I’ve long been known among friends for my distaste for reality TV. I worried it might be “brain rot,” and for the most part, I succeeded in avoiding it.
But this summer, the new season of “Love Island USA,” which premiered June 3, has been inescapable. My Instagram feed was flooded with memes of Huda Mustafa, a contestant, telling Nic Vansteenberghe, another contestant, “I’m a mommy,” and his confused reply: “Mamacita?” Even Justin Bieber joined in on the joke, posting a meme to his Instagram feed that received nearly two million likes. And Megan Thee Stallion appeared as a guest host.
I saw clips of watch parties at bars, where crowds huddled around massive screens as if they were watching a competitive sports game. At restaurants or on the subway, I often overheard conversations about how different contestants process their relationships and Huda “crashing out.”
And I noticed the sheer number of men who were tapped in. When the N.B.A. Finals aired at the same time as a new episode, many were faced with a difficult choice of which one to watch.
As an observer, I was fascinated.
After piecing together some of the show’s major plotlines from friends and social media, I was able to join in on the conversation. Once I got over the cringe-worthy moments and the strange make-out challenges, I managed to sit through a full episode.
“Love Island USA” has become a cultural juggernaut. Now in its seventh season, the reality dating show on Peacock throws a group of contestants into a luxury villa in Fiji, where they must pair up or risk getting dumped (and booted from the island). Disconnected from the rest of the world, contestants participate in challenges designed to spark conversation and drama. It’s part dating show, part social experiment, and it has captured so much of our attention, with the season finale set to air on July 13 after weeks of unexpected turns.
So I decided to investigate: Why is this show so popular now?
On a Tuesday night at the Malt House, a bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, patrons screamed, gasped, snapped, clapped and shouted with fervor. They passionately threw hand gestures at the television screens.
At communal tables at the crowded bar, giddy strangers exchanged phone numbers while bantering. “Team Chelley or team Huda?” one person asked.
“This is the only thing that can bring together a divided nation,” another said, jokingly.
Kevin O’Hanlon, an owner of the Malt House Greenwich Village, handed out blood orange tequila sunrise “Love Island” shots on the house. Guests ordered specialty cocktails named after buzzy characters, like the “Hurricane Huda” and “Cierra Mist,” a nod to Cierra Ortega, who recently left the show amid controversy. The episode ended by guiding viewers to vote for their favorite contestants on their phones.
Marianne Pompeo, 42, was watching the show for the first time at the bar and befriended two 21-year-old students sitting next to her, Lena Reem and Ranya Hasna. “Now I’m really into it, just from being here,” Ms. Pompeo, a bartender at a nearby bar, said, “and these young ladies are just so cool.”
Mr. O’Hanlon first hosted a watch party on June 24, per the suggestion of two employees who are fans of the show. Reservations took off, and interest has been so high that Mr. O’Hanlon kept adding new dates.
“In terms of the volume and the noise, last Tuesday is the loudest I’ve ever heard it get in the bar,” Mr. O’Hanlon said, “and we’ve held Knicks playoffs games.”
Historically, reality TV has spiked in popularity during times of societal and economic hardship. “If you look at literature on why people watch reality TV, that’s one of the main reasons: escapism,” said Danielle J. Lindemann, the author of “True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us.”
In the early 2000s, reality shows like “Survivor” and “Big Brother” helped to change the television landscape, introducing competition shows that captivated audiences.
After the 2008 financial crisis, reality TV formats continued to expand. “The Real Housewives” franchise and talent competitions like “The Voice,” “The X Factor” and “America’s Next Top Model” were buzzing, and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” grew in popularity.
And in 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic, people at home gravitated toward binge-worthy dating shows like Netflix’s “Love is Blind” and “Too Hot to Handle.”
Now, in 2025, there is no shortage of public concerns, from the war in Gaza to the conflict in Iran, to extreme division in the United States.
“There’s so much confusion and unrest, both in our political system and just in general in the United States and the world,” said Rebecca Koltun, a 26-year-old waitress who attended a watch party at a bar called the Patio in Tampa Bay, Fla. “It’s way more fun than watching the news, definitely.”
Frances Berwick, the chairwoman of Bravo and Peacock Unscripted, attributed the show’s appeal in part to its “fun and frothiness and good summer vibes,” she said.
The political landscape in the United States is more divisive than ever, and television can bring people together — “especially a show like ‘Love Island’ which is kind of overtly a space devoid of politics,” Dr. Lindemann said.
“People on this show are trying to meet the love of their life, but they’re not talking about their opinions about abortion or gun control or tariffs,” she continued. “We can also forge connections across demographic categories or across political affiliations. You and I might not agree about gun control, but we both think that Huda has issues with emotional regulation, and we can bond over that.”
Conversations about loyalty, perception and miscommunication have dominated social media, with analysis videos, memes, reels and clips from episodes. On TikTok, season seven garnered more than a billion video views in the last month, according to Peacock.
Much of that is driven by the show’s format, with “Love Island USA” having found its magic formula for success last season. That includes episode drops at 9 p.m., six nights a week. The show is filmed the day before it airs, Ms. Berwick said, and “people don’t want to see a spoiler online or be left out of the conversation. That carries a lot of the urgency to view it in a timely manner.”
Tommy Davis, who saw lots of online chatter about characters like Huda and Ace, was intrigued and decided to watch the show.
Mr. Davis, a 29-year-old program analyst who doesn’t tend to watch reality television, said he’s been having “great conversations every day because of this show,” about “how people react to situations, how they perceive it and how we see relationships in general.”
“A lot of men are going to bars watching Love Island,” Mr. Davis added.
Women more often than men have been viewers of reality television, Dr. Lindemann said, because shows have tended to be overtly geared toward women. But a strong cast of diverse, relatable men and women has helped draw new viewers in. “We’re very intentional about who we cast and the types of personalities,” Ms. Berwick said.
One contestant, Ace, had already been familiar to some for videos in which he gave men in Pakistan dance lessons. The contestant Huda is known for her fiery personality, while Amaya, nicknamed “Amaya Papaya” by fans, wears her heart on her sleeve and calls herself a “sensitive gangster.”
“Yes, these are the shows that we watch to turn off our brains and let them wash over us,” Dr. Lindemann said. “But in some ways, watching reality TV is almost more active than watching other forms of TV because we engage with it so much.”
And, it can also serve as a mirror of people’s own relationship experiences.
For many viewers, this season’s arc reflects the frustration of modern dating, especially when it comes to commitment.
Cecilia Regina, a 36-year-old writer who analyzes the show on TikTok, coined the term “relationship meritocracy” — the belief that the most attractive or accomplished individuals will be coveted by romantic prospects and experience successful dating outcomes, she said.
“And yet, look at what’s happening on the show,” she said. “All of the women are 10 out of 10. You don’t see these men rushing to give them commitment. A lot of women are resonating this season because they’re finally realizing the issue is not them.”
Sadiba Hasan reports on love and culture for the Styles section of The Times.
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