A top boss at ITV has defended Love Island after it was hit with thousands of Ofcom complaints around issues of bullying – saying there is a “certain risk” to going on TV.
The network’s managing director of media and entertainment, Kevin Lygo, was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival when he addressed the hit-ITV2 dating show.
TV watchdogs Ofcom received over 1,500 complaints following the treatment of Tasha Ghouri during this year’s season.
She was reduced to tears after a ‘Song, Marry, Pie’ challenge where boys Dami Hope, Luca Bish and Davide Sanclimenti targeted the 24-year-old.
Dami and Luca also branded Tasha fake and “a game player”. Davide later explained that he pied Tasha because she had previously called him and partner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu the "fakest couple".
Tasha, who finished in the final alongside Andrew Le Page, later admitted that her treatment in the villa almost caused the couple to leave and never come back.
Lygo told festival-goers the only possible way of avoiding drama on reality TV would be to stop it all together, not allowing members of the public on telly.
“We are moving into a different era here and we have to be very mindful that there is a certain risk to going on television,” he said.
"It may not be exactly what you think it's going to be as a member of the public, but I don't think we should stop, because the logical conclusion is: 'you don't allow members of the public on telly'. That's the only way."
Kevin added: "When you see the attitudes of young people and what they say, you could say some of the things that go on in these shows shouldn't be shown.
"But from that comes the debate, the discussion and it's pointed out to contestants themselves and they often later apologise for the error of their ways.
“For example, there was research about why young boys watch Love Island so much. It found they'd never witnessed girls together talking about boys and they found it absolutely fascinating and, hopefully, informative to the fact that muscles aren't everything."
He then went on to reveal the “rigorous controls” the network has in place after contestants appear on TV, saying “physiologists are involved”.
Kevin added: "Broadcasters are now very well informed and impose conditions on commissions that duty of care is uppermost in producers in minds.
"It's come on in leaps and bounds. It got its wake up call a few years ago, and now members of the public who are on shows, especially shows that are on for quite a while, are taking through rigorous controls of this is what it's going to be like.
"Their GPs are contacted, psychologist are involved beforehand. During the show there's access to psychologists and counsellors all the time, and producers are much more skilled in this as well.
"Then afterwards there's care for those who've come off television."
In his talk, Lygo also referenced the new series of Big Brother, saying it was born off the back of the "extraordinary success" of Love Island.
It comes back on air in the UK following an almost five-year hiatus after the last two seasons finished on Channel 5 in 2018.
It will reportedly take place at a new filming location after the old Big Brother House was knocked down at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.
Now it’s thought that the ITV reboot will ‘launch in May next year’ from Bovingdon Airfield, home to Dancing on Ice, The Masked Singer and several BBC shows.
Lygo added: "We look at Love Island and we see this extraordinary successful show that defies all the sort of current logic and goes against what people say in that 'young people don't watch (linear) television'. And then you think every single night at nine o’clock on ITV2 and on the Hub is this show for eight weeks that more young people watch than they watch anything else.
"And we should all take great joy in the fact that if you get the right show, they're going to come and watch it." He said he does not think Big Brother's audience will skew as young because he feels many former viewers will return as they "remember it so fondly".
He described its legacy as this "extraordinary thing" that arguably "shaped the most television" and does not worry about its revival being a risk for the broadcaster. The latest season of Love Island was a ratings success, securing its biggest launch episode since 2019.
ITV also recently announced there will be two series of the show in 2023 – a summer series in Majorca and winter series in South Africa.
