cameron and Lauren Hamilton-Speed ever see justice?!) at the helm, it seems the producers decided to change their tactics when it comes to feeding contestants. And they definitely want viewers to notice.

The LIB producers wasted no time this season trying to prove that their love-hungry contestants are actually being fed now. The most gratuitous display came about 19 minutes into the first episode. Under the guise of showing a sneak peek into each gender’s living quarters, we were treated to an onslaught of breakfast B-roll featuring shots of contestants adding hash browns to a hot griddle and chomping down on schmeared bagels. There was an impressive spread of sliced bread, jams and jellies, flavored yogurts, containers of granola, a pyramid of raw breakfast sausages, avocados, fruit, hot sauce bottles (Huy Fong sriracha and Tapatio), orange juice, fresh coffee, every kind of milk, and I think I saw a platter of smoked salmon.

There were even a few action shots of hot sizzling bacon flips and broken eggs on the floor to demonstrate the wide range of culinary skills among the contestants. The clip lasted all of 20 seconds but the messaging was clear: “Hey look! We do feed people!” It was the breakfast of blind-dating champions. I might have been a tiny bit jealous, and I'm hungry right now just thinking about it

The food propaganda didn't stop there. Someone even pointed out the not-so-subtle overflowing snack baskets positioned just within the frame.

Just to make sure I wasn’t tripping, I watched the first episode from season 4 to do a full and fair assessment, and low and behold! There was breakfast b-roll then too, but it got much less airtime. The clip was about five seconds shorter, zoomed out more from the food, and more focused on the contestants and their bagel-eating preferences (Chelsea only eats the tops and wants to know if that’s weird).

I went back to season 3, and that’s where it starts to look a little bleak. The only appearance of food comes about 30 minutes into the first episode in the form of a confusing four-second sweeping shot of a bowl of strawberries, what looked like a pile of assorted breads, and an abundance of champagne bottles.

Season 2, episode 1 actually made me chuckle a little. Aside from a short clip of a few of the guys sharing a bag of tortilla chips and salsa, the only mention of food was about 33 minutes into the episode, when we’re shown a brief clip of a meager spread of breakfast muffins, cooked sausage links, grapes, strawberries, and bagels, surrounded by raw kale buffet decoration, and complete with a voiceover of a contestant exclaiming, “Oooh, food?!” as if it were a rare occurrence. Season 1, episode 1 didn’t feature a single morsel of food.

Since we’ve only seen breakfast footage this season, we can’t possibly know what that means for the rest of the day, but the hope is that the increased focus on food isn’t just for show. I can’t be the only one wondering what they eat for lunch and dinner! What’s in those snack baskets?! Will they keep it up for season 6? Will the food get even more airtime? Should Netflix just invest in a LIB cook-off show? Only time will tell, but for now, all I know is that I could literally never fall in love on an empty stomach.

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