Love Island could be in for its biggest shake-up yet as its makers eye up villas beyond Majorca.
With 2025 marking 10 years since the ITV dating show launched, producers are said to be prepared to quadruple their weekly budget to secure a new setting.
One property “shaped like a UFO ” in Portugal’s picturesque Algarve has emerged as an early front-runner. A team from ITV Studios is being sent to view it later this month. Demands from bosses include 65 metres of wardrobe space and trademark features such as a huge terrace garden and swimming pool, plus a separate hideaway area.
A source said: “ITV Studios are scouting out properties for an unconfirmed forthcoming series and are prepared to splash out £20k a week on the right one. They’ve got their eye on an incredible sprawling villa in the Algarve that is completely different to their more traditional current abode. It’s circular and really modern, and it’s been used for a French reality show before so it’s well set up for filming.”
Love Island will return to ITV2 this summer in its current villa, Sa Vinyassa, on the outskirts of Cala d’Or on the Balearic island – which costs just £5,000 a week to rent. The original in Ses Salines, one hour to the east, sold in 2022 for £2.57million. All Stars and Winter Love Island are filmed at a sprawling £9,000-a-night mansion in the winelands outside Cape Town, South Africa.
The franchise, fronted by Maya Jama, is yet to be recommissioned beyond this year – but sources say bosses will go all the way for its 10-year anniversary after a decline in viewing figures.
The conclusion of its first All Stars series in South Africa in February pulled the lowest-ever ratings for a Love Island final, with only one million viewers tuning in. It made it the least-watched final since series one in 2015. Including views on streaming platform ITVX, just 1.3 million fans watched Molly Smith and Tom Clare crowned winners – equal to last year’s final of the winter series. The top ratings ever for a final was 2019, when 3.7 million saw Amber Gill win with Greg O’Shea. That even beat 2018, when 3.6 million tuned in as Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham bagged the £50,000 prize.
ITV said: “We look forward to returning to Mallorca and our iconic villa for the forthcoming series of Love Island this summer.”