As Love Island makes its return to TV screens this summer, the hit reality show is pulling out all the stops to keep viewers tuned in every night – and a major change is coming.
Ahead of Monday night’s launch, supervising executive producer Lewis Evans revealed that the first episode will begin with a bang, and will feature something that has never been done before in the history of the show.
The promotional material for this year’s series has been centred around two major events this summer that will get the nation talking: the World Cup and Love Island. While it all kicks off on the pitch, things will also be kicking off in Mallorca with plenty of game play in the villa.
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“We’re going to play into that this year, we can’t say too much, but [in] the first episode we’re changing things,” Evans told Radio Times and other press. “We’re doing something that we’ve never done before in the history of Love Island. We’re going to take a big risk and we hope it pays off.”
He continued: “The challenges will be different, you’ll also see that in the villa we’ve got a new space where there’s more beds, [and] with more beds comes more bombshells…”
The Love Island opening episode has changed its formats plenty over the years, from the public getting to vote who the Islanders couple up with to fun games for the Islanders to then decide who gets to couple up with who.
When asked by Radio Times if this new twist was in relation to how the Islanders couple up, Evans remained coy before adding: “And some more.”
For those working on the show, it’s important that Love Island stays “unpredictable and exciting”, with commissioning editor Amanda Stavri sharing the team have “got to fight any format fatigue”.
As teased by ITV, this season the Islanders will be diving headfirst into a summer of “twists, turns and tests”, all while they find a lasting connection. But with “unexpected arrivals, shifting loyalties, and sparks flying”, the new series of Love Island plans to be even more unmissable.
The plot thickens!
Love Island returns on Monday 1 June at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.
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Authors
Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.
