Spoilers: Spoilers for Perfect Match Season 1 follow. Netflix’s Perfect Match is already making waves in the world of reality dating TV. Francesca Farago is making a name for herself as a villain, some couples are proving to be more compatible than others, and so far, I have no idea who’s going to win this thing. I mean, there’s 23 confirmed cast members, and we have eight episodes to go. Truly anything could happen.
Even the stars themselves seem to be dealing with the element of surprise here. Based on the show’s rules, new singles are brought into the house every episode when couples who win the compatibility challenges choose to pair them up from the boardroom. But I couldn’t help but notice that each time someone new came in, the same conversation had to be had: “Do you know what’s going on?” People from the house were always left to explain the situation in the house and the rules to new cast members, because it seems like Netflix left them totally in the dark. It left me curious: How much did the cast of Perfect Match know about the show’s rules and cast before filming, if anything?
To find out, I went straight to the source: one of the stars themselves! Chloe Veitch, the British reality TV queen best known for winning Too Hot to Handle and being declared a runner-up (as well as fan-favorite) on The Circle, also tried her hand at looking for love on Perfect Match. Though Veitch hasn’t made an appearance in the four episodes that are available so far, we know she’s coming, and she spilled the beans on how much she knew — or, well, didn’t know — heading into filming.
“There was an element of being blind,” Veitch tells Her Campus. “So we knew that it was a dating show. We knew that it was a competition show. And we kind of knew that we needed to find our perfect match. However, what we didn’t know is that there was a risk of you going home the first night you end up in the house, which is crazy because it’s the first show that I’ve been on where you can get eliminated instantly.”
Per the rules of the show, there are five suites at the house, meaning that five couples have to match up by the end of the night. With the couple who wins the compatibility challenge bringing in two new singles of the same gender after each challenge, there’s always an imbalance: seven men or women to five women or men. Whoever doesn’t match with someone by the end of the night would be left going home, which makes it entirely possible to come to the house as a new cast member fresh off a date, only to get sent home immediately.
However, Veitch wasn’t too worried about not knowing everything going in. “It’s great because it causes chaos,” she laughs. “And we love chaos.”
That said, nobody on Perfect Match was a stranger to reality TV plot twists and surprises, since the nature of the show demands that they had all been on previous Netflix reality shows. In comparing the vibes on the Perfect Match show to her previous experience, Veitch says she was actually better prepared for Perfect Match, believe it or not.
“For me on Too Hot to Handle, I was oblivious, I didn’t know what I was doing,” she says. “But [ahead of] this show, I’m so thankful that I was able to go on Too Hot to Handle because I kind of knew not to trust everybody that I come into contact with. Because everyone’s there for love. Everyone will step over you to get what they want, in some element — obviously not in an evil way, but I think [going on Too Hot to Handle] kind of smashed my naivety. So on this show I was very much prepared to do what it takes to get what I want, if you know what I mean.”
To find out what (and who) it is that Veitch wanted, you’ll have to stick around until the rest of the season is out on Netflix (new episodes drop weekly on Tuesdays until the Feb. 28 finale). But in the meantime, start making your predictions — even the cast themselves weren’t certain which couple would reign supreme, so it’s anybody’s game.