
Love Island may have been packed with drama with the Casa Amor recouplings, but fans appear to have tuned out as the show saw the lowest number of views ever.
The twist of bringing a second villa to the series debuted in 2017.
It’s become a fan favourite as some individuals depart and others hold tight to the person they’ve pledged to. It’s designed to put established relationships to the test.
Both villas are reconnected after three days, but not before a typically dramatic re-coupling ceremony.
The highly anticipated episode aired on Thursday night, and it did not disappoint as bombs were dropped, liaisons were revealed, and many Islanders were left in tears.
There was a lot going on, from Casey O’Gorman recoupling with Claudia Fogarty and leaving Cynthia Otseh-Taiwo in tears to Olivia Hawkins taking aim at Kai Fagan, Will Young being forced to admit he kissed another girl to Jessie Wynter and Shaq Muhammad being surprised after Tanya Manhenga dumped him for Martin Akinola.
However, it appears that the number of individuals listening in has significantly decreased.
According to overnight estimates, the Winter Love Island Casa Amor episode drew 1.3 million viewers, a far cry from the 3.0 million who tuned in during the 2022 summer season.
In previous years, 2.7 million people watched that season’s episode, 2.6 million in 2020, 3.6 million in 2019, and 3.8 million in 2018.
However, so far this season, Love Island has averaged 2.9 million viewers each episode and 85 million programme streaming on ITVX.
The Casa Amor episode had the third largest overnight TV audience of the current season thus far, and the second when viewing across all devices was included.
While the summer series are normally more popular with viewers, the premiere of the Winter series this season showed a decline of over a million views.
The first episode of Winter Love Island, which aired in 2020 and saw Paige Turley and Finn Tapp win the title, received 2.5 million viewers.
In comparison, this season began with 1.4 million viewers.
Fans can expect much more drama in the coming episodes, with Friday night’s episode slated to depict the consequences from what transpired in the two villas, as well as the tea being spilled by the females who had lips with the boys who were partnered up.
Love Island returns tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.