An ITV executive has said that the reason so many young, straight men watch Love Island is because they want to hear what women are saying about them.
The dating show brings together young, hopeful singles who are challenged with finding love in the duration of an eight-week stay in a Spanish villa.
Every year, the show raises public discussions about what constitutes healthy and unhealthy relationship dynamics and common issues single people encounter in their search for love.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV festival – which is taking place from 24-26 August – Kevin Lygo, the director of television at ITV, said the show helps men better understand women.
“There was quite an interesting piece of research done about young men and why they watch Love Island,” Lygo said, as per The Guardian.
“And one of the main reasons is they’ve never witnessed girls together talking about boys. And they find it absolutely fascinating and riveting and hopefully informative.”
He added: “A good and useful consequence of entertainment shows is that they raise these discussion points about what people do and what they shouldn’t do into the public domain. But as producers and broadcasters we have to make sure they don’t step too far.”
Love Island will return with two seasons next year; a winter series in South Africa, and a summer series in Majorca.
It is unclear who will host next year’s shows after host Laura Whitmore announced this week that she is stepping down from the role.
Also during the festival, Lygo defended Love Island after this year’s series drew more than 1,500 complaints to Ofcom from users who accused contestants Luca Bisha dn Dami Hope of bullying Tasha Ghouri.
As reported by The Sun, Lygo said Love Island’s duty of care to its contestants was more “rigorous than ever”, and that preventing all on-screen controversies would mean no longer allowing members of the public to take part in reality TV shows.
Lygo added that he thinks some of these uncomfortable moments spark discussion.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
