There was a time when ITV’s dating reality show Love Island was a cultural event that would happen every summer. People around the UK and many other parts of the world invested an hour of their life every day of the summer in the show and then some more for the drama and gossip.
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Winter Love Island dips in rating the most
However, fans may seem to have gotten bored of the show as Winter Love Island 2023 ratings plummeted to the lowest since the second series of the show, reported Daily Express. Only 1.1 million viewers turned in to see the final episode of the show that crowned Kai and Sanam as winners - which is a huge drop from the 2022 summer series’ 3 million viewers.
Following the dropped ratings of the show, bookmaker Coral has hinted that ITV may make Love Island’s upcoming summer series its last edition ever. They slashed the odds of scrapping the UK version of the show from 4/1 to 2/1. John Hill from Coral said:
ITV has already commissioned this summer’s upcoming Love Island series, but if the ratings continue to fall, they may have a big decision to make.
We have slashed the odds in half on season 10 being the last in the UK.
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While ratings, numbers and analysis are one thing to go by, a major fact still remains that much of the UK population wasn’t excited about the Winter Love Island series. According to MailOnline, people may be getting ‘bored with the same format’ and adding two or three - if we count Love Island spin-off - editions of the show may just make things worse.
Lily Freeman from W Communications a PR firm explained:
Love Island used to be a big cultural event that would happen every summer, something people would get excited about, but I think adding the winter edition takes some of that excitement away.
We know exactly what the format is going to be, and do we really want to watch an hour-long show of young people sitting around a villa? It's predictable!
This comes after this year’s winter series gave the least amount of boost to the Islanders’ social media. Where once Islander came back home to over a million followers, the most number of followers in this series was just 259k for Samie.
The pattern hints that even if people are getting tired of the show, putting an end to the winter edition and evolving the summer series with changing times would be a much smarter move for Love Island than axing it altogether. Regardless, the Love Island spin-off looks promising despite a major flaw in its format.
Read MoreLove Island spin-off sparks a new row amongst middle-aged 'single' people who already hate it
Sources Used
Daily Express: Love Island season 10 'could be the last' after falling ratings
Daily Mail: Is this the end of lucrative Love Island?
