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Love Island is a reality television programme, which airs in the UK on ITV1. The show follows twelve single people as they go to a Fiji island with the stated aim of finding love. Each week a male and female contestant are eliminated until just one pair is left, making the 'ultimate couple'.

The first series, titled Celebrity Love Island, was presented by Patrick Kielty and Kelly Brook. The series was won by Jayne Middlemiss and Fran Cosgrave.

The second series began on Monday, July 10, 2006 at 9pm, dropping Celebrity from the show name as the contestants included non-celebrities. Apart from the launch show, Love Island is showing in the 10pm slot. Hosting the new series are series 1 host Patrick Kielty and Fearne Cotton. Liza Tarbuck and Denise van Outen were previously offered the role but pulled out due to other projects.

The title music for the first series is entitled "Wish I" and was performed by Welsh singer-songwriter Jem. However this song has not been chosen for the opening titles of the second series

Series One (2005)

This series had a celebrity prefix in its title.

The celebrities taking part were:

The show attracted controversy from the moment it was announced by ITV. It was marketed as a rival for Channel 4's popular reality show, Big Brother, which returned for a sixth series soon after the show's launch. Many felt that the format of the show provided trashy television as an excuse to attract high ratings.

Following the launch of the show, the celebrities were criticised by fans for being boring (and not real celebrities). There was some suspicion that the contestants were simply using the programme as a free holiday, and the tabloids claimed that producers held crisis meetings to figure out how to keep things interesting. Kelly Telly Helly Daily Mirror 21 May 2005

Soon afterwards, tabloid reports claimed that the show's presenters, Kelly Brook and Patrick Kielty, were engaged in a bitter feud. The problems between the pair allegedly started after Kielty told viewers on the live show that Brook had previously been involved in a relationship with one of the contestants, Paul Danan. Kelly V Kielty Sunday Mirror 22 May 2005 However, even the promise of fireworks between the two hosts wasn't enough to keep viewers interested, and one episode of the show only attracted less than 2 million viewers. Producers later hired model Nikki Ziering to spice up the show.

The show was also resented by fans of long-running ITV soap Coronation Street. ITV decided to move its flagship programme from 19.30 to 20.30 on Monday nights, to provide a successful lead-in for Love Island, in the hope of increasing ratings. Writers John Fay and Daran Little complained to the press about the treatment of the show. ITV argued that it took the decision to move the soap very seriously and only did so when absolutely necessary. A meeting was requested with ITV programming director Nigel Pickard to discuss the issue. Corrie At War Over ITV Flops Sunday Mirror 10 June 2005

On Friday, June 10th 2005, although ratings were beginning to pick up, with the show close to overtaking Big Brother in popularity, a strong storm over the islands of Fiji disrupted the programme. A live eviction show had to be cancelled as 6 foot waves made it impossible for crew-members to cross over to where the celebrities were staying. Instead, ITV was forced to repeat the episode from the previous night with unseen footage.

The show was so badly received by viewers and critics that the word 'Celebrity' is now seen as tainted by UK television companies. An interesting example was Sky TV's celebrity golf tournament, broadcast on Sky One on the August Bank Holiday weekend 2005, was called "All Star Cup" and Sky were careful not to use the C-word in programme trailers.

Series Two (2006)

The second series first aired on Monday 10 July. It was announced in late May 2006 that Fearne Cotton would be Kielty's new co-host with Series 1 winner Jayne Middlemiss presenting "Aftersun" with Matt Brown on ITV2

The show does not usually go head-to-head with Channel 4's Big Brother, despite the seventh series of the show also running throughout the summer. Instead it fills a permanent 10.00pm slot, only occasionally meeting its rival. It also has a new sponsor, popular chocolate bar Bounty.

On 6 July it was announced that the word "Celebrity" would be dropped from the show title *, and the names of those who would be appearing on the show:

Those who reportedly rejected the opportunity included:

  • Tracy Temple- The diary secretary and former lover of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Prescott turned down a hefty sum of money to appear in the show. She was apparently seriously considering appearing on the programme but it was lately rumoured that her decision was too late to be considered by producers.
  • Heather Mills - Executives wanted the star to join other famous singletons in Fiji for three weeks, following her highly publicised split from Paul McCartney. Unsurprisingly, the former model decided to turn down the offer.
  • Daisy Wright - Jude Law's ex-lover and former nanny rejected a £100,000 contract to appear on the show. "At first Daisy was tempted but when she found out how tawdry the show really is she pulled out," a source told the Sunday Mirror. "She's never wanted to be a celeb. And the last thing she wants is to be the new Rebecca Loos."
  • Big Brother winner Kate Lawler also turned down an offer after months of rumours that she was entering the show. She claimed she had other commitments and it was unlikely she would appear in another reality tv show.

Ratings for its return were not good. Not only was it beaten by its Channel 4 rival Big Brother, but also by the BBC's Sport Relief reality show Only Fools on Horses. Big Brother took 4.6m of the audience and Only Fools on Horses 4.1m. Despite being on for longer and premiering in a 9pm slot, Love Island struggled with only 3.2m viewers. The ratings dropped further the following night when the show moved to its new 10pm slot. Only 2.9m tuned in for part one, with 1.6m coming back after the news.

When the show met its rival again on Day 3 the result was worse, with Love Island attracting just 2.1m viewers for its first show, with Big Brother attracting more than double. Similar results were seen on Day 4 when Love Island dipped below 2m, with its rival rating around 3m higher. Series one averaged 3.8m viewers.

Several news reports before Love Island's launch claimed that ITV were counting on the show to be a hit ITV needs Love to survive MediaGuardian 10th July 2006, with speculation on its management's future growing. Sources described the ratings are a "horror" situation for the network Love Isle's launch flop The Sun 11th July 2006. As a result of poor advertising revenue and ratings during the World Cup, followed by Love Island's "flop", ITV plc's share price sank to 97.75p after just the third day of the reality show.

Just five days into the show, with the controversy growing, Love Island suffered another blow. As islanders were informed that they would have to vote one of their fellow contestants off the show, producers clashed with the cast members, who threatened not to participate in the vote, arguing that they knew nothing about this when they signed up for the show. As the second show on Day 5 went to air, contestant Alicia Douvall took off her microphone and ran from the compound. Producers took the decision that the voting process would continue, even though Alicia would not be returning. Presenters clashed with the islanders on the live show as they asked them to vote someone off the show. After a few tense moments, in which words were exchanged between presenter Patrick Kielty and the group, only a handful of the celebrities actually voted. The show had to resort to delayed live coverage from the resort, and an unscripted interview with two randomly selected islanders to fill the remainder of the show. Presenters told viewers that Alicia had not yet been found and that her eviction interview had to be scrapped. Ratings for the first eviction night saw the worst figures since the launch. With nearly 6 million people watching Big Brother, Love Island was left with just 1.4 million viewers.

ITV confirmed on 13 July that it is flying past contestant Paul Danan out to Fiji in an attempt to spice things up Paul Danan will return to 'Love Island' Digital Spy 13th July 2006. Paul entered the resort on 16 July. Further to this, ITV also confirmed that Jackass star Steve O would be entering the resort on 17 July.

Paul's return failed to reignite the spark that the show was lacking. ITV1 scored only 2 million viewers as Paul's entrance to the resort was shown. The show was beaten by both BBC1, who had more than 4 million viewers for documentary series Panorama, and Channel 4, who had 2.2 million viewers for the film Mean Machine. Earlier in the night rival reality show Big Brother attracted 3.6 million viewers. The day after this ITV's share price dropped to just 94pITV shares tumble further MediaGuardian 17th July 2006, although ITV have blamed this on the current situation in the Middle East rather than declining ratings. Two days after Paul's return the BBC announced that Panorama was to move to primetimePanormama returns to Monday night MediaGuardian 18th July 2006, although it was not revealed whether ratings were behind the decision.

Steve O's entrance to the resort was slightly more fruitful. 2.4m people tuned in, 400,000 more than the night before. However ITV1 was still beaten by Channel 4, who had 3.3m viewers for documentary series Mindshock, and the news on BBC1 which had 5.3m viewers. Big Brother managed nearly double with 4.2m an hour earlier.

References

External links

ITV television programmes | Reality television series

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Love Island".

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