Love Island is a show we all know and love, but we’ve recently learned something about the series that has, frankly, blown our minds and we had to share it with you immediately.
We tune in every summer (and winter, if we include All Stars) for a brand new series, but it turns out that bosses put on dry runs or ‘practice’ series beforehand so they can figure out the filming process before the real deal.
And according to the show’s iconic narrator Iain Stirling, the dry runs are ‘crazy’ – yep, even crazier than the actual series – because the participants know that the scenes will never make it to our TV screens.
The show seems to have cut back on showing the Islanders having sex in recent years, but Iain, who is married to former Love Island host Laura Whitmore, has revealed that the pretend contestants who take part in the dry runs have no qualms about getting frisky.
Speaking on the So Bad It’s Good podcast, he explained, ‘We’ve had dry runs of Love Island when we put people who aren’t going into the show.
‘We literally have a three-day practice where people go in and they’re in Love Island but it’s not on telly. It’s sort of crazy, it’s mad.’
Iain continued, ‘And if you think people going on the show get up to no good, imagine what they do if they know it’s not televised. Let’s say it’s not that dry in some cases.’
If you’re wondering who takes part in the dry runs, it turns out that producers choose the participants from those who have applied or been scouted for the show. Not only that, but if they impress during the test run then they might end up entering the villa for real.
Love Island 2022 bombshell Summer Botwe spilled the tea earlier this year when she revealed that both she andBilly Brown had been selected for the show after doing the dry run.
Explaining how it works, she told her Snapchat followers, ‘They take 12 people who applied or were scouted for the show to do a test run for two days, to check all the cameras work and everything is running smooth before they film with the actual chosen contestants.
‘However it’s also like opportunity to show your personality and vibe to producers as one or two are usually chosen from the dry run to either be a bombshell or Casa Amor contestant in the real show.’
Summer added, ‘Both me and Billy done the dry run and were besties but neither of us were chosen to do Casa so we were stunned at the Casa recoupling firepit when we saw each other.’
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Nathan Katnoria is heat and Closer online’s senior digital writer. He became obsessed with Love Island when Malin Andersson came back to confront Terry Walsh in series two and hasn’t looked back since. When he’s not interviewing former Islanders, Nathan is scrolling through their Instagram feeds for relationship updates and piping hot tea.