After weeks of build-up, ITV2’s brand new reality show The Cabins–tipped to be ‘the new Love Island’–has finally arrived. The first episode aired on Monday night and saw Olivia and Tom, Charlotte and Sarah and Sofia and Abraham coupling up to spend their first 24 hour date in private, luxury log cabins.
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However, there was one ‘twist’ that most viewers seemed to hate–the contestants had their phones on them. All the way through the episode, we saw the daters messaging and calling their friends and family to let them know how the date was going. Whilst this led to a couple of juicy moments of eavesdropping, it also meant some awkward silences as both daters had their heads in their phones.
‘Who came up with this???’
Judging by Twitter, the phones were not a popular feature. One viewer tweeted:
I’m not loving the phone convos with outside people, ngl. Should be like a weekly call or something’ while another said ‘nahhh why are they constantly on their phones who came up with this eh???
Meanwhile, one user pointed out the irony, tweeting:
I love how we are all on our phones, complaining about the phones on this show.
Whilst all the contestants have phones on Love Island, these are cut off from the outside world and used only for Islanders to receive texts from the production team–you know, when they scream ‘I’ve got a text!’ or, in the case of Ovie Soko, ‘Message!’ Meanwhile, Channel 4’s First Dates often features daters taking a bathroom break to phone friends or relatives with an update.
What’s happening in The Cabins episode 2?
The second episode of The Cabins will see the daters we met in episode 1 decide whether to stay another day together. The official episode synopsis reads:
One of the group's motives come under question, romance blossoms elsewhere, and insecurities could rear their head and bring someone's luxurious stay to a premature end.