Love Island boss explains why show decided to reduce challenges this year

Plenty of viewers first noticed the dialled back challenges during the All Stars edition at the beginning of the year and while there were some challenges along the way, fans were unimpressed by the lack of them.

In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com, Love Island's creative director Mike Spencer has revealed the reasoning for reducing the amounts of challenges for the Islanders.

In regards to All Stars having no challenges, Spencer said: "I think it is hard for the viewers to maybe understand. It's that we're seeing it as a totally different format, like there's no Aftersun, Maya does her exit interviews straight after the Islanders are dumped – it's totally different.

"So we made that decision [because] it's a five week run, so we made the decision to strip the challenges from that show."

As for the summer season, there were a number of familiar challenges that made a return such as the Heart Rate challenge and Snog, Marry, Pie, as well as some new ones, but there weren't as many this time round.

Explaining that decision, Spencer told RadioTimes.com: "With [the] Love Island summer series, I think we have to follow the story, the drama and the relationships first and foremost.

"The challenges are kind of a break from the villa, but when you've got so much content to fit into one show every night, it's hard to break away.

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"We love challenges and they're brilliant, but I think we would always follow what is going on with them and their relationships first and foremost, and then if there's room in the show for those challenges then we'll put them in."

Spencer admitted that often they choose to follow the various stories between the Islanders so viewers don't think they've "missed a trick".

"It's not really like, 'Oh we should drop challenges'. It's just how we fit them in."

Love Island seasons 1-11 are available to watch on ITVX. You can watch all previous seasons of Love Island on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial.

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