Development, Caroline Flack era (2015–2019) hosted
Love Island for the first five series until her death on 15 February 2020. On 13 February 2015, it was confirmed that
Love Island would be returning, and would be aired on
ITV2. However this series would include members of the public rather than celebrities. On 18 April 2015, it was announced that
Caroline Flack would be hosting the show. The series began airing on 7 June 2015, with a live special showing the new Islanders enter the villa. During the series, celebrity guests entered the villa including
Calum Best who won the second and final series of the first iteration of Love Island in 2006.
Mark Wright also appeared to DJ at contestant Lauren Richardson's 27th birthday party. The first series ended on 15 July 2015 and was won by Jess Hayes and Max Morley. In 2017, fourth-placed finalists Cally Jane Beech and Luis Morrison became the first couple from the show to have a baby together. , narrator of
Love Island since its inception in 2015. The second series was confirmed on 14 February 2016, and began airing on 30 May 2016. This series featured the first Islander to be removed from the villa. Malia Arkian only spent a matter of hours in the villa before she was removed from the series by the producers after an altercation with
Kady McDermott. It also included a number of Islanders who decided to voluntarily leave the villa, the first being Rykard Jenkins. Also during this series, Islander
Zara Holland was stripped of her
Miss Great Britain title due to her behaviour in the villa. The second series also included
Sophie Gradon and Katie Salmon becoming the first same-sex couple on the show. The series was eventually won by Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey on 11 July 2016. On 15 September 2018, the series runners-up
Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen married, becoming the first couple from Love Island to marry. The third series was confirmed on 14 February 2017, and began airing on 5 June 2017. This series was the first series to include a second villa, which was brought into the series during a twist set to put the couples to the ultimate test. This series also featured dumped Islanders
Mike Thalassitis and Sam Gowland returning to the villa after being voted back in by the public; a first for the show. The series ended on 24 July 2017 and was won by
Amber Davies and
Kem Cetinay. During the final
Aftersun episode of the series, which was presented live from outside the villa, it was announced that there would be a one-off reunion special airing on 30 July 2017 which included all of the Islanders from the series. The fourth series began on 4 June 2018, and launched with a record 4,050,000 viewers making it the most watched multichannel TV programme since the
2012 Summer Olympics were broadcast on
BBC Three, and the most watched ever on
ITV2. The series included the reintroduction of "Casa Amor" following its success in the previous series. The series concluded on 30 July 2018 and was won by
Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham, who received a record-breaking 79.66% of the final vote. It was also confirmed that another one-off reunion special would air a week after the final. As the fourth series began, the Islanders experienced tragedy with the suicides of Gradon and her boyfriend Aaron Armstrong, as well as the suicide of Thalassitis months after the series concluded. After the latter's death, the programme announced that they would offer counselling to all contestants in hopes of preventing further suicides. A fifth series was confirmed on 30 July 2018, which started broadcasting on 3 June 2019. The series increased upon the previous success of the fourth, gaining a record-breaking 4,700,000 viewers on TV sets and a further 1,400,000 viewers on other devices for the episode following Casa Amor, the most for any ITV2 broadcast. Furthermore, more than half of the viewers were in the 16 to 34 age bracket. The series concluded on 29 July 2019 and was won by
Amber Gill and
Greg O'Shea with a 48.82% share of the vote.
Launch of Winter series, Caroline Flack steps down (2019) On 24 July 2019, ITV announced that two series of
Love Island would air in 2020 – one in the winter and another in the traditional summer slot. The winter series would be broadcast in January 2020 from a new villa in
South Africa. On 17 December 2019, Flack announced that she would be standing down as host for the sixth series following allegations of assault towards her boyfriend,
Lewis Burton. On 20 December, it was announced that fellow TV presenter
Laura Whitmore would be standing in as the new host.
Death of Caroline Flack (2020) On 15 February 2020, Flack was found dead in her London home, prompting ITV to pull two episodes from airing out of respect for the former host at the weekend. Series 6 continued from 17 February and Iain Stirling, the show's narrator, paid tribute to Flack saying he was devastated by the loss of his "true friend". Sponsorship adverts for fast-food company
Just Eat were replaced by a message telling people to
be kind, with a contact number for the
Samaritans.
Laura Whitmore era (2020–2022) took over as host starting with the sixth series in 2020. On 20 December 2019, it was announced that fellow TV presenter
Laura Whitmore would be taking over as the new host, after
Caroline Flack stood down from hosting the show. On 4 May 2020,
Love Island announced the cancellation of the summer 2020 show due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Kevin Lygo, ITV's Director of Television said in a statement: "We have tried every which way to make Love Island this summer but logistically it's just not possible to produce it in a way that safeguards the wellbeing of everyone involved and that for us is the priority. In normal circumstances we would be preparing very soon to travel out to the location in Mallorca to get the villa ready but clearly that's now out of the question." It was later confirmed that the show would not be airing a winter version of the series in 2021 due to uncertainties regarding the pandemic and international travel. On 4 March 2021, ITV confirmed that
Love Island would return in the summer after an 18-month hiatus. An eighth series was announced at the end of series seven in August 2021 and began airing the following summer on 6 June 2022. Also in June 2022, ITV announced that two series would air in 2023, with one airing in the New Year in
South Africa and the second returning to
Mallorca in its usual summer slot. On 22 August, Whitmore announced that she would not be returning to host the show's ninth series in January 2023.
Maya Jama era (2022–present) took over from Whitmore as host starting with the ninth series in 2023. On 12 October 2022, ITV2 announced that
Maya Jama would be taking over from Whitmore as
Love Island host. On 5 September 2023, ITV confirmed
Love Island: All Stars, with the new series taking place in
South Africa in 2024. ==Hosts==