Since the last Love Island winners were announced, it has only been a few weeks, but it is time to open the villa doors once more.
The tenth season of the ITV2 dating program premieres on Monday night, and the show's creators are hoping that it will be more popular with viewers than its winter season.
The show had lower audiences and less online discussion than previous seasons, despite the positive response to the new host Maya Jama.
Half as many people watched the first night of the summer series in 2022 as did the premiere episode, which had 1.2 million viewers.
ITV's decision to forbid contestants' social media accounts from being managed by friends or family while they were on the show in 2023 was a significant change.
To safeguard islanders and those close to them from online harassment and abuse, this policy of dormant accounts was implemented.
The drawback, according to Nikki Onafuye, a pop culture and reality TV writer, is that savvy contestants can no longer take advantage of carefully managed accounts to increase viewership or engagement.
According to her, the appeal of Love Island is the discussion that starts at 21:00 every night on Twitter.
"You'll recall that [2022 contestant] Ikenna Ekwonna's cousin was tweeting the funniest things, producing reactive content, and trending on Twitter. This proves how difficult it is to manage your social media when you don't have friends or family to help. ".
Because they are no longer the same age as the show's contestants, Ms. Onafuye, 27, said her friendship group's interest in the program has undoubtedly waned.
As she explained, "[In 2017] we would watch the series because we were looking for love, we'd see romance on screen and hope we'd one day end up having that.".
"But now that our generation has been in those various kinds of relationships, we can see that what happens on Love Island is fake to us; it's not real life. ".
While Love Is Blind and Married at First Sight have captured their interest, Ms. Onafuye claimed that her friends still adore reality television.
"My friends are starting a new phase of their lives; we are considering houses, children, and marriage, and I believe the core audience of Love Island is doing the same.
With these dating programs, she said, "you see real relationships where people are more interested in listening to one another, not just looking at physical attraction.".
With about 3.5 million viewers per night, Love Island's viewership reached its peak between 2017 and 2019.
The islanders who were most well-liked frequently left the villa with more than a million Instagram followers, giving them an immediate platform to start an influencer career.
A lot of the contestants, including Molly-Mae Hague in 2019 and Olivia Attwood in 2017 and Dr. Alex George in 2018, became well-known names.
The sudden fame that many previous contestants experienced on social media appears to have come to an end thanks to ITV's new social media policies, as many members of the cast of series nine who left the show with about 100,000 followers.
This makes things "more fair," according to Jemma Epstein, a talent manager at the agency DDA who works with content producers.
"People from completely different industries go on a reality TV programme and come out [and] are offered incredible money and major brand deals, when their content before was just selfies in the mirror," she said, according to the BBC.
Because they frequently endorse fast fashion companies and other brands that do not reflect their individuality or personal interests, she claimed that reality TV contestants struggle to come across as "genuine and authentic.".
"Contestants won't be aware of what's going on with their accounts that friends back home are running," she continued. "They'll just sign up to a management agency and set up big brand endorsements on their behalf.".
The reality TV influencer model has been declining in popularity for some time, according to Ms. Epstein, as consumers seek greater authenticity online, despite ITV's new social media policies.
The BBC quoted her as saying, "The creators we look after aren't here for fame; they want to provide a really positive, uplifting message to inspire and help people.
"We want to ensure that our creators motivate their viewers, inspire their audiences, and only promote goods they are passionate about rather than accepting deals for the sake of money. ".
Her agency is "open" to working with reality stars, she continued, but it depends on their objectives and "what kind of work they want to be doing."
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