Love Island has become the latest victim of the global pandemic.
Depending on your outlook, this is either the best news you’ve heard in weeks, or another body blow in an already difficult year. ITV2’s hit reality dating show/endless source of meme fodder Love Island has officially been cancelled for 2020, due the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
It’s an unsurprising decision – given that Love Island is filmed in Mallorca and getting a group of amorous twenty-somethings out there purely in pursuit of dramz can’t really be classed as “essential travel” – but still a heavy blow for the crowds of viewers who’d turned it into a ratings hit. ITV’s Director of Television, Kevin Lygo, said “We have tried every which way to make Love Island this summer but logistically it’s just not possible to produce it in a way that safeguards the wellbeing of everyone involved”.
A fair point; introducing a contagious virus into a villa full of singletons would actually make for a pretty gripping episode of ‘Black Mirror’, but for a weeknight dating show in which the aim is to come back with a partner rather than an infectious disease, it’s perhaps a tad too much. Lygo promised a return for Love Island in 2021, but for now, fans of the show will have to take solace in past seasons, or steamy replacements such as Netflix‘s Too Hot To Handle.