The Business Secrets Behind the ‘Love Island’ Juggernaut

0:04This episode of The Town is presented by HBO Max. HBO Max presents The Pit, nominated for 26 Emmy Awards, including outstanding drama series. The staff of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center juggle personal crises, workplace politics, and high emotions in this Emmy-winning drama series. Don't miss the series USA Today called The Absolute Best Show on TV. The Pit is now streaming on HBO Max. This episode is brought to you by Netflix, presenting The Diplomat, now nominated for seven Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series. Variety lauds it the finest chapter of The Diplomat to date, and AFI hails it the TV program of the year, starring Emmy nominee and actor award winner Kerry Russell, alongside dynamic performances from Emmy nominees lead actor Rufus Sewell, supporting actress Allison Janney, and guest actor Bradley Whitford.

0:55With Emmy-nominated writing from Deborah Kahn, Decider calls The Diplomat a masterclass in storytelling. It is Wednesday, August 19th. Everyone in Hollywood loves a big, fat hit. And in television right now, there's pretty much no bigger hit these days than Love Island. At its peak in July on Peacock, the U.S. version of the show generated 2 billion minutes viewed in a single week, according to Nielsen, blowing away everything else in streaming. And the previous season was the most watched streaming original of 2025, according to Luminate. On the most recent Comcast earnings call, executives specifically called out three things for helping ratings.

1:34World Cup, NBA playoffs, and Love Island. Hot people hooking up is basically sports now. And this show sometimes airs five or six nights a week. 36 episodes over six weeks, all produced in real time. What's interesting about this show is that it wasn't an overnight success. It's based on a British format that caught on ITV after a couple seasons Then the US version was first on CBS for three seasons Nobody really cared Then it moved to Peacock, got a little racier Didn't do much until its sixth season broke out And then last year's seventh season erupted Largely thanks to social media Now it's among the biggest brands at unscripted TV With a reunion set to air August 31st Again on Peacock I'm sure that'll be huge Overseeing Love Island production is David George He's the CEO of ITV America, which is the U.S.

2:25arm of the U.K.-based TV conglomerate. George was instrumental in the U.S. sale of the format back in 2018. He still oversees the property and a bunch of other shows like Queer Eye. He came to ITV more than a decade ago when the company bought Leftfield Pictures, which makes Pawn Stars. I love talking about the unscripted TV business, so David George is here today, and we're going to get into the anatomy of a massive hit, What the market is like these days for selling reality shows and why this particular show, Love Island, took off like it did. From The Ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Bellany and this is The Town.

3:02Okay, we are here with David George, CEO of ITV America. Congratulations on your Emmy nomination, David. Your Emmy nominated Love Island. Yes. You know, I never thought those two things would go together, but I'm certainly happy. Happy for Ariana in particular. Yes. Absolutely. Well, congrats to her. All right. It's about time we did a Love Island episode because it is one of the biggest shows in TV. And it's had a pretty fascinating journey to get here. First of all, who actually owns the show? because we do a lot of, you know, one of our North Stars on this show is how to get rich in entertainment.

3:45And most of the time, it comes back to ownership. The really rich people own the shows, get a piece of the movie, and ITV owns Love Island? Who owns it? Yes, ITV owns Love Island, the brand of Love Island. Yes. Okay. What about the actual creators of the show? Was it a work for hire? format creation situation or are there creators that are getting paid on every episode uh no it was a show that was developed in the uk um many years ago it actually started out as a celebrity based show um way way back in the day wait the celebrities would hook up yeah well there were celebrities going into the into the villa so it was it was that style of show um and the show actually went dormant it was off air for quite some time um and then it was recommissioned to be on itv2 so not even the main network it was itv2 and motion content came in as well and they they helped support the show from a from a finance standpoint okay so they have a piece yeah and and so ultimately um you know the show was brought back you know on itv2 and you know you talk about the trajectory of the show, it didn't really come out of the gate gangbusters.

5:07It did okay in the UK, but it took a few seasons for it really to start hitting the cultural zeitgeist there. And I think, you know, we've seen that pattern kind of around the world and all the different territories that it's in. You know, it takes a little bit. Yeah, I want to talk about that a little because why is that? Why? Because, you know, these days you don't often get second and third chances to prove the value of a format why did it not catch on for a while and then why did you guys keep getting chances to have it on the air well look i think the show always showed promise like it was growing season to season and so i think it was always a battle to get the show picked up again and i can give you i can take you back to the history of how this show got into the u.s because it's actually kind of fascinating but um you know love island is a lesson in patience from my standpoint, because the show itself doesn't really fit into any bucket of what a cabler or a broadcaster or a streamer would want.

6:06Hot people hooking up is universal. I don't care what you say. It is. It is. Also, hot people being rejected makes great television, too. I always say that. It does. It does. Back in 2018, we decided we were bringing this in, and we actually originally sold it to MTV. Huh. Back when MTV bought shows? Yes. Shockingly enough, they bought it. And we were preparing because if you look at the show format, there's so many episodes. The reason I say it doesn't fit well is because it's really expensive for a cabler to afford, right? And for a broadcaster, there's so many episodes of it, it's hard for them to find the real estate in their programming schedule to actually do it properly.

6:47You really got to commit. Yeah. And then in 2018, like the streaming business was really like, you know, we don't do this size commit, like we don't do this many hours in streaming, like we're six to 10, you know, like that's what we do. So it didn't really fit any perfect model, but we were excited to bring it to MTV. And it actually ended up getting killed. And it got killed when management changed there. You know, there was a mandate that said, we need to invest in shows that we own. So we're going to talk about that topic because that to me is the hottest topic in reality TV these days, this question of ownership.

7:22But so they didn't want it because they didn't own it. That was what I was told. Yes. So they basically paid us to go away. And I was like, OK, we're back to that. We're back to the drawing board here. And then CBS came in and, you know, we were kind of like sister company. Yeah, sister company. But, you know, they weren't as they weren't as close as they, you know, they they're kind of step step step children, if that makes sense. They don't always get along at that point. But it was interesting because CBS came in and we were like, Love Island on CBS. Like, I don't know if Tom Selleck's the right lead in.

7:51You know what I mean? Like, definitely a different thing. But, you know, they really wanted to try the show. We wanted to get it away here in the U.S. and we couldn't really find the perfect dance partner. And so... You know, that's what people said about Survivor and Big Brother also. Really? The Tiffany Network is going to air Big Brother? Yeah. And 25 years later, it's still going strong. Well, they saw it as a great Big Brother companion because they do lots of episodes on Big Brother. And they also saw it as a way to potentially age down the network. And so, you know, we went into that really thinking like, okay, let's give this a shot.

8:24And the show did okay, you know, for a few seasons, you know, it didn't really find that demographic that we wanted it to. And I think that contributed to the slowness of it because we were producing it for a broadcast network, which, you know, in all honesty, like CBS is an older demographic. And so you have to balance the kind of, you know, edgy nature of what the show is with the rules and the standards in broadcast. And so, you know, a lot of blurring, a lot of blurring. There were a lot of like, you know, the thongs had to be of a certain length, if that makes sense. No, you got a thong sensor.

8:57Yeah, well, we couldn't even have thongs. So that was the big thing. Oh, wow. What is Love Island without thongs? I don't know, man. That's what it was. But, you know, the show did fine, and they actually wanted to pick it up for another season. But ultimately, you know, it ended up being a real financial conundrum for them, and they wanted to do it fewer nights, and they wanted Paramount Plus to figure out how they could contribute to it as well. And it just got really kind of messy with CBS. And, you know, ultimately, what ended up happening was there was a clause in the contract that basically said, if you do something that fundamentally changes the format or you ask for something that fundamentally changes the format, you know, it comes back to us.

9:42And so, you know, we had conversations with CBS about it. And, you know, they were actually great. CBS were great partners through the whole thing. And they said, well, we'll let you take it back out to Marketplace as long as you can get like a similar deal to what we have. Did they have any schmuck insurance on it where they get a piece of it still to this day? No. Wow. When we took it out, it was supposed to go to Hulu. And we knew that Hulu was really going to be interested in it because the UK version had been working pretty well there. And so we were in deep negotiations with Hulu to bring it there, like almost all the way down.

10:22and I got a phone call from NBC and it was Susan Rovner, it was Sharon Vong and it was Jenny Groom and they said, we hear that this format is available and I was like, well, yeah, but we haven't really taken it to market and we're kind of deep in negotiations with somebody and they're like, well, let us come to you and pitch you. So they came to me and said, they brought what was called a symphony proposal. I don't know if you know what a symphony proposal is, Oh, yeah. The Comcast Symphony. We know all about that. The Comcast Symphony, yes. The major deck with all the big brands. And that won you over?

11:01Here's what I would say. I was like, okay, this is interesting. And we had produced Love Island with Sharon at CBS. So there was a comfort level with her understanding the format. Yeah. But I was also very nervous because I was like, this is Peacock. This is a brand new, this platform is very untested. Yes. And, you know, I was like, look, like I can't have another swing and miss here. If this show doesn't work, you know, the format may die here in the U.S. And so, you know, I just had this like this feeling that like it was going to be better creatively at Peacock because they do more unscripted and they understand the show and all of that stuff.

11:38So I called Susan and I said, I want to do Love Island with you, but you're not going to get the show. And I said, the reason you're not going to get the show is because, you know, Peacock is not as established of a service as the other place that we are. And I said, but if you commit to two seasons. Oh, there you go. You know, I go, then, you know, we can potentially bring you the show. With the budget. I mean, the journal reported that it's$40 million a season, which is high for an unscripted show. And they committed to that? She called me back the next day and said, we're going to give you the two full seasons.

12:18And I called Hulu and I said, are you guys going to do two seasons? And they said no. And that was how it landed on Peacock. Was there a thong commitment as well? Well, what's interesting was like when they first talked to me about it, like they basically were like, they wanted it to be on NBC. And I was like, I was like, well, what about Peacock? And they're like, you'd consider putting it on Peacock? And I said, well, yeah. And they were like, okay, that's great. And in the back of my head, I'm like... Why not both, though? Well, Peacock solves both of the issues that I ran into at CBS, right?

12:52It's real estate. They can do five, six nights a week, no problem, right? Also, it needs to be an edgy show to work. Like, to get to that younger demographic, it can't be kind of a watered-down version of what the show is supposed to be. And I knew at Peacock, we could edge this thing up. We could go for it. we could really, really, you know, creatively go for what the core of the show was supposed to be. Well, that was going to be my next question, is why do you think it works? I asked this of Chris Cullen of Love is Blind as well. And it's a fascinating question in the unscripted space because, as you know, there are so many formats and there are so many swings in this arena, and yet certain formats become these franchises.

13:38so what about the current incarnation of love island in your opinion is why it's so big my history in unscripted like the first show i ever did was this show called trl back in the day if you remember of course you'll have to talk to me about that yeah i was after school kid watching trl carson carson daly yeah backstreet boys all yeah and and it's the show that i actually psyched the most when i'm talking about love island because it created this connection with the fans, right? And so on TRL, like the fans were so frenzied about any particular artist, right? Like they would vote for this artist and I have to be about this artist and I don't like this other artist.

14:20And that connection to the audience is the critical part of any unscripted show, how the creative actually connects back into the audience. I helped create the show alone back when I was at Leftfield. And that also has the same type of thing where you identify with the people who are in that situation. And when I look at Love Island, to me, it is so culturally relevant right now because dating for the younger generation is so different than what it was like for you and I growing up. It's like, it happens on your phone. You just got through COVID. There's no human interaction. And Love Island is this grand dating experiment in a bubble that you're basically watching with your friends and you're picking out who you want to root for and who you want to vote for.

15:10It's American Idol for hooking up. A hundred percent. Like everybody can relate to somebody who is in that villain, what they're going through and why they become friends with somebody or why they don't like somebody. and so it creates that kind of digital and social chatter um you know that really really like creates community around it and you can see it in the watch parties and you know all of these things that are happening peripheral to the show now there's this insane connection to these people who are going in there and experiencing this like dating experiment on steroids yeah it seems to me these days that you really can't have a reality hit on any kind of scale without a huge social component.

15:54We saw this with Dancing with the Stars over the past couple seasons, where that is the definition of an old, stodgy show. But they managed to cast social media stars and people that had followings and were doing TikTok dances and things like that. And lo and behold, the most recent season went through the roof on the ratings because people could follow along. And that's kind of what the expectation is nowadays for fans of unscripted shows is that they need to be following along on their social platforms as well. Yeah, it one drives the other, right? Like we, what I would say to what's very unique about Love Island is because we produce this show in real time.

16:37You know, it's, it's turned in, you know, 24 to 32 hours. You have to watch, you, you, you know, you have to stay up on it if you want to be a part of the conversation. Otherwise you're going to get left behind. And so that drives so much social chatter, which then drives people back to watch the show every single night. And, you know, it was, it was done by design like that, that is, that was the format design. And, you know, the question I get from all the buyers now is like, well, how can I get a love Island? Like, how do I make a love Island? And I'm like, you got to be patient. You got to grow these things.

17:08You got to you got to nurture these types of things because there's not enough patience now in our marketplace. It's literally like everybody looks at quarter to quarter growth and all that stuff. And so, you know, to me, like the secret sauce is that quick turn in that connection to the audience. And when you are making the show and your producers are deciding what to focus on, what have you found are the more popular storylines, things to focus on? Is it really just the depravity, the people who are willing to just be outrageous? Or is there something else going on that you guys see in the urgency of producing it?

17:46I think people, because the show is so observational, right? Like it's a massive production. There's like 500 people in Fiji making this show. There's a hundred. That puts Survivor to shame. Yeah. The Survivor doesn't like us because we take all the hotel rooms for crew. Like, trust me, there's a whole like East Coast, West Coast thing going on. Oh, don't. You know what? Probst is on the Hall of Fame Mount Rushmore this show. Do not go after Probst. I'm not. We'll come after you. It's just there's a battle for hotel rooms in Fiji. He is untouchable on this show. But what I would say is like, you know, we produce this show in real time.

18:19We listen to what the audience is saying. And, you know, we pick up on what the audience is talking about and what we want to feature more in any particular show. But I think what the audience really looks for are people being real or fake. Yeah. Authenticity. Authenticity is so key. And like the number one thing people say, like, is that person being real with that person or not? Or are they here because they want to be social famous or they really want to be a part of love? Here for the right reasons. Yeah, and ultimately, that is the number one thing that I think people are talking about online is they're trying to figure out what the true intentions are of every single person that's in this show.

18:59So it's almost a guessing game. By the way, do you guys get 360 deals with your cast? Do you participate if they go off and do a drink deal or endorsements? we we don't participate in the deals that they're doing with brands there's an approval process that has to happen you know because there are brands that are paying lots of money to be a part of love island but i'm saying when they're done like for two years after the show you don't you don't take a piece of that no we don't we don't take a piece of the brand the the deals that the brands are making specifically with the islanders we are we are watching them they do need approvals on these things.

19:36And, you know, there is a big process. I mean, I will tell you this, like after season seven, I think we had over 300 brands reach out to us directly and say, we want to do a brand deal with so-and-so Islander or so-and-so. And, you know, that's, that was when a light bulb clicked with us. And we just said, wow, this is, you know, we're not, we're not just making a television show here. We're making stars. We're making influencers But that's what led to the whole, you know, the Bethany Frankel litigation, all that, where these people can get rich. And sometimes the producers will want pieces of that.

20:12You're saying you're benefiting so much on the front end with the brands wanting to be associated with the show that you don't necessarily care what they do when they're off the show? Well, we do care because there's brand alignment, right? Like it's like, you know, ultimately these, these brands are coming at these Islanders because they really want to be associated with Love Island in some way, shape or form. And so, you know, we may, we may charge a fee to the brands, but not to the Islanders directly, you know, if they want to use the Love Island IP or those types of things, you know, but, but we don't want to, we don't want to, we don't want to be in the Islanders pockets, if that makes sense.

20:48Right. This episode is brought to you by Disney+. For your Emmy consideration, Taylor Swift, The Era's Tour, The Final Show. Nominated for five Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Variety Special, pre-recorded, The Final Night of the History Breaking Tour is now streaming on Disney+. This episode is brought to you by Disney+. For your Emmy consideration, Taylor Swift, The Era's Tour, The Final Show. Nominated for five Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Variety Special, pre-recorded, The final night of the history-breaking tour is now streaming on Disney+. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn ads.

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22:02Spend$250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a$250 credit for the next one. Just go to linkedin.com slash the town. That's linkedin.com slash the town. Terms and conditions apply. So you mentioned this idea of ownership, which I always come back to, and the reluctance of the platforms to share ownership. And lots of platforms reject shows they don't own these days. Is that the dominant narrative in Unscripted these days? You know, it used to be a volume play where you're just taking as many swings as you can and getting your show on whatever cable network. and maybe next thing you know, you wake up and you've done 10 seasons of it.

22:46It seems like that has kind of gone away as these cable networks have pulled so far back on their content budgets. And their focus now is really on quality and getting that franchise IP associated with a global streamer or national in Peacock's case. And building up the IP of the shows that actually matter is the focus. Is that really what you stress about in your job? Yeah, look, I think everybody knows the economics of production are in decline, right? Like, so ownership is so important now to how you're building an actual business out. Like back in the glory days of cable, you could just sell a show, you know, do 50 episodes of it and make X amount of dollars off of it.

23:36And that was - Pawn Stars, perfect example. The company you came from produced Pawn Stars and that was a huge asset. Yeah. I mean, look, like, you know, Pawn Stars, we were doing, you know, at peak, we did 105 episodes of that one year. And you owned it. We do not own Pawn Stars, no. And you don't even own it. And yet the company was bought for hundreds of millions of dollars by ITV. Unbelievable. That was the heyday, really. Yeah, that was the glory days. 2010s when all of these like ramshackle reality producers were becoming you know hundreds of millions of dollars richer off of the sale of their company to these big european conglomerates yeah trust me that was the glory day um times have changed is what i would tell you i never really understood that because ultimately you guys didn't own pawn stars but you were attached to it so you sort of had to be producing it because why wouldn't they just buy the ip and fire you.

24:31Pawn Stars was created by us at Leftfield. So we created it, but the market at that time was, you just sold all the rights into the network. Right? They would take control of the rights, but the budgets were so healthy, you were like, I don't care. I'm going to make enough money out of the production. That's no longer the case with the cable shows, and I would even owe you broadcast shows. All the budgets have been coming down. Guys like David Zasloff, that was their whole job at Discovery and then Scripps, was to cut the budgets of the shows so much where the margin was so razor thin that the producers wouldn't quit.

25:08They still made a little money on it, so they wouldn't completely quit. But you captured all the value. Yeah. I mean, they, they, you know, what I like to say is they, they would like to cut the budget just enough for you to stay in business, but not to have you go out of business. Right. It's, it's so toxic. Yeah, it was, it was just, it was just a strange time, but But being a part of ITV and being a part of a place that does own shows based on the European model, it's just a completely different business. And I will say this about Love Island. Another reason why we felt like Peacock was a good place to do the show was because it was a good deal.

25:47They're not a global streamer, right? They don't need to take all rights in perpetuity and global, you know, everything out of what they're doing. And so Peacock, in a strange way, is is set up to be a better partner to global formats than a Netflix or an Amazon who are going to sit there and say, like, well, the show's already set up in the UK or it's set up in Germany. And those are important territories for us. And so, like, the value of this is not as great to us. And you can go off and sell Love Island USA in markets around the world, or are you just reserving other versions of Love Island for different markets?

26:27Other versions for other markets. So I think Love Island's in something like 28 territories now, different versions. So ultimately, ITV is selling that into every other market, the Love Island brand into every other market. Love Island USA is, you know, the big kahuna right now. I bet Love Island USA would do well in other countries. dumb Americans hooking up. Yeah. The tape does really well. So we keep levels of distribution around the tape. And so I know for a fact, like they, they put like the prior season in Australia and it did incredible. The Australian MD, you know, for ITV was calling me saying the show was like insane, doing insanely well here.

27:04So well in Love Island, UK does pretty well here too. People like that version. Yeah. I mean, it was top five on, on Hulu. So, you know, so the economics of it are just different because you own it, you can monetize it, you can do merchandising, you can do all of these different things and create supplemental income and revenue so you don't have to be so reliant on production margin. And I think that's the name of the game moving forward. It's not going to be about making tons of money on shows. It's going to be about how you create a 360 business around things. So what is the future of the Love Island IP?