Love Island USA is coming to ITV2 this September with contestants living together in a “bubble” to allow them to film during the pandemic.
Contestants on the second season of the dating show spin-off, which filmed its first season in Fiji, will isolate with their fellow castmates in a villa at Las Vegas hotel The Cromwell for the show’s duration.
The show will air nightly at 9pm on ITV2 from 7 September. Filming has begun over the last few days, with the show starting tonight (24 August) in the US.
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ITV’s head of digital channels and acquisitions Paul Mortimer said: “Las Vegas may seem like an odd destination for the show but the canny producers have beaten Covid with a show that adheres to all production protocols and that could well be sensational.”
Love Island USA’s primetime spot on ITV2 marks a significant step up for the series, with the first season having occupied a late night spot on ITVBe when it aired in the UK last year.
This suggests that ITV bosses hope Love Island USA will fill the spot left by its UK counterpart, which was cancelled this summer after the coronavirus pandemic made shooting “logistically impossible”.
Love Island will also not return in January 2021, having aired its first winter series set in South Africa earlier in 2020.