Reality dating show “Love Island‘ is edited based on social media responses to the contestants an ITV exec has revealed.
“Social media is part of the success of ‘Love Island,’” Angela Jain, director of unscripted U.K. at ITV Studios told Channel 4 boss during a panel at the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge on Wednesday.
“One of the smartest decisions we made right at the very beginning was to embed the digital team on location with the [‘Love Island’] production team in Majorca to create a feedback loop,” Jain explained. “Effectively the team are monitoring social media to really understand how the viewer is responding to the content and we would change — as we are able to because this is a fast turnaround show — we were able to change the editorial if we felt that one character was coming to the foreground more than the other and we would respond to it.”
“What that meant was it was much easier for us to get a direct connection to the young audience because we were talking to them where they were and that’s really important.”
Mahon asked what the digital team were specifically looking for online, for example whether they were monitoring the audience’s sentiment towards certain characters. “Absolutely and it created an amazing feedback loop which was very immediate and it’s been absolutely one of the cornerstones of the format,” Jain replied. “It’s sold in 27 countries now.”
“Love Island” has become a juggernaut for ITV after being rebooted in 2015. The dating format sees a group of genetically blessed young contestants aged between 18 and 27 marooned in a sumptuous villa in Majorca, Spain for around two months each summer. The “Islanders,” as they’re known, are slowly eliminated until one couple is crowned the show’s winner. As well as being sold across the world, including in the U.S., the U.K. show has introduced an additional winter series, filmed in South Africa.
Jain told Mahon she never expected the series to be such a hit. “It was a show I commissioned for ITV2. I wasn’t thinking ‘I can sell this in 27 countries.’ It was very much made for a young audience that watched ITV2.”
The ITV Studios exec also flagged the importance of duty of care, saying the company ensure it is as important in the international versions of the show as in the U.K. Over the last few years ITV has emphasized duty of care after “Love Island” was hit by a series of tragedies, including the deaths of two former contestants and its host Caroline Flack.
