UK’s ITV2 replaces Covid-19 hit ‘Love Island’ with Australia’s 2019 version

Love Island Australia

ITV2 in the UK is to replace its Covid-19 hit reality show Love Island with the Australian version of the format.

Love Island: Australia is to start airing later this month on ITV2 having debuted in 2018 on Nine Network in Oz.

The show is produced by ITV Studios (ITVS) Australia, with parent ITVS selling rights to finished tape globally. It has already aired in the UK on ITVBe.

Love Island’s Aussie version was, like the UK show, shot in a villa in Majorca in 2018 but shifted production to Fiji a year later.

UK commercial broadcaster ITV was forced to cancel its own version of ratings juggernaut Love Island after being unable to find a way to produce the show without contravening Covid-19 restrictions.

ITV’s director of television Kevin Lygo said in late April that the summer version of the hit UK reality show was unlikely to go ahead because of problems maintaining social distancing. ITV confirmed the decision a week later.

Casting had already begun on the UK show, which is produced by ITV Studios Entertainment and Motion Content Group. Lygo admitted the decision would have “a big commercial impact” on the broadcaster, which has been hit hard by the advertising slump caused by Covid-19. Love Island has become a key fixture for ITV and was extended to run twice a year last summer.