WHAT NOW FOR LOVE ISLAND?

BY SARAH MANAVIS, NEW STATESMAN ’S TECH AND DIGITAL CULTURE WRITER

Every year, Love Island viewers lose their collective minds in anticipation of the annual Twitter challenge – where Islanders read out often misleading tweets that reveal what the public really thinks about them. It is guaranteed to lead to drama. For years, ITV has come under fire for the obvious distress the Twitter challenge causes. So it’s ironic that, this year, Love Island changed the game for the first time – instead of hearing what random people with 50 followers thought, the Islanders instead discovered what national news sites were printing to readerships of millions. The challenge aired just three days before the news broke that former Love Island

host Caroline Flack had died.

For Love Island to carry on in a way that isn’t harmful, the show would need to strip back drastically: removing damaging challenges and implementing serious physical and emotional protections. Many of these things could be achieved without taking out the drama of Love Island.

But to create a truly non-harmful dating show, you’d have to take out the things that make Love Island worth watching. No more Casa Amor, no more orchestrated arguments. The problem with Love Island is that most of what makes it watchable is what makes it harmful. So to make Love Island

ethical, you have to make it boring.

Arguably, the show’s existence has been morally questionable for some time. And while Caroline’s death doesn’t make that case new, it does perhaps make it more urgent.