Reality TV

Very important question: Is Love Island real or fake?

It's the question on everyone's lips...
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We’ve only had one other season of Love Island Australia but with sun, sea and whole lot of sexy singles, it’s the show we didn’t know we needed in our lives.

While we know this year’s contestants will be looking for love in Fiji, the biggest question fans have is about the authenticity of the show, with many wondering… is Love Island real or fake?

Channel Nine’s official response when we asked them straight out if Love Island Australia was scripted was a firm no.

“Goes without saying that Love Island is completely unscripted,” a spokesperson told Now To Love.

To be perfectly fair, if you’ve watched even five minutes of the show, you’d know there’s no way a writer could have penned moments like Grant using all his energy to write a love letter to his girlfriend Tayla with no success.

WATCH: Grant tries to write a love letter to Tayla on season one of Love Island. Post continues after video…

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Why do people think Love Island Australia is fake?

It could be a pre-conceived notion set in from its predecessor Love Island UK.

The producers certainly are the puppeteers of the show and make no secret of it.

“As with last year you’ll feel the hand of the producers, you’ll see the hand of the producer,” the British version’s commissioning editor Amanda Stavri explained in 2018.

“We feel that’s fine as long as you’re open about it. I think that’s what viewers expect these days, it’s what they want.”

She added, “We’re going to be stirring things up a bit and playing around hopefully to make the most dramatic series we can.”

Given the fact the show is a romantic musical chairs, where guys and gals need to pair up, it would be no surprise to see a lot of “manufactured” drama on the Aussie series.

WATCH: Meet Love Island‘s Cartier, the born-again Christian looking for love. Post continues after video…

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Meanwhile a Brit insider shed light on what exactly goes down behind-the-scenes.

Chatting to Vogue.co.uk they divulged juicy details, like the contestants getting a clothing allowance – so that they can represent the bikini clad Love Island image.

And days before they appear on the show, the contestants have their phones taken away from them and they’re put into hiding so they have no clue who else will be joining them in the villa.

The producers go to extreme lengths, with the insider giving an example, “Even when they go out on dates they are taken separately in cars so they can’t discuss anything before the date is filmed.”

At the end of the day, they want to make good TV – which could explain this tactic:

“If we don’t feel like the islanders are getting close enough, then there will be more games involving body contact to break the ice!”

A ex-contestant spills the tea on the truth about Love Island

Kady was on the British show’s second season.

(Image: ITV)

Former British contestant Kady McDermott shared a fascinating insight to what it’s like to be on the show.

Firstly, she confirmed that you can easily forget you’re being filmed.

“There were 68 rotating cameras in the house and outside, and they were hidden on the walls,” she told Cosmopolitan UK.

“There were also two men – one by the kitchen and one by the smoking area – outside, with proper, massive cameras.”

“The whole garden set was fake and set up so they could hide in the furniture with all their equipment. You couldn’t see the men, but sometimes we would chat to them and ask, ‘You alright?’ and they would respond by nodding the camera.”

She also revealed the food is “amazing” and they give you dessert after every meal.

In a surprise move, alcohol was rationed and possibly “watered down.”

WATCH: Chris and Ken rap on Love Island UK. Post continues after video…

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“At night time we weren’t allowed a lot of alcohol,” she said.

“During the first four or five days when we didn’t know each other we had alcohol to break the ice, but then after that it was two glasses of wine a night. And we were sure it was watered down as well! I don’t get that at all.”

We guess the show wants the contestants to know exactly what they’re doing!

Kady also shed light on fun nuggets like they couldn’t sleep in and sending each other texts always took longer than you see on TV.

The Reddit thread that made viewers think Love Island was fake

Three years ago, unsuspecting reality TV buffs were trawling through a range of forums before coming across a Reddit thread instigated by user chet11 , who asked the question:

“People who have been on reality TV shows, what’s rigged and what’s not?”

And user throwawayuk123456789 had some very shocking claims, which you can read in full below.

Essentially they slammed the show’s authenticity and confirmed all our fears about Love Island being fake.

It should be noted that with any forum – there is no way to tell if the person is telling the truth.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3EGSPJhH2H/

Read in full the explosive Reddit thread about Love Island below:

Throwaway for obvious reasons. I was on Love Island last year. It’s a popular TV reality show in the UK, this year’s is actually on at the moment. I guess people assume some is staged and rigged but you have NO idea how much. We were literally given scripts of arguments to have, things to say. You know when you see them having sex under the covers, not happening. We would have to imitate this 5-10 times each time and the producers would choose the most realistic one.

There is whole parts of the ‘villa’ that you don’t even see. Multiple camera rooms. Ever wondered how the islanders never clean but it always gets cleaned? There is literally cleaners, waiters etc in there the whole time.

Only about 6 hours a day and night are filmed. There is a director there saying cut and everything. You know the £50,000 grand prize for the winner? Doesn’t compare the £75,000 we got for being in the villa, regardless if we were there for 6 days or 6 weeks. When we got out we had meetings and I had over 600 brands queuing up to work with me. Now I’m a nobody and you wouldn’t even recognise my name.

Relationships aren’t real, there is agreements that is 100% for show. Things are never how you seem. Also we are shown the episodes everyday, there is no ‘will be cool to see what i look like on tv when i get out’. There is also outside contact, that is just bullshit. My jaw literally dropped on my 4th day when they showed us the show live on TV because of how different it was to reality.

You can read more from the thread here

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