Intro for June 18, 2025

Dear Gossips,    

Last year, Love Island USA season 6 became more popular than Love Island, the original in the UK. For a number of reasons – Ariana Madix coming on as host is one of them, she is delightful, I love her so much – but the main reason was the cast. The cast of Love Island USA season 6 is a Hall of Fame reality television cast, so entertaining and so popular and so endearingly chaotic that they’ve now gotten their own spinoff. 

It was always a question mark, then, coming into season 7 whether or not the producers could follow up with a cast that could bring the same magic and deliver on the drama. Wellllllll… 

The drama is there, it’s definitely f-cking there, but I wouldn’t call it magic. Mess? Totally. Magic? Not like last year…although for the network, the magic is in the numbers. According to Deadline, season seven surpassed the one billion minutes viewed mark after its second week, which is two weeks earlier than last year. So the gains from season six have not been lost in season seven. And we haven’t even gotten to Casa Amor and Movie Night yet. 

Much of this has to do with the twists that producers have added, the major one being giving America the power to vote for the bombshells last weekend. In the past, the audience has been asked to vote on who a bombshell should go on a date with – but this was next level: America was told that they could vote on who three bombshells would couple up with, thereby breaking up three pre-existing couples, resulting in mayhem. Not just in the villa but all over the timeline. Love Island season seven is as viral as season six was and what’s especially fascinating and meta AF is that the virality of it on the outside is having an impact on what’s happening on the inside. 

This is not just because Jeremiah and Huda learned through America’s vote that America hates him and her and them together, but because Ace has been pointing it out every chance he can get to tell America from the villa that he thinks the two of them are a scam. And now that Ace is aware, after America rearranged the couples, it’s only confirmed for him that the strategy is working. He’s only going to continue trying to puppeteer the situation until, of course, America decides to tell him about himself too. 

Because it’s not just Casa Amor and Movie Night that creates bedlam in the villa, remember there’s always a challenge where the islanders read social media commentary about themselves. Right now Jeremiah and Huda don’t know exactly why America isn’t f-cking with them, and both have been kinda delusional about who between them America objects to. But also Ace is oblivious too – he thinks his Mickey Mouse mind games have worked in their little bubble but he’s far from America’s favourite. And he's about to find out that the audience isn’t exactly impressed with him walking around thinking he’s the games master. 

Last season, in a piece for Vulture about the runaway popularity of Love Island USA season 6, Brian Moylan noted that it may have been in part because “everyone on Love Island USA is acting like no one is watching, and that might be the secret to this season’s success”. In the UK, islanders had started playing it too safe, not exploring connections, censoring themselves in their interactions. Refreshingly, in the American version for season six, the islanders were not moving with caution and the show was so much better for it. 

Interestingly though, in season seven, everybody is now keenly aware that everyone is watching, and some of them are still moving messy – maybe messier than ever. Like Huda is making Kaylor’s emotional outbursts from last season look like little bleats. Those who aren’t throwing tantrums, like Ace, seem to be speaking directly to the audience and trying to sway their votes and or actively serve up more drama, which has added another layer of strategic intrigue to a show that is supposed to be about the pure pursuit of finding love. 

Last night’s recoupling really brought that home when, after complaining about arguably the most toxic person in the villa for the whole day, most of the islanders decided to keep her around, literally one of the most WTFFFFFFF moments in the show’s history. And, again, we’re only about halfway through the season! So those billion-plus minutes that this season has logged so far, that’s not the ceiling. Not even close. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey