Love Island producers “absolutely” open to a spin-off with a gay villa
After winning a TV Bafta, Love Island producer Richard Cowles discussed the idea of making a show “dedicated” to gay contestants
There have long been calls for Love Island to be more inclusive and invite LGBTQ+ contestants onto the series, and now one of its producers has said that he would be open to making a new “dedicated show” with a gay villa.
Speaking after Love Island won the TV Bafta for Best Reality and Constructed Factual series, producer Richard Cowles said the reason there haven’t been homosexual contestants on the show so far is because it would disrupt the format.
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“We've had bisexual people in the show before,” he said. “But it's a dating show, and I think what makes that quite difficult is you need everyone to fancy everyone. So it's quite hard to get people who are gay and who are heterosexual and homosexual in the same place because, simply enough, they don't fancy each other.
“So we'd have to do a dedicated show for a purely gay audience and for a gay villa.”
Asked whether that's a show he would consider making, Cowles said: “Yes, absolutely, we are open to everything. We'd always try to include everyone.”
Former Love Island stars Chris Hughes and Marcel Somerville were also on stage, and the pair expressed their disbelief at winning a Bafta, with Hughes saying: “Marcel just said he's going to change his Insta bio, and I think I might have to do the same, to Bafta winner.”
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