Lyndsay Duthie

*This article was originally published on [The
Conversation](https://theconversation.com/why-love-island-is-the-best-kept-guilty-secret-on-british-television-97409){target="_blank"
rel="nofollow noopener"} on 4 June 2018.*

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As is so often the case these days, we didn't have to wait for series
four of Love Island to actually go to air for Fleet Street to [start
salivating](https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6441389/first-look-at-love-island-launch-as-the-boys-and-girls-enter-the-villa/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} about the prospects of spending the summer with 11
"unfathomably ripped young men and scantily clad young women" -- as The
Guardian [rather coyly put
it](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/04/sex-love-island-reality-show-tv-hit){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} -- tasked with doing little else other than to select
their daily swimsuit and, over the course of eight weeks, choose their
ideal life partner.

[![](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2-450x225.jpg){.aligncenter
.size-large .wp-image-5898 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="450"
height="225"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2-450x225.jpg 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2-300x150.jpg 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2-140x70.jpg 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2-1080x540.jpg 1080w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2-1280x640.jpg 1280w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2.jpg 1417w"
sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/file-20180604-175445-jjoheb-web2.jpg)

With a little help from a bit of audience participation. And here's the
thing: 2017's Love Island became the UK's breakout televisual hit,
giving ITV2 [record viewing
figures](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/04/sex-love-island-reality-show-tv-hit){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} of 2.5m people. It was the most talked-about show of the
summer, prompting [5 billion Twitter
impressions](https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2017/09/love-island-itv-used-social-drive-viewing-sales-hit-series/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} and merchandise shipped by the truckload (Primark says
it [sold 197,000 Love Island slogan
t-shirts](https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2017/09/love-island-itv-used-social-drive-viewing-sales-hit-series/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} during the series' seven-week run). Some 25% of 16 to
25-year-olds were watching the show via tablet or smartphone and after
season three ended, ITV Hub claimed it had regularly reached 56% of 16
to 34-year-olds -- the show's core demographic.

This is often a demographic that terrestrial TV finds it hard to engage
with given the always available lure of Netflix and YouTube.

"This is a real case study for all of those nay sayers who say that 16
to 34s don't watch telly," Angela Jain, the boss of ITV Studios
Entertainment [told a
conference](https://rts.org.uk/article/love-island-secrets-behind-itv2-hit){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} hosted by the Royal Television Society in May, adding:
"That's bollocks isn't it, because they're watching this."

But why is it such a hit? Yes the blue skies and holiday vibe helps, but
at its heart it is still based on the idea of a love story -- some have
even heralded it as a [modern-day Jane
Austen](http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170807-what-jane-austen-tells-us-about-dating-today){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. The story of falling in love is a narrative that has
[obsessed us since time
immemorial](http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-07-14/love-island-is-like-shakespeare-with-a-suntan/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. It's why we're still riveted by the work of Austen or
Shakespeare: because we are all searching for someone who helps us make
sense of ourselves.

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There is also a sense of joining an exclusive club -- you just need to
get your head around Love Island slang (The Sun [helpfully provided a
lexicon](https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/3822641/love-island-2017-phrases-melt-pied-muggy-meaning/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}) -- not knowing what being "muggy" or "melty" is
(disrespectful and soppy respectively) or that when someone is
"grafting" (putting in some hard work on a member of the opposite sex)
is tantamount to social suicide. Love Island gives the insiders' guide
to dating 21st-century style ([with reports of parents watching with
their
teens](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/bad-parent-watching-love-island-daughter/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} to find out about millenial attitudes to dating, love
and sex).

Feminist commentator and journalist Caitlin Moran penned a column for
The Times [in which she
claimed](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/love-island-celebrity-fans_uk_595a4740e4b05c37bb7f7f0d?guccounter=1){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} that watching shows like Love Island is "good for you",
particularly if you're a parent:

"These may be 'scripted reality shows', but they are, essentially,
amateur documentary recreations of what happens to you, over and over,
in your teens and twenties. That's why they're so popular. That's why
you need to watch them with your children."

#### Rules of attraction

While it's tempting to dismiss Love Island as just another reality show,
it is surprisingly a critical -- as well as a ratings -- success, even
from quarters which would normally be scornful of something like this.
In [a piece
headlined](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/04/sex-love-island-reality-show-tv-hit){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}: "Sun, Sex and Mugging Off: is it wrong to be watching
Love Island, The Guardian revealed a host of high-profile viewers for
whom Love Island 2017 was their "guilty secret".

The shamelessly low-rent show has been attracting [broadsheet think
pieces](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/trashy-escapism-innocent-time-celebrity-love-island-still-original/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} by columnists, who wouldn't normally watch reality TV
because they're far too busy listening to Radio 4 or reading worthy
doorstop novels, all hand-wringing about whether it's "wrong" to be
watching it.

> We asked our Islanders to draw their type on paper and the results
> were, err... interesting. 😂 <https://t.co/tukKJSmmdx>
> [\#LoveIsland](https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveIsland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> [pic.twitter.com/V6gLWxewd7](https://t.co/V6gLWxewd7)
>
> --- Love Island (@LoveIsland) [2. Juni
> 2018](https://twitter.com/LoveIsland/status/1002898879354982401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

When the show was [nominated for two
BAFTAs](https://metro.co.uk/2018/05/13/bafta-tv-awards-2018-winners-list-peaky-blinders-love-island-handmaids-tale-lead-way-7542907/),
the twittersphere erupted in [delight and outrage in equal
measures](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5576773/Love-Island-nominated-TV-BAFTA-Twitter-erupts-delight-fury-raunchy-show.html#ixzz5GVNbzlZ2).
Moran was left stunned, tweeting happily:

> It's the headline you never thought you'd see, but you're glad you
> did: Stormzy and Love Island nominated for a BAFTA:
> <https://t.co/qg6sgsTMGJ>
> [\#virgintvmustseemoment](https://twitter.com/hashtag/virgintvmustseemoment?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
>
> --- Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) [4. April
> 2018](https://twitter.com/caitlinmoran/status/981432778184187907?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

#### Start of something wonderful

Ratings, rather than critical success, is probably the reason so many
young people were thronging to ITV to be selected for the new show --
[80,000 people
applied](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2017/08/03/love-island-receives-80000-applications-lively-singles-hoping/)
within a week of applications opening.

So what will this series have in store? Show producers have promised a
longer run, but more of the same with some tricks up their sleeve, yet
to be revealed.

With islanders ready to declare their undying love and find "their type
on paper", will relationships last or become a summer fling with a
chance to make [millions as the newest reality
stars](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4727526/Love-Island-winners-set-leapfrog-earners.html).
Money and fame aside, the chances of forming a lasting relationship on
Love Island [appear to be pretty
slim](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jun/02/it-is-ridiculously-intense-in-there-the-creators-of-love-island-on-the-shows-return)
-- 2017's loved-up winners Kem and Amber did not even make it to the end
of the year.

Instead, the ultimate winners are ITV who have reportedly sold the
format for megabucks (reportedly [set to recoup £1
billion](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4695114/ITV-set-1BILLION-pay-selling-Love-Island-format.html)
from overseas versions). They say money can't bring you love, but as the
creators of this show would happily attest, the opposite certainly
appears to be true.

 

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**Lyndsay Duthie -- TV Executive Producer, Lecturer & Author. ** Lyndsay
Duthie is an executive producer with television credits for BBC, ITV,
Channel 4, Discovery Network and SKY. Her career began at ITV on talk
shows where she spent 10 years originating and producing hit series and
documentaries, becoming one of the country's youngest showrunners aged
23. Lyndsay has filmed a diverse range of documentary output ranging
from serial killers on Death Row to the UK's first 12-year-old dad. From
ITV Lyndsay moved to Endemol, before founding her own company Ice Blue
Media. She has served on the Board of Directors for Women in Film & TV
(WFTV) and judged at the Royal Television Society Awards and
International Emmys. In 2013 Lyndsay took up post as Head of the Film
and Television programme and Principal Lecturer for University of
Hertfordshire. Lyndsay is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
and winner of the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Education
for 3 years running (2013-2016). Lyndsay is Co-author of *The TV Studio
Production Handbook* published by I.B Tauris (2016) and a TV Critic for
publications; The Independent, BBC News and The Conversation. Lyndsay is
on the executive committee for the Royal Television Society (TVC).
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<em>
 This article was originally published on The Conversation on 4 June 2018.
</em>

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WHY LOVE ISLAND IS THE BEST KEPT GUILTY SECRET ON BRITISH TELEVISION