Love Island (originally Celebrity Love Island) is a British reality television programme that was aired on ITV in 2005 and 2006. In the show, twelve single celebrities spend five weeks on an island in Fiji. The final couple remaining wins a combined £100,000.
History
It was originally presented by Patrick Kielty and Kelly Brook, with Fearne Cotton taking over as female host in the second series. The first series aired in the summer of 2005, and it was won by Jayne Middlemiss and Fran Cosgrave. The second series began in July 2006, dropping Celebrity from its name. It was won by Bianca Gascoigne and series one finalist Calum Best.
The theme tune for the first series was "Wish I", performed by Jem. A specially-composed summer theme by Daniel Pemberton (later released under the title "From Fiji with Love") was used for the second series.
Cancellation
Following disappointing ratings over the two spring-summer periods, the show was axed by ITV's director of television, Simon Shaps, in November 2006.
Revival series
On 13 February 2015, it was announced that the show would return on ITV2 in 2015 simply called Love Island. ITV's Director of Digital and Acquisitions Angela Jain confirmed the revived show would be revamped and would see non-celebrity contestants compete to survive a public vote each week.
It was later announced that Caroline Flack would host the reboot, starting on 7 June 2015. The reboot has been a ratings success for ITV2 and the show's format has spawned into an international franchise of the same name.
Format
Viewers would vote for the couple they would like to see in the "love shack" where the two would get to know one another better. In the first series, each week viewers voted celebrities off the island, but in the second, the inhabitants had the final say. The identities of those being kicked out were revealed in the elimination episodes. The prize for the final couple left standing was £50,000 each. The second series also featured the inhabitants having to cook and clean up after themselves to fight the appearance that they were just there for a free holiday.
Series overview
Series 1 (2005) The first series was broadcast during the summer of 2005.
The show attracted controversy from the moment it was announced by ITV. It was marketed as a rival for Channel 4's popular reality show, Big Brother, which returned for a sixth series soon after the show's launch. Following the launch of the show, the celebrities were criticised by viewers for being boring, and the celebrity status of some of the participants was questioned. There was some suspicion that the contestants were simply using the programme as a free holiday, and the tabloids claimed that producers held crisis meetings to figure out how to keep things interesting.
Soon afterwards, tabloid reports claimed that the show's presenters, Kelly Brook and Patrick Kielty, were engaged in a bitter feud. The problems between the pair allegedly started after Kielty told viewers on the live show that Brook had previously been involved in a relationship with one of the contestants, Paul Danan. However, even the promise of fireworks between the two hosts was not enough to keep viewers interested, and one episode of the show only attracted less than 2 million viewers. Producers later hired model Nikki Ziering to spice up the show.
The show was also resented by fans of long-running ITV soap Coronation Street. ITV decided to move its flagship programme from 19:30 to 20:30 on Monday nights, to provide a successful lead-in for Celebrity Love Island, in the hope of increasing ratings. Writers John Fay and Daran Little complained to the press about the treatment of the show. ITV argued that it took the decision to move the soap very seriously and only did so when absolutely necessary. A meeting was requested with ITV programming director Nigel Pickard to discuss the issue.
On 10 June 2005, although ratings were beginning to pick up, with the show close to overtaking Big Brother in popularity, a strong storm over the islands of Fiji disrupted the programme. A live eviction show had to be cancelled as six-foot waves made it impossible for crewmembers to cross over to where the celebrities were staying. Instead, ITV was forced to repeat the episode from the previous night with unseen footage.