The second episode of this season had a nice encounter love island usa, While contestant Cordell has been repeatedly pressed by his partner Serena to open up about his long-term goals, he has said that he would like to land a sponsorship one day. For Cheez-Its. It was at this precise moment that I finally began to believe the whispers I’d heard online and from fellow fans: that for once, the American version island of love It is more entertaining than its British counterpart.
island of love A dating game show where sexy singles in tiny swimsuits are split into a villa in Mallorca and have to compete to pair up with each other or risk being “dumped”. The show has been synonymous with UK tabloids and water cooler conversation since it first aired in 2015. Six nights a week from June to August, viewers tune in to watch couples fight and flirt, alternately voting for their favorite contestants. In the grand finale, the couple with the most votes wins a £50,000 prize.
The American version, now in its sixth season, follows an almost identical formula (instead of Mallorca, it takes place in Fiji, and the prize is $100,000), though it has historically never quite captured the magic and messiness of the original, with contestants in a rainbow of distinct British and Irish accents at each other on camera. Befriend, betray and literally bone each other.
But despite mediocre reviews in previous years, Season 6’s Love Island USA Finally cracked the code. The show is currently the No. 1 reality series on all streaming platforms in the US, according to Nielsen, and Peacock’s most-watched series ever, garnering twice as many views as last year.
Luminet, an entertainment data tracking company, That report Love Island USA It was the most-watched streaming original series in the U.S. in the second week of July, with 919 million minutes watched, a 257 percent increase from the week it debuted (a distant second). the bear, 630 million minutes). To be clear, most of this is due to the number of hours available to stream (this season will have around 35 episodes and the previous UK season had around 50), but for 35 hours of television to consume, you’ve invested quite a bit.
The show’s executive producer Simon Thomas points to the charismatic cast as a major reason for this season’s success. “They’re the most ridiculously good-looking group we’ve probably ever had, and they’re all vulnerable and fun and friendly, like we always want,” says Me. “But there was something about them that you almost couldn’t put your finger on. It’s magic and we’re making a potion, and maybe you can fix it.” It’s an alchemy that few reality shows are able to replicate in an age where many have lost their shock and voyeurism values: with every brilliant real housewives cast or compelling bachelor Lead to a million more that are eventually forgotten in the streaming wasteland.
Early season Love Island USA American values and its laws may be fought in part because of the sanity of both: federal broadcasting regulations ban the broadcast of certain sexual acts and swearing on TV, while British reality shows have long been characterized by un-bleeped cursing and full-frontal nudity (I urge anyone who still Didn’t have the pleasure of seeing the UK nude attraction, which the American mind simply does not understand).
This is also due to the islanders’ cultural differences: in 2019, a producer told the New Yorker that “American contestants were equally pure and polite, their speech sanitizing psychobabble invented to convey self-awareness, depth, and respect for women.” In contrast, UK Islanders are generally more upfront about sex with each other, openly calling each other “slags” and often discussing whether men are giving them “fanny flutters”, which an American woman May translate to “vaginal dance”.
Ringer explained It can never live up to the original because of Americans’ reluctance to laugh at themselves at the beginning of the series. American tastes also tend toward self-serious dating shows single, With its claim that contestants are “here for the right reasons,” ie to find love, not fame. island of love Turns the American penchant for piety and sincerity on its head, admitting that, in fact, no one is here for the right reasons.
No one is here for exactly the right reasons
Among other things, this season finally replicated the fun of showcasing a buffet of regional accents: Pittsburgher Kaylor doesn’t pronounce his L’s, so words like “tall” and “single” sound like “toad” and “singoh.” Professional snake wranglers and overall wearer Rob’s Alabama twang would be even stronger if he ever sat up completely or spoke louder than a grunt. And Calabasas-based Leah speaks with such a slow SoCal drawl that she sounds like she’s been shot with a poison dart.
They’ve also sprinkled in some foreigners, such as Liv, an Aussie, Miguel from London, and, most notably, Aaron from southern England, who has the energy of a rabbit on Red Bull, best known for being a, er, prominent. Pressure on two series Treacherous UKAnd inexplicably, as the internet points out, there is The face of an American Girl doll. Ironically, American Islanders have even started using some British slang originally introduced to the US Love Island: This season, you’ll experience weird Americans using phrases like “mugged off”, “fit”, “turning heads”, “fanny flutters” and referring to grilled cheese as “toasty”.
And then there’s the draw of its new host, Vanderpump’s rule Ariana Madix, who shot to mainstream fame last year after having an affair with her partner of a decade Vanderpump Casting mate, created the maelstrom that will forever be known as Scandoval. “It’s often said on TV that ‘followers don’t follow.’ It’s not enough to book someone who has 10 million followers,” explains Thomas. “But Ariana, they’ll follow her to the moon and back. People care about her in a way I’ve never seen. Her personal story meshes so well with the show.”
While this season hasn’t featured many true love stories that are scattered across the island, friendships have been fun to watch, such as the bromance between Rob and Aaron and the sisterhood between the women. Black women, who Been sidelined for a long time island of love, will also take on a starring role this season as the lovable, princess Jana and spunky Serena, both of whom seem to have found a strong connection in the villa. They and other women stand up for each other in difficult moments and challenges when men show themselves as sexists. A challenge early in the season revealed each islander’s “body count” — that is, how many people they’ve had sex with. Contestants were also asked how many “bodies” they thought were too many for the opposite sex. When a man, who claimed to have had sex with 150 women, said that 10 men were too many for one woman, the girls called him out and he was dumped shortly after.
“For me, those lines are very sex-positive, with the pro-sex approach that we take on the show,” says Thomas. “Which means, we’re not pairing you up to get married, like some sort of purist goal, if you’re having fun in the sun, you must get married at the end of it. That is not its purpose.”
Although Love Island USA Now exclusively on streaming and therefore not subject to federal broadcasting regulations, Thomas says they’re still wary of how much they watch – and it’s still less than the UK version. “We saw a cut the other day of a couple having sex, and I thought, ‘It’s too much. It doesn’t add to the story to see.’ The audience should know they’re having sex, but you do it in a more playful way, where you see a little rustle of a blanket, you hear a laugh. It’s not rocket science.”
“That’s Thong City right there, which we’ve never been able to do on the network.”
— Simon Thomas
But the swimsuits are sexier than ever: When the show originally aired on CBS, she says, contestants weren’t allowed to wear thong bikinis. “We’re bums out all the time now. It’s Thong City right there, which we could never do on the network.”
that island of love silly and campy; thongs that have jiggling bottoms; At any moment you’re in danger of hearing a dark piano version of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” and that’s not to say that a guy down on one knee sounds like much—the evolution American reality TV needs, perfecting the form. Two decades later, in a transitional period. Former cast members of the series love is blind And real housewives is Suing production companies For labor violations, pushing for alcohol consumption, and turning a blind eye to sexual harassment and assault. island of love Not perfect, either; The UK version saw two former cast members and a host commit suicide after enduring relentless public scrutiny, although the new arrangement Attempts have been made to address contestants’ mental health. Even in that tumultuous environment, Love Island USA It’s trying to recapture something that’s been missing from American reality TV and that the UK version has excelled at: fun for its own sake.
Americans have always had a complicated relationship with hedonism, with our first colonists moving away from the British Empire to become literal Puritans. It only took 400-odd years, but probably a really great season love island usa, Along with the violent desire to escape the depressing drip of political news, has finally encouraged us to revel in the greatest forms of entertainment. This summer, it’s all about hooking up with hot people, falling in love, and confessing your desire to sponcon for Cheez-Its.
