Love Island 2018: who will find love?
With Love Island 2018 just around the corner, you can feel the anticipation growing for this year’s spectacle. For those who have never watched the show but heard all the hot gossip. To the zealous fans who watch every episode and to the casual viewers in between. There is always something to be excited about when Love Island comes around.
History
Love Island started in 2005. Originally, it was titled ‘Celebrity Love Island’, where 12 celebrities were placed together on an island in Fiji for 5 weeks. It was down to the public to vote for their favourite couple to make their way to the “love shack”, where the two were given the chance to get to know each other better. Each week, viewers would also vote for who they wanted to be eliminated. This would be revealed during a special elimination episode. The last couple standing would get their hands on £50,000.
In the first season, the winners were Jayne Middlemiss (English television and radio presenter) and Fran Crosgrave (Irish nightclub owner and previous Westlife singer’s bodyguard).
The show only ran for two series before being axed. But don’t despair because in February 2015, a return was announced for ITV2, with Caroline Flack to host the revived show.
Controversy
As popular as the show is now, it still is surrounded by debate and controversy. This was no different when the show first debuted. Before it had even begun, many commentators regarded the show as low-quality entertainment angled towards getting a high viewer rating.
Things didn’t get better once the show launched. Viewers criticised the actors, calling them boring and arguing whether they counted as actual celebrities. There were also suspicions that the contestants were just using the show as an excuse to get a free holiday. As well as that there were even rumours that the producers of the show were in crisis mode.
Even fans of Coronation Street had something to complain about. ITV had moved it’s most popular soap to a slightly later time to give Love Island the best opportunity for a large audience. In the end, even the writers of the famed soap, John Fray and Daran Little, came forward to complain about how their show was being treated in favour of Love Island.
And then as if to make matters worse, just as ratings were beginning to pick up, even getting close to overtaking Channel 4’s Big Brother, a storm hit the islands of Fiji and disrupted broadcast. It is as if, from the very beginning, they just didn’t have luck on their side!
Trivia
In the second series, the show introduced the concept of inhabitants having to cook and clean for themselves into the show schedule. This was to combat the idea that the contestants were just there for a free holiday.
The theme tune in the first season was “Wish I”, which was performed by Jem. However, this was scrapped in the second season for a specifically composed theme song by Daniel Pemberton. It was released under the title of “From Fiji With Love”.
Dennis Rodman (basketball player) entered the show as a Houseguest to boost the ratings and create drama. He definitely did not disappoint! He flirted with Colleen Shannon and created friction with Lee Otway all before his seven-day contract ended and he left the island.
An average of 3.8 million people tuned in to watch Season 2’s finale, peaking at 4.4m. Although, this was down from the previous year’s peak figure of 5.9 million.
Love Island 2018
Now that we have looked to the past, let’s check out the future! What can we expect from Love Island 2018?
For now, there’s still not a lot of details beyond the confirmation that another season is taking place. Caroline Flack hinted on April 3rd that the show would be back in 2 months.
We have no confirmed contestants but there are some rumours that we definitely want to be true. YouTube star Katie Snooks posted on her social media a screenshot of an email with the title ‘Love Island 2018.’ She then added the caption ‘So tempted’. Another suspected star of the show is Dani from Survival of the Fittest. She’s definitely someone who will give the boys a run for their money!
Even last year’s winner, Kem Cetinay has hinted that he would love to return to the love shack! Not sure what that says about his relationship with Amber Davies, the other half of his winning team. But we definitely think that an old contestant making a comeback on the show is something that should happen!
Whilst we don’t know any more specifics about the contestants, there have been reports that more than 60,000 people applied to be on the show in the first 12 hours after applications – a staggering number! The casting directors at ITV2 definitely have their hands full and we are ready to reap the benefits of their hard work.
