Love Island bosses were smiling after the launch of the show’s fifth series was watched by a record average of 3.3 million viewers.
Last year’s first show attracted an audience of 2.9 million, continuing a steady increase in launch-night figures for the ITV2 series each year since 2015.
Tonight, the group, including surfer Lucie Donlan, took part in a challenge that saw them slide through slime while guessing which of their new partners had a secret.
Meanwhile, surprise late entrants Tommy Fury and Curtis Pritchard – the brothers of former heavyweight boxing champ Tyson Fury and Strictly star AJ Pritchard – got to choose which girls they wanted to couple up with, from five previously formed pairings.
Tommy stole Lucie from her partner, sandwich entrepreneur Joe Garratt.
But the initial pairings were not without controversy.
Former Love Island contestant Marcel Somerville has describing having “flash backs” to being picked last in the 2017 series after Monday saw contestants chef Sherif Lanre, cancer vaccine biologist Yewande Biala and fireman Michael Griffiths left until last to be coupled.
Marcel posted: “Black guy, black girl and mixed race guy all left unpicked. Mad!!!”
Sherif and Michael were relegated to the “subs” bench in the opening episode, while Yewande wasn’t picked by any of the five male contestants and was partnered with Michael.
Sherif picked Anna Vakili. The pair shared a first kiss in tonight’s task and Sherif later gushed: “I’m really happy with the choice I made. The subs bench worked for me!”
Speaking to the Mirror, Marcel, 31, said he feels black contestants can start Love Island on the “back foot”.
He said of the coupling up: “You can’t pin it on one thing, but it’s a strange coincidence. I read my online comments and someone said, ‘the show isn’t necessarily catered for black contestants – we all know they’re going to have a harder time surviving’. It’s a valid point.”
He added: “I’ve not been brought up being told I’m any different to anyone else. I never ever really look at race, but based on the show, you feel like some people still do.
“The UK is an amazing place, it’s a multicultural society, but from viewing Love Island for the last three years, you feel like there is still an element of difference between the different races.”
Marcel did praise the show, though, adding: They’ve definitely tried to broaden the diversity in it and I commend them for it.”
- Love Island is at 9pm on ITV2.
