Circle the date: this will undeniably go down in history as the day that Love Island went off the boil. It has been announced that Love Island will now consist of two runs a year: the usual summer edition, plus a new winter series. That is exactly – at least – twice as much Love Island as anyone actually wants.
Although the show has been enormously popular, this has to be the end of it, because nothing kills television like overexpansion. Take Big Brother, a once unmissable show that got carried away by its success and started spurting out multiple versions a year, each serving only to dilute the appeal of the last.
Or The X Factor which – as hard as it is to believe these days – was once the biggest show on television. You can pinpoint exactly when it died: when Simon Cowell’s eyes got too big for his stomach and he abandoned the British series to launch a half-hearted American version. That never took off, because the US market was already saturated with similar shows, and the British series lost its way, because it had Gary Barlow as a judge.
This doesn’t just apply to reality show formats. Scripted television also falls apart whenever it attempts too much, either by spinning off into a new show, or moving beyond the source material. Look at The Walking Dead, which attempted to build a universe with Fear the Walking Dead, but ended up dooming both shows to mediocrity. Big Little Lies has suffered hugely from trying to expand on author Liane Moriarty’s original intentions, as has The Handmaid’s Tale, which loses potency with every second it goes beyond the endpoint of Margaret Atwood’s novel.
Even Queer Eye is showing signs of diminishing returns, because there are only so many times a person can be told to love themselves and buy big-print short-sleeved shirts.
Love Island, though, will suffer the most. Right now it feels like a collective holiday for the nation. Stick it on too often and it will become a chore. And there must be logistical issues, too: like, could there possibly be enough nimrods in the country to sustain the new winter series? And will anyone watch it if they’re all going to have to wear more clothes?
