"Celebrity Love Island" (2005) TV series 2005-????

Director:

Simon Staffurth

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

16 May 2005 (UK)

Genre:

Reality-TV | Romance

Plot:

12 Z-list celebrity, famed in the UK for their sexual behavior, are being put together on a paradise island in Fiji where the viewers can see them hopefully copulate.

Plot Keywords:

Non Fiction

Cast

Patrick Kielty	...	Presenter / ... (5 episodes, 2005-2006)
Fearne Cotton	...	Herself - Presenter / ... (4 episodes, 2006)
Sophie Anderton	...	Herself / ... (4 episodes, 2006)
Christopher Brosnan	...	Himself (4 episodes, 2006)
Kelle Bryan	...	Herself (4 episodes, 2006)
Brendan Cole	...	Himself (4 episodes, 2006)
Bianca Gascoigne	...	Herself (4 episodes, 2006)
Shane Lynch	...	Himself (4 episodes, 2006)
Lee Otway	...	Himself (4 episodes, 2006)
Colleen Shannon	...	Herself (4 episodes, 2006)
Paul Danan	...	Himself (3 episodes, 2005-2006)
Lady Victoria Hervey	...	Herself (3 episodes, 2006)
Alicia Douvall	...	Herself (2 episodes, 2006)
Emma Ryan	...	Herself (2 episodes, 2006)
Eve Ryan	...	Herself (2 episodes, 2006)
Steve-O	...	Himself (2 episodes, 2006)

Also Known As:

Love Island (UK) (second season title)

Runtime:

UK:90 min (including commercials)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

Armstrong Island, Fiji

Company:

Granada Television

Trivia:

Love Island's Season Two final managed 4.4 million viewers, a drop from Season One's 5.6 million.

Movie Connections:

Spin off "Celebrity Love Island: Aftersun" (2005)

Staged, poorly conceived, boring and lacking imagination or effort – a TV "ready meal" that shows that ITV think we are all lazy, unintelligent and undemanding

In a formula that is pure Big Brother, a group of minor UK celebrities are sent to a tropical island, given booze, bikinis and beds and left to their own devices. Viewers can vote them into the Love Shack in male/female pairs to increase the sexual tension, and they can also vote people off the island – this being the way we get to the winner in the end. With this much sexual potential and tension between all manner of beautiful women and men, the viewers will be climbing all over it.

But sadly, at time of writing, they aren't – although that might change. It is a mystery why this has struggled – at least with ITV's Celebrity Wrestling you can see for yourself why nobody watched it, it was stupid and just a poor idea from the start. But with Love Island it is strange when you look at the other things that still draw an audience (Big Brother for example) and see how alike they are – but yet this struggles. Also, this show captures the two great loves of the British tabloids – sex and celebrities; hell, we even have two women on the island who are famous for having sex – be it home videos or affairs – and nothing else really. To up the stakes higher, some of the celebs have already supposedly been an item, making sex more likely and thus making it more likely that ITV get high ratings.

However, after one episode, millions turned off and, a week into the series, it looked like this would be going the way of Celebrity Wrestling (embarrassingly banished from prime time to a kids TV slot!). However it is rumoured that the ITV execs in charge flew to the island and confronted the group – reminding them of the salaries they have been paid and sternly warning them that they are not on holiday but are making a television programme – reality or not! This explains why in the last few days, after a week of nothing happening at all, a fight has kicked off, one of the men has shaved his hair into a Mohawk, people have started kissing out of nowhere and two of the women have been kissing and touching each other – basically pushing all the buttons required to get big headlines in the tabloids and thus get the related audience share. This rouse may work slightly to stop the rot but I really hope it doesn't mainly because it is tantamount to staging titillating material and, for that, we don't need to have it dressed up as "reality".

Despite this sudden, faked rush for tabloid headlines, the show has been mainly poor – boring, lacking character and imagination in the concept. The lack of ideas shows that the producers have simply put all their eggs in the sex and celebrity basket, showing a real contempt for the audience that I am happy to say that millions of us have thrown back in their faces so far. The "cast" are pretty poor (I call them cast because, lets be honest, the reality aspect is gone and they are now playing roles) and their description as "celebrities" had me reaching for the telephone to contact my local Trading Standards. They are mostly old soap stars, the outcome of sex scandals and, weakest of all, the son of a footballer (Best). They are all quite toned and beautiful in their own ways but none are people and you watch it safe in the knowledge that they are here for one reason alone – and it isn't sex or to win the game, it is money. Each person was paid to take part – and paid very handsomely as well, the least being tens of thousands of pounds for a few weeks on the island – any wonder ITV demanded they start playing along for the cameras; they have made a big investment. The cast aren't helped by the hosts – Kielty used to be funny but at least seems to have his tongue in his cheek here; but vacuous pretty-girl Brook is a poor presenter and every word feels like it is being read off a big, slow autocue machine.

Overall this is a poor show. It won't be cancelled and it won't end the run of reality shows or celebrity shows but it is unlikely it will get a second series. Why it failed and the others have gotten the audience is not clear (they all seem as bad as each other to me) but I guess it is because it failed to get the tabloids on board – a sad reflection on the British public, we just watch and gossip about what the papers tell us to. Recent attempts to force the sex appeal up will have reversed this and will save the show (and ITV's face) but it is still just a salvage job and things will be better when it is over.