Love Island is undoubtedly one of the most popular reality TV shows of all time. The show, which began to air in 2015, revolves around a group of single contestants (known as the ‘Islanders’) who are made to enter a secluded villa in order to search for a potential romantic partner.
They are required to spend time together and find out if the person they are connected with is ‘the one.’ Filled with every love story cliché, like messy break-ups and beautiful reunions, the show guarantees immense entertainment, and as a result, has attracted an incredible amount of popularity and a huge fan following.
So much so that the show has multiple spin-offs in different countries. However, many fans have begun to question the show’s authenticity.
They have been wondering — to what extent the friendships, relationships, romances, and overall interactions are real and how much is manufactured. Let’s shed some light on it.
Is Love Island scripted?
The showrunners have commented against the show being staged. Talking to Metro in January 2020, one of the spokespeople said:
“As anyone who watches the show regularly would know, Love Island is a combination of reality and produced elements that are reflective of what’s happening in the villa,and is a fair and accurate representation of villa life. It is absolutely untrue to suggest that Love Island is fake, staged, or scripted. The opinions they have and the relationships formed are completely within the control of the Islanders themselves.”
However, the former contestants have said the opposite. The former season eight contestant Jay Younger spilled the beans on how the show’s various events are scripted. He mentioned that during his stay in the house, the producers of the show forced him to select Ekin-Su over Page Thorne as his date. Speaking to Josh Hamilton about it, he said:
“For me, I was told who to select for a date and who not to select for a date. In there [the villa] it’s not as organic as you think. When I was told who to select for a date… for example, I was told not to pick Paige. I was with a girl called Ekin in there, who actually went on to win the show…. But I wasn’t allowed to pick who I genuinely wanted to at the start, which was Paige…. I was told by producers it was too predictable if I went on a date with Paige at the start, so I didn’t. I trusted the process… I was told that’s how you should play it and I went with it. I didn’t expect [Love Island] to be that produced.”
Many contestants disclosed that they were instructed to talk a certain way with the remaining inmates. One of the contestants of season seven, Sharon Gafka, told My Imperfect Life how everything is managed by the producers. She said:
“I think now in hindsight, there were clues or things that I could have picked up on that would have kind of explained how my journey would have gone. In terms of me leaving single, I think that was always the plan for me as a character in the show. I think that there were people in [the villa] that were pretending to be something they’re not, or pretended to, or were portrayed as, something they’re not. The interview process is the same with a job—you can lie. You’re desperate to be on that show, you will say anything that you think the producers want to hear in order to get on it. I remember saying to producers, ‘I am either going to be the public sweetheart or public enemy number one.’ Obviously, they want people that will potentially be public enemy number one, so I was easy pickings for that.”
Season three contestant Tyra Carr in her conversation with the Daily Star also shared a somewhat similar opinion when she said:
“What viewers don’t see is there is always a producer on site. What viewers don’t see is there is always a producer on site. They don’t live in the villa with us but someone generally comes in every hour to have a chat. They would often tannoy an announcement asking for someone to come to the sofa to have a chat with one of the producers. What viewers don’t see is there is always a producer on site. They don’t live in the villa with us but someone generally comes in every hour to have a chat. They would often tannoy an announcement asking for someone to come to the sofa to have a chat with one of the producers. You have to tell the producers on site if you are planning to have an important chat or do something, so they make sure the microphones pick it up and the cameras get it. If you forget they would call you in and ask you to film it again.”
The constants’ confessions have increased the doubts about the show’s realness, which doesn’t seem to be too promising.