In the current TV landscape, where shows with 20-plus episodes per season are mostly a distant memory, Love Island USA has taken a much different approach and been rewarded for it.
Peacock’s hit reality dating show has revived appointment television, delivering at least 35 episodes to its growing fan base across six weeks each season. For a show that films in real time, with only a one- to two-day delay before the resulting episode airs, viewers often feel like they’re actually on the journey with these sexy, single islanders searching for love in a stunning villa in Fiji.
But pulling off a show of this magnitude is no easy feat, especially when all of the parts are moving quickly. So Ariana Madix, who just earned her first Emmy nomination for best host for a reality or reality competition program after guiding the show for three seasons, has gotten used to staying on her toes. When she enters the villa throughout the season — typically for major moments, from cast dumpings to couple challenges — there isn’t much time to prepare, as islander dynamics can shift minutes before she walks in.
“The most recent episode might not reflect what’s actually happening in the moment in the villa,” Madix says. “I might come in expecting two people to be loved up and together, and lo and behold, they’ve already split or something in that regard. So I’m always trying to get information from whoever I can to make sure I know everything. I’m a nosy little bee over there,” she adds with a laugh.
Madix is no stranger to reality TV, having risen to fame as the wronged individual of the Scandoval affair on Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules, on which she starred for 11 seasons until 2024. When she got the call to take the reins from Sarah Hyland for the sixth season of Love Island’s U.S. version that same year, saying yes was a no-brainer for Madix, a devoted viewer of the Love Island franchise since its U.K. inception in 2015.
The host admits she loves all the messy drama that the series is known for but also the “funny, mundane and little moments” that “people online call boring.”
“I thought, in particular, the start of Casa Amor this year, season eight, was diabolical,” she says, referring to the twist that saw the OG girl islanders watching live footage of the new bombshells interacting with the OG boys for the first time. But at the same time, Madix also appreciates the “little things that [viewers] only know about people when you get to spend this amount of time with them,” like contestant Corbin’s iconic one-liners, she notes.
As a fan, Madix enjoys getting to know the islanders on a much closer level, but it’s also a necessity for her job. She not only has to stay up to date on all that unfolds each episode, but she also serves as a navigator for the audience during high-stakes moments in what she calls a “pressure cooker environment.”
“When I go in there, before we get down to the scary stuff of maybe a dumping — I mean, they don’t even know what’s about to come when I walk in those doors sometimes — I always try to make sure that we’re able to connect a little bit,” she explains. “As the seasons go on, it gets a little bit easier for them to see me and they get a little bit less scared.”
Over the course of those six weeks, there’s no denying the islanders go through a range of emotions when they see Madix strut her way into the villa, from jumping for joy on day one when they hear Madix say, “Hey, islanders,” to the customary greeting becoming a jump scare for them by midseason. Typically, the excitement returns by the season’s end, when Madix crowns the winners among the four couples who make it to the finale.
While the show loves to play into the romantic chaos no doubt responsible for its record-breaking views — more than 2.3 billion minutes had been streamed halfway through season eight — it also never forgets its foundation. “We really leaned into the love this year,” Madix says, “and I hope that next year we and the audience can lean into the love even more.”
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.