Typically tawdry end to the Love Island circus
Champers in plastic glasses on a delayed Ryanair jet. What a...
IF they were hoping to emerge from eight weeks in the Majorcan sun to A-list luxury, Love Island’s contestants were likely to have been disappointed.
The tawdry circus finally came to an end last night in distinctly unglamorous circumstances – with the last couples flying home by Ryanair.
The scantily-clad singletons had been strutting their flawless physiques and boasting about their sexual exploits on the ITV dating show since early June.
The fourth series of the reality show has once again proved a smash hit, with an all-time ITV2 record of 3.6million viewers tuning in to watch Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham crowned winners on Monday night. But the Love Islanders’ new-found fame did not prevent them from being delayed by more than an hour on their Ryanair flight into Stansted Airport yesterday.
Once, they came through arrivals, however, their celebrity status was more apparent – with a screaming crowd of young fans battling to get selfies with their unlikely heroes. Previously, on board the flight, contestants quaffed several champagne miniatures out of plastic tumblers in spite of their budget surroundings. Fans were able to follow every step of their return journey on social media – including videos of the queue at bag drop and climbing up the plane stairs.
ITV2 will doubtless be thrilled at the ratings for this year’s final, which peaked at 4.1million.
Love Island once again broke the channel’s record for the mostviewed programme – beating last year’s final by almost one million. The show enjoyed an audience share of 19 per cent – more than six times the ITV2 average.
Three couples had sex on camera during the latest series and those who engaged in other explicit antics were inducted into what contestants crudely dubbed the ‘Do Bits Society’. Dozens of young men and women enter the private villa in Majorca hoping to ‘couple up’ with the person of their dreams – and win £50,000 by being voted the best couple.
While many would be embarrassed to showcase their bedroom exploits to the nation, contestants do so in the hope of later cashing in. The couples, regardless of how long they plan on continuing their summer romance, sign up for lucrative promotional work with clothing brands and, thanks to their gleaming white teeth, dental companies.
The winners, Dani, 22, and Jack, 26, were together from the start of the show and resisted engaging in any on-screen sex – at the request of Dani’s father, the EastEnders actor and renowned hardman Danny Dyer. Matt Nichols, an agent with United Agents who represents Gabby Allen from last year’s show, said the winning couple should earn up to £1million each in the next year.
So popular has the dating programme become among youngsters it now attracts more applicants than Oxford and Cambridge universities.
‘Broke ratings records’