Love Island 2022 has come to an end after eight weeks of the summer’s most popular show. As Davide and Ekin-Su were crowned winners, host Laura Whitmore announced two new seasons of the show for 2023.
The first season will air in January 2023 and see islanders heading to South Africa. The second will return in the summer as the typical Mallorca based series. This isn’t the first time islanders have headed to South Africa, as a winter series did air in 2020. However, that was the first and only winter Love Island, until it makes its return next year.
The return of the show, particularly two series of it, comes as a shock to many viewers. Love Island has been at the centre of controversy for years and many have called for it to be axed.
One reason for this is the tragic deaths of contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis, as well as the show’s previous host Caroline Flack. Many believe that their deaths were a result of online harassment and bullying and a lack of mental health support.
Complaints shouldn’t be ignored
As well as this, the number of Ofcom complaints the show has received has concerned many viewers. The 2021 series of Love Island received 33,500 complaints overall. The complaints were mainly related to contestant Faye Winter’s behaviour in a row she had with her partner Teddy Soares.
This year’s series is no different. In just one week of the 2022 series, Ofcom received 3,617 complaints due to misogynistic behaviour presented by male islanders. Aftersun, Love Island’s after show, received an extra 427 complaints . These were related to the treatment of islanders by Laura Whitmore in interviews she conducted on the show.
In addition to this, domestic violence charity Women’s Aid, have issued a statement about the show almost every year. This year, the charity have been in talks with ITV surrounding the issues.
An ITV spokesman said: “We cannot stress highly enough how seriously we treat the emotional well-being of all of our islanders.
“Welfare is always our greatest concern, and we have dedicated welfare producers and psychological support on hand at all times, who monitor and regularly speak to all of the islanders in private and off-camera.
