Love Island USA is, finally, good TV.
For its sixth season, Love Island USA dumped host Sarah Hyland for the Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix. The change is insignificant; Ariana is a great host, but Sarah was too. Frankly, it’s not that hard a gig. What’s different is the ethos of the series. Love Island USA has been Bravo-fied.
The American spinoff of the U.K. dating show has been dogged by a lack of fan engagement. Past seasons provided few if any dependable characters, and drama remained mundane. Love Island USA needed a shot of adrenaline to push it forward; NBC seems to have found that boost in Vanderpump-ing it.
The experiment paid off: NBCUniversal reports that streaming reach has doubled from previous seasons, and that the show is now Peacock’s “most-watched and most-talked about series.” In a time of desperate need, Love Island USA got the Bravo boost.
Like any good Housewives franchise, Love Island USA wasn’t afraid to dig to the bottom of the barrel for talent. Rob was on last season; this is his second chance to sow chaos and act like a pretentious douchebag. Aaron was on The Traitors UK, and Kordell is Odell Beckham Jr.’s brother. Better yet, Kordell is unabashedly craven: He immediately claims to be an aspiring actor, model, and Cheez-It ambassador. And Kordell is one of the more boring additions.
What the girls lack in reality TV experience or nepo connections, they make up for in whiplash-inducing decisions. Kaylor breaks down when Aaron expresses light interest in bombshell Liv with her classic “FAWK,” only to cozy up to newbie Connor the next episode. Liv ended up passing on Aaron; she went for Rob for seemingly no other reason than to stir controversy. Of course, the two decided they couldn’t make it work after Liv said she liked Ed Sheeran; Rob is a beabadoobee kind of guy.
Throughout the airing of the show, fans have been placing the template of Vanderpump Rules on the islanders. The connection seems inevitable with Madix’s presence, but some of them hold true. Liv is perpetually called a “girl’s girl” like VPR’s Ariana or Katie, though the true stalwart of friendship is more likely Serena. Meanwhile, Rob and Aaron have been fielding comparisons to VPR’s Toms. Rob is sinister like Sandoval, while Aaron is dopey like Schwartz. Better yet, the duo has an lustful homoerotic streak that lingers in the Toms’ relationships.
Still, there’s more to the connection than just some immediate VPR parallels. The show is edited with Bravo flair, relying heavily on confessionals and cutting to spats of drama in the midst of conversations. There’s that comforting feeling that a gay guy is sitting behind the computer, pulling together the clips in Final Cut Pro while sipping his iced coffee, that has become crucial to Bravo’s success. Even the soundtrack reflects that: “HOT TO GO,” “Von Dutch,” and a shockingly emotional acoustic rendition of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.”
Like some old seasons of RHONY, the show is also plain funny. After Connor tells JaNa that he’s into reading, she earnestly responds, “Before I got here, I was reading the dictionary.” Early-out Hannah has never quite learned how to set her makeup, leaving any guy she smooches looking like they robbed a powdered donut factory. Kaylor struggles to figure out whether the U.K. is in Europe, while JaNa weeps over her inadequate knowledge of plant species.
If Love Island USA has anything like a center apple-holder, it’s Leah. She’s been going viral for her soundbites like any good Housewife, including the infamous, “suck my dick, whatever you’ve heard about me, times it by a million, and if you think it’s bad, make it worse.” She also has a stellar douchebag Rob impression, almost as good as RHOSLC’s Meredith’s impression of Whitney. The “Calabasas queen,” as TikTok has coined her, is reality TV gold.
And then, the dumping from hell. The girls vote to dump Andrea, who had settled down with Rob, causing him to threaten to leave the villa. It’s dramatic, it’s campy, it’s minorly produced but who even cares. The brawls of RHOBH’s Amsterdam dinner party meet the schisms of RHONJ’s wine-throwing Cabo fight in in an utterly shocking two episodes of television. Rob stays; no one really expected him to leave in those tacky overalls. Still, as the girls sob around the makeup counter, it almost seems worth it.
Since that blowout night, the drama has been a bit more covert. Here lies the flaw in declaring Love Island USA a full-out Bravo fair; once the relationships begin to calcify, the drama feels staid. There are some peaks: the unraveling of Kendall’s “nice guy” streak, the psychological torture of Kaylor, even just Leah’s side commentary. As is the Love Island tradition, there are some cute moments, too: Serena and Kordell finally work out their slow-burn of a relationship, and JaNa finds her Prince Charming in bombshell Kenny. Still, it all quivers in the shadow of the prior half of the season.
Even with the slump, the sixth season far outweighs any previous iteration of Love Island USA. The CBS premiere was maddeningly boring, while the later move to Peacock slightly lowered that barricade of artificiality. The show’s strength grew slowly: in its fifth season, Sarah Hyland seethed at an islander who called her question “mad disrespectful,” muttering with gravitas, “boys will be boys.” It was a glimpse into a new era, one that wouldn’t be realized until now.
In multiple of Ariana’s walk-ins, the contestants confuse her with a bombshell. She must, they imagine, be joining the cast, not stepping in to oversee it. The mix-up seems apt: Love Island has turned itself into a romantic Vanderpump Rules, filled with delicious Stassi-wannabes and unknowing Jaxs. And, given just how bad the most recent season of VPR was, NBC may want to consider hiring them.
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