Love Island Leaves CBS and Jumps To Peacock!
Guess what? Love Island has a new home in the United States.
Don’t expect to see Love Island season 4 on CBS, oh no, the series beautiful people try to find love surrounded by cameras on a beautiful island will be on Peacock…
Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/CBS Entertainment
CelebnReality247.com reports after three seasons, Love Island has decided to dump CBS and will instead couple up with Peacock, which has ordered two seasons of the reality competition, the first of which will premiere this summer.
With Peacock, that means that there are some changes coming to the show.
Peacock’s announcement referenced “a highly competitive situation,” and The Hollywood Reporter’s Rick Porter reports that “CBS broached scaling back the number of hours in a fourth season of Love Island. ITV balked at that idea and took the show back to the market, where Peacock outbid several other outlets.”
In the press release, ITV America CEO David George called that “an unprecedented deal for an unscripted brand.”
He added that Peacock and NBCUniversal have a “strategy to grow the show, utilizing the greater NBCU television portfolio and other platforms to help propel the series. That dedication, coupled with a two-season commitment on Peacock, sealed the deal.”
Peacock did not say if Love Island will be free to watch, or behind its paywall.
CBS’s three seasons of Love Island all filmed in different places: Fiji, Las Vegas, and the same Hawaiian villa that an MTV show used.
For its fourth U.S. season, Love Island will move again: The new seasons will be filmed in California, and the first will premiere this summer, with Love Island’s usual “multiple episodes debuting weekly in real time,” as Peacock said.
Its format will remain basically the same, though Peacock is promising “more than 80 episodes” across two seasons, which means about 40 episodes per season—more than CBS (which had 22 the first season, 34 in the second, and 29 during season three).
As a broadcast network, CBS was limited to what it can show, but Peacock suggests that its version will be spicier, literally, with “naughtier games and steamier challenges.”
Peacock EVP Jenny Groom said in the press release that Love Islan:
…is primed for a streaming service like Peacock where we can push boundaries and bring viewers steamy and dramatic twists. The series took pop culture by storm after the UK format found fans across the world, and we are thrilled to be able to bring an all-new version to Peacock this summer anchoring our unscripted slate.
It’s unclear if current narrator Matthew Hoffman (who I contend is the best part of the show) or host Arielle Vandenberg (who was rarely used) will be part of Peacock’s version.
CBS’s version was produced by ITV, which is also producing Peacock’s version.
