Photo: Love Island / Twitter
Photo: Love Island / Twitter
One of the most-watched shows in Britain will be bringing its camera crews and contestants to the shores of South Africa in 2020, as the production team behind Love Island attempts to establish a “winter” season of its show.
New Love Island location revealed… It’s Mzansi!
It’s hard to describe Love Island to the uninitiated, but we’ll give it a go. The popular ITV reality show puts a group of young singletons in one stunning holiday location, with contestants vying to find romance. The pair who make the best couple at the end of the show are crowned the winners and get awarded £50 000 (R867 000) for their troubles.
It sounds basic on its premise, but it has become essential prime-time viewing in Blighty. The drama, the in-fighting and level of cunning it takes to navigate the choppy waters of love make for some sensational TV, and Mzansi now has the honour of playing host to this spectacle.
What you need to know about Love Island
- There have been four seasons of the show so far, with the fifth and sixth season taking place before the end of next year.
- A peak audience of six million viewers tuned in to the most recent season, which will soon conclude.
- South African viewers can watch Love Island by tuning into M-Net (DStv 101) at 23:05 on weekdays.
Why South Africa?
Paul Mortimer is ITV’s Head of Digital Channel and Acquisitions. He told British publication Deadline that the decision to implement two seasons of Love Island in one year was a “no-brainer”, and hailed South Africa as a “luxurious location”, which brings the heat during the British winter. Hey, we’ll still take the compliment:
“Love Island has proven yet again to be the perfect format that engages younger audiences. In response to this viewer appetite, a new batch of young singletons will deliver some highly anticipated post-Christmas romance and drama from our new and luxurious location.”
Paul Mortimer
Wait, shouldn’t they be on an actual island?
Now, the more astute readers out there will be thinking one thing in particular: South Africa is not an island. Unless we’re going to slam all these twenty-somethings up in Mandela’s jail cell, choosing Mzansi doesn’t give the show’s title a literal meaning.
But there are plenty of lush locations on the coast that would make for the perfect exotic getaway. Whether it’s the opulent streets of Camps Bay or the pristine beaches of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa can certainly hold a candle to the programme’s previous locations. And if that fails, we could always send them to one of our Antarctic territories.
