New To 90 Day Fiancé? 5 Things To Know If You're Just Starting To Watch The Series

Ariela Weinberg and Biniyam Shibre in 90 Day Fiance
(Image credit: TLC)

90 Day Fiancé is one of the most addictive reality TV shows currently on air. It blends documentary storytelling with drama, romance, and plenty of WTF moments. TLC made one of its best investments when it created the 90 Day Fiancé franchise.

If you’re like me, you probably heard of the show for years before you actually decided to watch it. If you haven’t yet, though, when you do, get ready to become hooked. 

90 Day Fiancé is so entertaining because it explores human connections and how that can translate to different people with different cultural expectations. It’s also an insane soap opera at times that we can’t stop watching. If you’re still unsure about whether 90 Day Fiancé should become your new TV obsession, then let me tell you a little more about the show.

Mike Eloshway and Aziza Eloshway in 90 Day Fiance

(Image credit: TLC)

90 Day Fiancé Follows Couples Through The K-1 Visa Process

90 Day Fiancé films several couples who are engaged. One member of each couple is an American and the other comes from a different country. Over the course of each season, the TLC show follows these couples as they began preparing to marry in 90 days.

The member of the couple who isn’t from America travels here using a K-1 visa. As part of the stipulations for the visa, the couples have only 90 days to get married or the foreign-born partners have to return to their home countries. 

The main series of 90 Day Fiancé has evolved a lot since the first six episodes in 2014. There has been a major shift in the number of episodes, couples, and even the length of each episode.

Big Ed Brown in 90 Day: The Single Life

(Image credit: Discovery Plus/TLC)

It Has Over 20 Spinoff Shows

If you think keeping up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe is hard, imagine being a 90 Day Fiancé fan who wants to follow all of the couples’ stories. It is damn near impossible. In a GoldDerby interview, 90 Day Fiancé creator and executive producer Matt Sharp revealed that there have been over 20 spinoff shows created from the original series.

TLC has already produced some of the major 90 Day Fiancé spin-off shows. Once Discovery+ launched, however, fans got sick of hearing about Discovery+  because it was constantly being promoted to them on each of the series. 90 Day Fiancé fans became a major marketing target because the streaming service offers plenty of exclusive 90 Day Fiancé spinoffs.

The Discovery+ exclusive spinoffs include 90 Day: The Single Life, 90 Day Bares All, and Love in Paradise: The Caribbean. 

TLC’s original 90 Day Fiancé spinoff TV shows include 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, and 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?

These spinoffs have helped the evolution of the franchise. In an interview with Vulture, TLC president Howard Lee explained that the spinoffs led to more drama on the series, because of the organic obstacles that came with them:

And so the storytelling began to change with [the introduction of] some of the other franchises. You have something such as Before The 90 Days, which is…about having a relationship with somebody through a screen, and sometimes you don’t even know if that person on the other side of the screen is real. When we branched out with Before the 90 Days, we found that the risks became bigger, the drama became bigger. Not everybody had even met yet.

The original show has become a lot more focused on drama than its first season. That is good for those who like reality TV drama, because there is plenty of it there, along with plenty of dramatic 90 Day Fiancé spinoffs, including many with fan favorites.

Annie Suwan and David Toborowsky in David & Annie: After the 90 Days

(Image credit: TLC)

90 Day Fiancé Has A 75 Percent Success Rate Of Couples Staying Married

A major appeal of the 90 Day Fiancé franchise is the couples. Viewers experience a very varied display of love, romance, and relationships. Some of the couples are loving and seem like they were created for one of the best romantic comedies, and others (unfortunately) feel like they’re written for horror movies.

These couples bring plenty of drama, which sometimes even involves the in-laws. But, it’s not all drama, because the series makes sure to showcase some of the love that exists between these couples.

Even the most dysfunctional 90 Day Fiancé couples show some love to one another from time to time. These messy couples also often last.

Matt Sharp revealed to Deadline that the couples who get married on 90 Day Fiancé “are well above 75%” when it comes to staying married. This is better than the national average which is, as of May 2022, at a 50-50 percent rate for couples who stay married versus those who divorce.

90 Day Fiancé may even have one of the best reality TV dating show success rates. 

Chantel Everett in The Family Chantel

(Image credit: TLC)

Some Couples Appear On Multiple Seasons And Spinoff Shows

Another great thing about the vast amount of 90 Day Fiancé shows is that couples often appear on multiple series. For example, a couple could start the K-1 visa process on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days and then appear on 90 Day Fiancé to continue their journey. 

In some of the spinoff shows, a couple can end up appearing in multiple seasons. Because of the popularity of 90 Day Fiancé, individuals and couples often build a fanbase. If the fan demand for a couple or person is strong enough, TLC may even give them their own spinoff, which is what happened with Darcey Silva and her show with her twin, Stacey, called Darcey & Stacey.

From 90 Day Fiancé Season 4, Chantel Everett and her fiancé on the show, Pedro Jimeno, became the main characters of a show called The Family Chantel. 

Being likable enough helped many couples and individuals build a whole career around the 90 Day world and its fans.

Jesse Meester in 90 Day: The Single Life

(Image credit: Discovery+/TLC)

Most Seasons Are Available To Stream On Discovery+

90 Day Fiancé and many of its spin-offs air year-round on TLC. However, for those who have cut the cable cord, Discovery+ has all eight previous seasons and a ton of the spinoff shows, including those exclusive to the streamer, available. The best thing about 90 Day Fiancé on Discovery+ is that the current season has episodes released simultaneously with their TLC airing.

This means you can watch the latest episode of 90 Day Fiancé streaming Season 9 (the current season) on the same day as TLC subscribers.

The basic ad supported plan costs $4.99 a month, and the ad-free plan costs $6.99 a month.

If you want to dive deep into the world of 90 Day Fiancé, then Discovery+ is your best option. 

90 Day Fiancé is one of those reality TV shows where you won’t truly understand how interesting it is until you watch it. Go. Watch it. Now! 

Jerrica Tisdale
Freelance Writer

Spent most of my life in various parts of Illinois, including attending college in Evanston. I have been a life long lover of pop culture, especially television, turned that passion into writing about all things entertainment related. When I'm not writing about pop culture, I can be found channeling Gordon Ramsay by kicking people out the kitchen.