Two reality TV hopefuls’ lives will change forever tomorrow when the public crown their £50,000 Love Island winners – with far more riches likely to be waiting for them back in the UK.
But the future of ITV’s flagship dating show may not be so rosy.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal the broadcaster will be reviewing it later this month, with insiders forecasting the winter series and All Stars are facing ‘the chop’.
Love Island viewers this season have been rocked by the ‘abusive’ behaviour of the contestants towards one another, leading to 9,000 Ofcom complaints in a week and prompting the TV watchdog to begin an investigation.
The charity Women’s Aid even waded in by issuing a statement criticising the show as a place where ‘women are often lied to, slut-shamed and manipulated’.
One insider said: ‘ITV is stuck between a rock and a hard place because this sort of behaviour is generating incredible viewing figures, with this series being the most watched since summer 2022 – it’s averaging 2.4million viewers.
‘ITV also can’t be seen to be promoting the values some of these contestants are displaying – it’s all getting a bit too much.’
Another issue raised by the insider was ‘over saturation’, with viewing figures dropping since the launch of the winter series in 2020 and the All Stars last year.
At its peak in 2019, it attracted 6million viewers a night, falling by a million a year later.
And after the All Stars series was introduced in 2024, figures plummeted to an all-time low of 1million for the launch of this series.
The insider added: ‘The plan is to follow the US formula of one show a year with more vetting of contestants, higher quality and more control, which will mean the winter series and All Stars get the chop.’
The majority of complaints were about the ‘bullying’ of Shakira Khan, 22, with one viewer saying: ‘This isn’t entertainment, it’s emotional neglect.’
Jessye Werner, of Women’s Aid, said ‘more must be done to educate contestants on sexism and misogyny’. And she praised viewers ‘who call out these behaviours’.
