The UK reality dating series, Love Island is a bona fide phenomenon beyond anything that is typically expected of its genre, consistently attracting millions of viewers and gaining immense popularity with its audience. Since 2015, and 10 seasons later, Love Island UK showcases an expanding cast of beautiful young adults falling in love, lusting after one another and engaging in explosive interpersonal drama, as well as participating in challenges, games and having their relationships continually tested.
Yes, Love Island tends to be a launch pad for many contestants, whether it be business ventures or social media fame after the season is over. But for some, the relationships they get into last long after leaving the villa. With dozens of compelling love stories, beloved - and hated - contestants, and iconic fights, fans often discuss and debate their favorite and least favorite seasons of the show. Taking into account the entertainment value, memorability and overall quality, this is every season of the ultimate guilty pleasure series, ranked.
10 Season 1 (2015)
Winners: Jessica Hayes and Max Morley
Like many reality shows, Love Island got off to a bit of a rocky start with season 1. Although it was necessary for beginning what has become a huge phenomenon, season 1 has aged poorly due to lower production values and outdated attitudes towards women expressed by some of the contestants.
Season 1 does have redeeming qualities, such as consistent drama to provide entertainment and two very popular islanders in Jess Hayes and Hannah Elizabeth, but the season overall suffers due to its toxicity and general lower quality. None of the couples from season 1 stayed together after leaving the villa, but early fans of Love Island still returned season after season hoping the experiment would work.
9 Season 9 (2023)
Winners: Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan
Commonly considered to be the least engaging season of Love Island UK, season 9 suffered mainly due to a lack of compelling storylines and the over-saturation of airing two seasons in the same year. However, audiences were satisfied with the winners being endearing couple Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan, the first Casa Amor couple to win the show.
Season 9 is certainly not without its merits, such as the introduction of popular host Maya Jama, but it is less memorable than many of Love Island's other seasons. This is, in part, because of the repetitive formula of the show; fans already knew the challenges and there weren't as many shocking twists. Additionally, the season felt over-produced and scripted - even for reality TV.
8 Season 7 (2021)
Winners: Liam Reardon and Millie Court
Season 7 of Love Island had a fairly strong cast but concluded with a lackluster result in which the less engaging pairing of Millie Court and Liam Reardon won over the delightfully chaotic couple, Toby Aromolaran and Chloe Burrows. Additionally, the season suffered due to a lack of appropriate producer intervention during an explosive fight where the otherwise very entertaining Faye Winter berated Teddy Soares in a way that required clear deescalation for both of their sakes.
Although certainly not the worst season of Love Island, season 7 was a bit of a disappointment as the first summer season since the COVID-19 pandemic, failing to strike the right balance between drama and escapism. The season's winners, Court and Reardon, were able to continue their relationship outside the villa, but ultimately split a year later.
7 Season 6 (2020)
Winners: Paige Turley and Finn Tapp
The first 'Winter' season of Love Island UK, season 6, was also the first to be hosted by Laura Whitmore. However, despite these unique qualities, it is regarded by most fans as fairly unremarkable. The season is light on compelling drama, featuring a cast who overall get along with one another and cause minimal conflict, which was appreciated as a change of pace by some viewers and seen as uninteresting by others.
The season featured some successful couples with strong chemistry, such as winners Finn Tapp and Paige Turley and runners-up Siânnise Fudge and Luke Trotman, and therefore completely delivered on the dating aspect of the show, although it was somewhat underwhelming to many audience members. Molly Smith and Callum Jones - two bombshells who showed up later in their season - began dating after the show ended, to which fans were elated. Although they split after six months, fans speculate otherwise.
6 Season 4 (2018)
Winners: Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer
One of Love Island UK's most controversial seasons, individuals' reactions to season 4 depend largely on how they feel about contestant Megan Barton Hanson and her on-again-off-again relationship with Wes Nelson. Megan brought consistent drama and shifting dynamics to the series with her roving eye and strong personality, and much of the season's edits focused on her.
With spicy drama and the show's most popular winning couple to date - Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham, who received a spectacular 79.66% of the public vote - season 4 makes for highly entertaining reality TV. It's further proof that, four seasons in, Love Island's popularity was still going strong (perhaps even growing).
5 Season 8 (2022)
Winners: Ekin-Su Cülcüloglu and David Sanclimenti
Season 8 of Love Island UK had a clear hero in the eyes of the public. The compulsively watchable Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, whose star quality, wild behavior and dazzling lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers storyline with Davide Sanclimenti earned the two of them the win with a remarkable 63.7% of the vote.
Season 8 is an entertaining season that deserves its positive reputation, although factors such as the mistreatment of contestant Tasha Ghouri by some of the other islanders, and the edits sometimes focusing on uninteresting storylines, prevent it from being one of Love Island's absolute best. Yet, the season proved successful for some, especially winners Cülcüloğlu and Sanclimenti who received their own short-lived travel series. Most recently, Cülcüloğlu appeared in season 2 of The Traitors.
4 Season 3 (2017)
Winners: Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies
Love Island season 3 is extremely well-regarded by fans, due to the season's entertaining challenges, the introduction of Casa Amor and the strong chemistry between the cast members, both romantic and platonic. Cast members from season 3 such as Kem Centinay and Olivia Attwood have remained popular in the public eye, finding success as presenters after the season.
Featuring iconic moments such as Kem, Chris Hughes and Marcel Somerville's 'Little Bit Leave It' rap, season 3 is incredibly memorable. As the season that set the blueprint for the show's format in years to come, season 3 is one of Love Island UK's very best. While overlooked during their season, runner-ups Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Hewett went on to get married and start a family.
3 Season 10 (2023)
Winners: Sammy Root and Jess Harding
Audiences were largely delighted with season 10, with a running joke in the fanbase being the exclamation that "the producers are producing!" The season was deeply entertaining, featuring a cast in which virtually every member brought unique and entertaining qualities to the show, such as the sweet eventual winner Jess Harding, the hilarious Whitney Adebayo and the mature yet acid-tongued Scott van-der-Sluis.
Additionally, and somewhat rare for Love Island, season 10's conflicts were mostly navigated through compelling heated discussions rather than screaming matches, which brought an overall more pleasant atmosphere to the series. Aside from a few mid-season lulls, season 10 was full of great episodes and storylines, making it one of Love Island's best. Plus, who can forget Ty and Whitney's iconic rap performance in the talent show?
2 Season 2 (2016)
Winners: Cara De la Hoyde and Nathan Massey
Beloved by many fans, season 2 of Love Island truly brought drama. Containing fights, gossip and seemingly unfiltered behavior from its contestants, the season has a reputation for being especially raw and real feeling in comparison to some of the more 'overproduced' later seasons. Additionally, the season's winners, Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey, had a sweet and genuine love story that progressed to them getting married and starting a family on the outside.
Featuring the show's first queer couple with Sophie Gradon and Katie Salmon, beauty queen Zara Holland being stripped of her real-life title of 'Miss Great Britain' after having sex on camera, and contestant Malia Arkian being removed from the villa for getting in a physical fight just hours after arriving, the cast of season 2 were some of the show's most unpredictable and surprising contestants.
1 Season 5 (2019)
Winners: Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea
Considering season 5 to be Love Island UK's best is a fairly standard opinion among fans. With a strong cast including likable influencer couple Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae Hague, the effortlessly cool Ovie Soko and the fiery Maura Higgins, it was underdog Amber Gill who became the fan-favorite and eventual winner after enduring weeks of romantic difficulty.
Featuring voice-over narrator Iain Stirling's best jokes, season 5 is consistently funny and perfectly balances its more dramatic moments with lighthearted entertainment. It contains compelling character arcs and many of the show's most iconic moments, such as Amy Hart's incredible takedown of Curtis Pritchard, season 5 is the highlight of Love Island to date.
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