Netflix’s answer to Bachelor in Paradise is here and fans need to know everything about Perfect Match‘s compatibility challenges and boardroom rules. From the get-go, some of the savvier competitors figured out how to find an edge to stay in a game where the only thing you can win in the end is a chance at finding your love of your life (unless there’s a secret prize for the winning couple). Netflix’s marquee reality TV host Nick Lachey quickly explained the basic rules of Perfect Match in the premiere.
But sometimes the heavily staged and scripted Perfect Match‘s compatibility challenges and boardroom picks appear to get made up on the fly. Well, here’s everything Perfect Match viewers need to know about all the show’s compatibility challenges and boardroom rules.
Perfect Match‘s Fact Or Cap Compatibility Challenge & Show’s Rules
Perfect Match‘s first compatibility challenge “Fact or Cap” (Netflix).
At Perfect Match‘s villa in Panama, single cast members mingle with one another around the pool and bar area getting to know each other before deciding who to match with. They then spend the night together in a suite.
On episode one, the first ten matched cast members (five couples) played “Fact or Cap?”, in which two buckets are labeled “fact” and “cap” (slang for lie). The couples then proceeded to take turns guessing if a statement Nick Lachey read was true or false about their match. The partner that guessed then had to pull the rope on the bucket they selected. If they got it right about their match, the bucket would be empty. If it was false their partner gets a bucket full of water dumped on them.
The cast learned at the first compatibility challenge that the winning couple with the most correct answers about each other win a “private date in a more intimate environment”. The winning couple also gets to select two new singles in the boardroom to join the cast and compete in the next matching night (but more on that later). In the competition Joey Sasso (The Circle) and Kariselle Snow (Sexy Beasts) found out some uncomfortable truths about each other that brought tension to their on-again relationship. In the end, The Circle season 3’s Nick Uhlenhuth and The Circle‘s season 2 star Savannah Palacio did their homework on each other and won the compatibility challenge.
The newly-formed match then went on a date, where the clearly weren’t feeling anything romantic, instead strategizing in the game. The two then went to the boardroom, where Nick Lachey always suddenly pops out to scare the winners. There, Nick and Savannah chose two new guys to go on dates with two of the ladies on the show. The Circle star Chase DeMoor got matched with Kariselle to go on a date and Selling Tampa‘s Anne-Sophie Petit-Frere got set up with The Circle‘s Calvin Kiing Crooks.
All Other Perfect Match‘s Compatibility Challenges, Rules & Winners
Kissing compatibility challenge on the Perfect Match (Netflix).
The next compatibility challenge really caused havoc in the Perfect Match house and many of the reality TV stars’ fragile, gigantic egos. Nick Lachey explained the compatibility challenge as the show’s “little version of Spin the Bottle or Seven Minutes in Heaven”. In the challenge they kiss their current partner as well as all of the other potential matches. All contestants are blindfolded and wear headphones while doing the kissing compatibility challenge so they wouldn’t know who they were snogging with. Then they have to rate all the kisses. The couple with the greatest combined and aggregate scores win the compatibility challenge. Slippery snake Chase decided to cheat on the challenge, lying about Anne-Sophie’s kiss being a ten and giving the other ladies’ low scores to seal the victory. He even falsely claimed Kariselle chipped his tooth with their kiss, giving her a one out of ten.
Third compatibility challenge bidding on games (Netflix).
The third compatibility challenge the couples needed to work as a team to win in mini-games. Before each game was competed, the couples needed to bid a number they think they could realistically do and win the game. They then could change their bids until all couples stop bidding. The couple with the highest bid then has to try and complete the task. If they successfully complete it the couple with the lowest bid that round gets knocked out of the challenge. The bidding compatibility challenge’s first minigame was who could do the most pushups with their woman on their back. The Mole‘s Dom Gabriel successfully did 27 pushups with THTH Francesca Farago on his back. After that, the next minigame was who could guess the most countries, and the Dom and Francesca successfully labeled over 17 countries on a world map.
Next, the guys had to bid on how many hot peppers they thought they could eat with their partner. Chase and Georgia ended up overbidding at 30 and failed from the excruciatingly hot peppers. Finally, the last round involved Love Is Blind star Shayne Jansen and Izzy competing against Francesca and Dom. Shayne and Izzy bid lowest to undo 10 knots but failed to do it in time. Dom and Francesca completed the task just in time and won a private date and a meeting in the boardroom.
The fourth compatibility challenge was pretty underwhelming. Lachey sold it as requiring “strength, endurance, heart, guts.” The five couples had to put themselves in order as the most compatible to least compatible before the start of the competition. Well, it turned out that was the entire challenge. Joey and Kariselle won the challenge got to go on a private date.
Sponge and water compatibility challenge on Perfect Match (Netflix).
Cute or Cringe compatibility challenge on Perfect Match (Netflix).
The seventh compatibility challenge involves hay bails and blocks with competitors blindfolded again (Netflix).
All Boardroom Rules & Matches Made on Perfect Match
On the second boardroom meeting, Chase took charge in the boardroom. He talked Anne-Sophie into selecting Nick to go on a date with Too Hot To Handle star Izzy Fairthorne. Then Chase ditched Anne-Sophie to go on a date with THTH star Georgia Hassarati. Nick struck out on his date. Nick ended up pursuing the stunning The Circle France‘s Ines Tazi. Chase got Georgia to match with him.
The third boardroom round, Francesca double-crossed a lovestruck Dom. She matched herself with Love Is Blind star Damian Powers. The two struck up a friendship before Damian’s After The Altar appearance where he invited Francesca as a plus-one despite still being together with his ex fiance Giannina Gibelli. A devastated Dom was left crying in front of cameras. Ines got set up with Love Is Blind season 3‘s Bartise Bowden.
The fourth boardroom, Kariselle and Joey set up Dom with Selling Tampa‘s Colony Reeves. The second match they set up wild Shayne with bubbly THTH star Chloe Veitch.
Damian and Francesca for to choose at the fifth boardroom. They tried to play matchmaker putting Ines with The Mole‘s champion William Richardson. They also matched Chloe with her ex, The Circle season 2 co-star and ex Mitchell Eason.
The sixth boardroom, the rules changed a bit. Both Will and Ines got to pick one single woman to get matched with another competitor. We also discovered former cast eliminated were again available to return to the villa. Will picked Dom to go on a date with Love Is Blind‘s Diamond Jack to try and sabotage his relationship with Georgie. The two former The Mole contestants have bad blood from their previous time on reality TV together. After that, Ines decided to put a same-sex match together, knowing that both Francesca and Twentysomethings star Abbey Humphreys are both bi-sexual. It was also revealed a sixth suite was being added once they went on their dates so that no eliminations needed to happen (Francesca and Abbey matched, so there were an equal amount of guys and girls left to match).
The seventh boardroom on Perfect Match Mitchell and Chloe picked two guys to go on dates. Mitchell told Chloe on their date he doesn’t want to be in a relationship, torpedoing their match. So Chloe picked Shayne for herself to go on a date and they picked Diamond to go on a date with Bartise. After the dates, another elimination happened. This time around, only five couples could remain again and four contestants left the villa. Mitchell, Diamond, Ines and Will all dropped out of Perfect Match.
In eighth and final boardroom, Kariselle and Joey got to split up the least compatible couple and let them both go on dates, so single men and single women originally eliminated from the villa were available to date again. Bartise gets matched with LC (Love Is Blind season 1). Abbey also got set up on a date with Nick.
Finale Rules & Return Of All Perfect Match Cast Members
In the second last episode, all of the former cast members join the couples to try and break them up and find their Perfect Match. Nick Lachey let everyone know that after the final night they would have all the cast members vote on the remaining couples to determine who is the Perfect Match winning couple. Damian decided to ask Francesca to be his girlfriend. Unfortunately, Francesca realized Damian wasn’t the match for her and the two ended their time on the show. Abbey got blindsided by Bartise, who decided he made a mistake rejecting Izzy Fairthorne. Abbey left the house after going scorch earth, exposing Bartise for him trying to pressure her to hook up.
Kariselle and Joey stayed strong throughout the entire show. They even got engaged on the show when Joey manned up and popped the question. Whether Joey and Kariselle got married is another question.
Georgia and Dom stayed strong since matching midway through the season. Shayne and Chloe had a tumultuous relationship but were very compatible with one another. At the back of the pack, and latest installments to the final couples, LC and Nick coupled up, as well as Izzy and Bartise.
In a shocking upset, Dom and Georgia won Perfect Match. Their prize? An all-expenses paid week vacation for one week anywhere they wanted to go in the world. We’ll have to wait for them to announce on a potential Perfect Match reunion episode or on their socials where they ended up going and if they’re still together.
