‘I’ve got a teeeext!’
Okay, no I haven’t… but I have got some great news in that ITV bosses are launching a Winter Love Island, a source confirmed today (June 17).
After this year’s viewing figures shot through the roof, producers reportedly decided to extend the series so it covers another – admittedly less sunny – season.
ITV are currently crewing up for the winter version of the reality show, which will be filmed in South Africa using the same format.
A source told The Sun:
After the flop of Survival of the Fittest producers want to keep the format simple and mop up the gaping hole Celebrity Big Brother left reality TV hungry audiences.
Winter Love Island makes sense as fans adore the drama and love triangles and everyone wants to enjoy a bit of sun on screens in the cold winter months.
It’s still in the very early stages and casting isn’t even close, but producers at ITV Studios and crew are definitely gearing up for it.
The new, exciting format of Love Island is set to be filmed after Christmas to fill the Celebrity Big Brother-sized shape in our lives.
This year’s first episode – which saw 12 singletons enter the villa in the hope of finding love (or lust) – was seen by a record 5.9 million on ITV2, PC, tablet, and mobile. This figure was up a massive 16 per cent compared to last year.
And who can blame us? With the seemingly thousands of love triangles flying around the villa, Tommy’s old Facebook getting discovered, and new girl Maura Higgins causing quite the stir in her first few days, there’s certainly no shortage of drama.
The possibility of a Winter Love Island raises so many questions: will the contestants be wearing woolly jumpers instead of bikinis? Will they be sipping on hot chocolates all day to warm themselves up? And will the swimming pool be swapped for a sauna?
More importantly, when is the new reality show getting on our tellies so we can watch it immediately?! Seriously, I hope they don’t expect us to wait until next year.
UNILAD contacted ITV reps who said they had ‘nothing to add at present’. Ah well, I guess we’ll just have to make do with this lot for now.
Love Island continues on ITV2 tonight at 9pm.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).