Over three million people tuned in to watch the Love Island 2022 premiere, it’s been revealed.
Figures dropped this morning, showing that the launch of the nation's favourite dating show saw an overnight TV audience peak of 3.0 million, posting the biggest TV viewership of the night for younger viewers, clawing in 1.1 million people aged between 16 and 34.
With a bigger audience than the programming on BBC Two, Channel 4 and Channel 5 combined, the 90-minute bumper-sized premiere averaged 2.4 million viewers on TV overnights, which rose to three million when overnight ITV Hub viewing on non-TV devices was factored in.
This means that Love Island enjoyed over a million more viewers than the overnight audience for any Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video programme launch in 2022 to-date.
The debut episode saw five female and five male Islanders kick-start this year’s Love Island adventure, with the public tasked with coupling them up based on first impressions, for the first time ever.
Whilst some of the Islanders were happy with who they had been paired with, others were left feeling unmoved. Gemma Owen – daughter of footballing legend Michael Owen – was one Islander in particular who has already set her sights elsewhere.
As is tradition, the first Bombshell of the series entered the villa, in the form of Italian hunk Davide Sanclimenti. Many of the women were taken aback by what they perceived to be utter perfection and, when it came time to play Dares, Gemma wasted no time in taking the opportunity to give Davide a little kiss on the lips.
Exactly who Davide is feeling remains to be seen, but when the episode reached its conclusion, he received the first text of the series. It informed him, and the group, that after 24 hours, he would be asked to couple up with one of the girls who are already in a couple, leaving the boy that she’s currently paired with in danger of going home.
All of that and more is set to play out in the next episode of the much-loved dating series!
Love Island continues tonight (June 7th) at 9pm on ITV2. The launch episode is available to stream now on the ITV Hub.
LOVE ISLAND 2022: Public decide who couples up with who in a new series premiere packed with twists!
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