25,000 apply for next year’s Love Island – in a week

IT has only just finished dominating our screens, but young hopefuls are already queuing up in their thousands to take part in the next series of Love Island.

Host Caroline Flack has disclosed that – barely a week after the series finale – applications for the dating show have topped 25,000.

A total of 85,000 applied for the ITV2 reality show last year, hoping for a chance to battle it out for the £50,000 prize.

In comparison, Oxford University receives 19,000 applications each year, while Cambridge gets just under 17,000.

Appearing on Love Island: The Reunion on Sunday with this year’s 8 contestants, Miss Flack said: ‘If you think you have what it takes to flirt outrageously with people like this lot, then applications for next year are now open. We’ve already had 25,000 people register.’

To apply for the show, prospective contestants must submit their job title and several photos – including a full body shot – and a video. Speaking to Cosmopolitan, Love Island casting agent Lewis Evans said: ‘We also cast our net far and wide by looking at social media profiles.’

Viewing figures for this year’s series broke ITV2 records, with .6million fans tuning in to last month’s live final and 2.5million people voting for their favourite couple on the night.