Love Island’s first season premiered on the 7th June 2015, 11 relatively unknown islanders joined Caroline Flack and Ian Stirling in a grotty Mallorca villa along with sixty-nine cameras and unlimited alcohol.
Infamous for scraps like Malia and Kady’s physical fight in series 2 that led to the former getting kicked out the villa, cringeworthy moments like Tom telling the boys he’d like to see if Maura was ‘all talk’ before their hideaway moment leading to him sleeping alone, and dramatic moments like Zara being stripped of her Miss GB title after sleeping with someone on live TV.
Despite hundreds of contestants throughout the eleven series the series has only lead to four marriages, thousands of viewers flock to the screens at the start of every summer to watch the drama unfold.
As the contestants get more and more famous, it seems the only application for this year’s group was thousands of Instagram followers, and the limitation of alcohol and erasure of on-air smoking makes the episodes more and more boring, Love Island’s content has shape shifted across the years per it’s viewers demands.
The only consistency that remains within the series is a complete lack of diversity, and Ian Stirling Scottish narration.
Much like the rest of the country, Love Island remains caked in racial and disabled bias. Samira Might became the first black female contestant on the show in series four, a whole three years after it premiered. Three years later, the show welcomed it’s first disabled contestant, Hugo Hammond.
What once felt like a comfort show to us, a show that had swearing, drinking and smoking but our parents still let us watch it at fourteen because ‘everyone watched it’ has become stuck in a time that no longer correlates with modern society.
I can’t be reaching when I say ITV has a tokenist approach when it comes to diversity on the show. Typically. Just look at this years cast that was announced yesterday. One disabled contest, check. One black male contestant, check. One black female contestant, check. White contestants galore, check.
Yet, year after year Love Island completely avoids the backlash of their representation (or lack thereof) of disabled, transexual, or homosexual contestants like a dodgy uncle at a Christmas party, instead of an opportunity for change and growth, the show continues to treat disabled contestants and contestants of colour as a tick in a box they fill out.
And viewing figures seem to show us that, 2019 earned ITV it’s highest show rating with over 6 million viewers, however, five years on the show has failed to top that record-breaking number, maybe it’s time for new and fresh?
Fresh dating shows like ‘I Kissed a Girl’ and ‘My Mum, Your Dad’ bring a niche to a market that is currently as white as a piece of A4 paper. I can’t be the only one that will be happy to say good riddance to Love Island.
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