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"I wanted to feel zero sympathy." Former Seven Year Switch stars react to new season.

With Channel 9’s Married at First Sight now in the rear-view mirror, Channel 7 has swooped into prime time to satiate your cravings for experimental romance television.

Yes, Seven Year Switch has returned. A new year, a new cast of troubled couples looking to repair their relationships by starting new ones, as the country watches on…

Former stars included.

After the show aired on Monday night, season one alumni Cass Thisleton and new parents Tim Naughton and Jackie Martin aired their thoughts about the premiere episode.

Having had her relationship and subsequent separation from husband Ryan dissected by viewers, Thisleton said she has “mixed feelings” about the new season and is “super nervous” for the four new couples.

The 2017 couples. (Clockwise from top left) Sarge and Stacey Louise, Mark and Kaitlyn, Michael and Felicity, Johnny and Tracey. Images: Channel 7.

With that in mind the mother of four urged the audience to use their keyboards sparingly.

"Hoping the social media world remembers that these are real people with real families, and you only know eight minutes per episode of 14 hour days of filming," she wrote on Instagram.

"Be nice, support them and if you have a not so nice opinion.. then save it for your coffee date with your bestie and don't plaster rubbish all over the Internet!! Don't believe everything you see and read!!"

Cassie and Ryan in 2016. Source: Instagram.

Martin was similarly sympathetic to the new couples in her Instagram recap. Not that she intended to be ("I wanted to feel zero sympathy for the Season 2 cast... Why would anyone put themselves through that after Season 1?," she wrote.)

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In fact, the mother of one told her Instagram followers that she'd been expecting "a bunch of desperate exhibitionists who wanted to cheat and wanted people to watch them cheat" or MAFS/Bachie rejects "looking for love" in their onscreen partner.

"But...," Martin wrote, "I can't help but like them, relate to them and feel a little sorry for them."

Tim and Jackie with their baby. Image Instagram.

The Gold Coast fitness trainer said her sympathies were partly inspired by the fact that things seemed to be same-old-same-old this time around, including the casting of a "blonde, feisty, fitness trainer, workaholic", ie. Jackie 2.0.

"I have a serious case of déjà vu," she wrote. "Surely the producers can come up with something different this season? Seems like there'll be more massages, swims together, oooo and one bed - again. Tim and I were shouting at the TV - you knew there'd be one bed!! But maybe they expected more creativity from production as well."

Michelle from SYS Season 1 tells The Binge what her advice is for the new contestants. Post continues...

Tim and Jackie are SYS success story. Despite splitting mid-way through the program, by the end they were engaged and now have a 7-month-old son named Chadwick.

Fingers crossed this year's couples find a similarly happy ending.

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