Intro for July 7, 2025

Dear Gossips,   

Spoilers for Love Island USA ahead…

Because Cierra has left the villa, like Yulissa before her – with no explanation, so I’m not sure we can say that the issue has been addressed. We’ve yet to hear from Cierra, though her family has issued a statement saying that as of last night, she’s not home yet and is still largely unaware of the widespread reaction to her past racist comments. There’s a bigger conversation to be had eventually about accountability and public reckoning but we can do that later, when the temperature isn’t as high. For now, let’s talk about production and the impact that Cierra’s departure had on the island and the show. 

The remaining islanders looked shellshocked. Though they were likely given a day off from filming, and instructed not to engage much with the Cierra problem once they resumed, you could tell from their energy, everyone was low. As many viewers have noted, Nic is still there, which means he chose not to leave with Cierra, which people are taking to Mean Something. 

If he had left with Cierra, though, he’d be accused of siding with and enabling a person who’s been exposed for racist behaviour. But now, by not leaving, people are assuming he didn’t care all that much about Cierra anyway, opening the door to Nicolandria… which is what so many fans have been hoping for. 

So the question is… what was he told, what were all of them told? Was he advised by production that it was not in his best interest to leave? Given how this season has developed, with no real strong connections, and so much of the audience side-eyeing the producers’ decisions and also some of the islanders for their actual motivations, I’m not sure anyone really cares at this point which couples will make it. At least I don’t. What I care about is what all these islanders will have to say when they leave, and immediately book appearances on podcasts and whatever talk shows will have them. Because what we all want to know has nothing to do with romance but what happened behind the scenes: how they were informed, how did they react, what options were they presented with, none of which will be discussed at the reunion episode, if there even is one. 

Love Island USA S7 is bringing in big numbers for Peacock, bigger than last season which has been widely acknowledged to be the best, out of all Love Islands worldwide. Technically, is a win for the platform. But the widespread consensus is also that this season is much less entertaining, too overproduced and divisive. Basically the trust isn’t there, not just in the islanders but, perhaps more importantly, in the production itself. It was always going to be a challenge to meet expectations after season six, but they tried to confront that challenge by doing too much when it was unnecessary, resulting in fumble after fumble, and then not doing enough when they should have interfered sooner. 

If only they’d put microphones on themselves during the post-mortem because at this point, that’s the how I really want to watch. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey