New Love Island host Maya Jama appears to be going down well with fans as she already has double the airtime of previous hosts. The presenter has already had nearly double the screen time compared to former host Laura Whitmore.
Maya, 28, is the new host of the latest series of Love Island. Within just four episodes, Maya has been on our screens for a total of 19 minutes and 55 seconds, which is six minutes and 29 seconds more than her predecessor.
OK! reports it's also 6.9 per cent of the total airtime so far. By the same point long-running host Laura, 37, had only racked up 4.6 per cent.
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Ever since Caroline Flack presented her first series, fans of the hit dating show have always kept track of the host's screen time. A TV source told The Sun: “For whatever reason, viewers always note how often Love Island’s host appears and for how long.
“Laura really came under scrutiny because during the first four weeks of series eight last year, she only featured for that 13 minutes. Of course, it remains to be seen how often producers will call on Maya, but so far viewers seem thrilled by the extra airtime for the host.”
It's not just fans who have demanded more screen time for the hosts but also Laura's husband, Love Island narrator Iain Stirling. In episode one when Maya returned to the villa to make a second appearance, Iain, 34, joked: “She could’ve just sent a text, but we wanted to get our money’s worth out of that return flight to Cape Town.”
The extra screen time for Maya comes after she said she intended to visit the new South African villa as often as possible but will still need to be in London each Sunday to present the spin-off show Aftersun.
Earlier in the week, former Love Island contestant Danica Taylor told OK! she would have liked Maya to have presented her season in 2022. Danica, who featured in last year’s show with Gemma Owen and Luca Bish, took part in the show when its former host Laura Whitmore was still at the helm.
Speaking on an Instagram live with OK! to discuss the current season, she said: “I’ve met Maya so many times now. She is absolutely sensational, she just has it. When you think of Love Island, you stereotypically think of the beautiful looking people.
“She, for me, fits that better than anyone could fit it, and I’m actually very much gutted that she wasn’t the host of my series.” “No disrespect,” she added before saying, "but it’s bloody Maya Jama.”
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