Jason Carrion and his groomsmen were getting changed into their suits in a hotel room at the Westin New York Grand Central when Carrion’s best man ribbed him, “You’re getting married, man. You’re getting married.”
“Stop — stop saying that,” the 27-year-old EMT from Brooklyn warned before his wedding, which took place in March.
Walking downstairs to the ballroom where he was to say his vows, Carrion was all nerves. Standing at the altar, he watched the bridesmaids walk down the aisle one by one.
“Oh, man, this is gonna happen,” he thought. Finally, the door opened and his bride appeared.
It marked the first time he’d ever seen her — much less talked to her.
Carrion is one of six singles who agreed to legally marry a stranger for the new show “Married at First Sight,” premiering Tuesday at 9 p.m. on FYI (formerly Bio).
The extreme social experiment uses four experts — a sexologist, spiritualist, psychologist and sociologist — to create three perfect couples based on scientific matchmaking.
Potential cast members filled out lengthy personality profiles, and the four experts went on field visits to conduct psychological assessments, sexology sessions and spiritual counseling to narrow 625 possible matches down to three ideal couples.
The spouses know nothing about each other — even their names — until they walk down the aisle in the premiere. The next nine episodes follow the newlyweds as they live together for four weeks — after which they have to decide whether to remain married or get a divorce.
The six singles on “Married at First Sight” (based on a Danish series of the same name) are all from the tri-state area and were struggling to meet the right person.
As any single New Yorker can attest, the city’s nearly 1.5 million available guys and gals between the ages of 20 and 34 mean a potential hookup is always just a Tinder swipe away. With daters often paralyzed by options, “Married at First Sight” dares its contestants to give up choice in a mate.
Jamie Otis, 27, a labor and delivery nurse from Harlem, really wants to have kids of her own and was having a hard time finding Mr. Right among New York’s party-hardy male population.
“In New York City, I feel like the guys are primarily just players until they’re hitting their late 30s,” she told The Post. “It’s tough to find guys who are serious.”
Still, even Otis — who previously (and unsuccessfully) competed on “The Bachelor” and “Bachelor Pad” — was taken aback by the show’s extreme premise.
“At first I was like, ‘No way. What are they, nuts?’ ” she said.
But she began to change her tune after the show’s producers played her the Danish version, in which two of the three couples ended up in successful marriages.
“The feeling I had when I watched these other couples — to feel like I could potentially meet someone . . . it’s wildly crazy, but it could work,” she said.
Even though many of her friends thought the idea of marrying a stranger was silly and ill-advised, she took the plunge.
“My siblings were like, ‘Jamie, you’re never going to get married if you don’t do something like this, so go ahead,’ ” Otis recalled.
The experts based the matches on potential spouses’ personality, background, values, beliefs and goals with the aim of creating a more fulfilling, secure relationship than the person is capable of finding on his or her own.
“We have the opportunity to match people with a person who complements them, as well as is similar in important ways,” said Dr. Pepper Schwartz, professor of sociology at the University of Washington and an expert on the show. “And, perhaps, end the kind of mistakes they might make themselves based heavily on attraction or a misperceived need for a certain kind of person that is really not good for them.”
Bensonhurst-based EMT Carrion also thought professionals could help him find what he wanted in a mate.
“I believe you can be extremely attracted to somebody at first sight, but once you get to know them, that’s where the real love comes,” he told The Post. “I’ve been with beautiful girls before, but they didn’t have something — I can’t even explain it. With [my wife], she has it.”
Carrion can’t say which of the three women on the show he married — the couples will be revealed in the premiere.
Like Otis, he initially said no to doing the show — then had a change of heart.
“You know the expression, ‘Go with your gut’? I can’t even explain it — it was just something I needed to do,” he said. “I never want to be on my deathbed and think, ‘What if?’ ”
Want to know which participants were coupled up? Find out with our latest update on “Married at First Sight.”