Love Island USA is moving to Peacock for its fourth season, and this could be a very good thing for the dating reality show.
While cable TV subscribers might not want to pay the extra money to subscribe to Peacock to watch it, the fans who were subscribing to Paramount+ to see the “good stuff” last season can just switch from one streaming service to the other for the same cost.
With that in mind, the biggest positive for Love Island USA moving to Peacock is that it should be a lot more like its more popular Love Island UK because it no longer answers to the censors on CBS.
However, that is not the only thing that Love Island USA needs to do to rebound from a lesser-appreciated third season.
More risqué games
One of the reasons that CBS threw up its additional shows on the Paramount+ streaming service was because the censors on CBS wouldn’t allow some of the games and contests to show the best parts.
The best thing about Love Island USA going fully to a streaming service is that the games and contests can be shown in full, without the censors pumping the brakes on the moments.
The best part of the U.K. version is the steamy and often raunchy games and contests, and fans love to watch them.
Adding in the fun games and keeping them on the actual episodes without forcing viewers to see a “special” episode on the streaming service would make the main show even better.
More body variety in Islanders
It seemed that last season, every guy was a bodybuilder who spent almost as much time looking at himself in the mirror as anything.
The guys were all fans of working out and lifting weights and all looked the same. The women were – mostly – models who looked great in bikinis.
This was fine because one thing that people love to watch is beautiful people doing sexy things.
However, once Alana Paolucci joined the show, she became a fan favorite. A plus-sized model, she ended up making such a mark that she ended up in the finals.
Having a better variety of bodies on the show could make for better connections.
More interesting Islanders
It is also a big deal to have more interesting Islanders competing.
Last season, the OGs showed up, all of them connected, and then anyone who showed up on the show later that seemed more interesting went home almost immediately.
The show has a chance to change this by changing up when Islanders arrive and offering a chance to see more interesting people on Love Island USA.
There were some very interesting people in Season 3, including Cashay Proudfoot, but picking people as much for their personalities as for their looks would make the show better.
Less ‘creative editing’
It is also important to show why the Islanders are interesting.
From what everyone has said, Jeremy Hershberg was one of the funniest Islanders in Season 3. However, the editing of the show never allowed viewers at home to see that side of him.
There is also the idea that the show didn’t show everything that happened in the fights.
When Shannon and Will got into it in Season 3, it showed her going off on him and never showed the full extent of their blowup. If Love Island USA wants fans to vote based on what they see, make it fair to everyone involved.
Show the good and bad of the Islanders
As mentioned, Jeremy Hershberg was supposed to be really funny on the show, but it never showed it on the episodes.
Also, Will and Kyra remained controversial as they always seemed to be going off together and were left out of the main episode filming.
Shannon was always shown blowing up at Josh and others, but it almost looked like the show was trying to portray her as a firecracker.
There was so much that fans didn’t see, and Love Island USA would benefit from showing the good and the bad for all the characters to keep it interesting.
Ignore the fans wanting more control
One of the biggest complaints from fans in Season 3 was that they wanted the rights to send Islanders home.
That would be the worst thing in the world for Love Island USA.
The entire purpose of the show is to have Islanders find what many hope is true love on the show. Fans just want to vote on people they don’t like based on the editing of the show.
Last season, if the fans voted off who they didn’t like, the Islanders would have never found who they wanted.
Shannon proved that she would rather leave when Josh left than stay without him. If viewers voted out someone like Will, Kyra almost surely would have left with him.
Cashay, a fan favorite, also proved she would rather leave than stay when she knew the man she wanted was already gone.
Fewer clique attitudes with the OGs
One thing that kept Love Island USA from reaching that next level was the clique attitude from the OGs.
The first Islanders showed up on the show and they stuck together, basically blocking almost everyone who showed up after them.
It isn’t clear how to make this better. Maybe have competitions where a losing couple could end up eliminated to make it more challenging to make it to the end and the prize money.
It also might work to give the newcomers chances to stay outside of just trying to crack that original group of OGs, which seemed almost impossible last season.
Seeing the exciting Casa Amor episodes end up boring and predictable was the end for some viewers last season. More of the Casa Amor people should move back to the main villa.
Second chance opportunities for fan favorites
When Casa Amor happened last season, there was one very disappointing thing that happened.
For much of the season, fan-favorite Javonny Vega wanted to win the love of Olivia Kaiser, and she led him on for a long time.
When she finally dumped him, he realized it was time for him to move on and fans were excited about it. Then he was eliminated.
When the guys went to Casa Amor, the new girls were disappointed since they wanted to have a chance with Javonny.
When a fan favorite is eliminated, it might be nice to have the fans get a chance once or twice during the season to bring him or her back. This would have been gold for Casa Amor in Season 3.
A longer season
Love Island UK lasted for eight weeks and that gave the Islanders a lot of time to get to know each other and choose wisely.
It made it easier for fans to grow invested in the couples because they had built something.
Love Island USA lasted for barely over one month, at 40 total days. This barely gave some Islanders time to really get to know each other.
With a longer timeframe, the new Islander arrivals could be spread out and the guys and girls could have a better chance of knowing when it is time to move on or stick with their current partner.
Bring back Matthew Hoffman and Arielle Vandenberg
The last thing we want to see in Love Island USA is for the show to bring back host Arielle Vandenberg and the voice of the island, Matthew Hoffman.
Arielle is funny and charming, and she is someone that clearly makes the Islanders comfortable when she arrives, even though they know someone is going home.
However, the MVP of Love Island USA is Matthew Hoffman. The comedian has the best one-liners and his comments are often better than what is playing out on the screen.
Mathew has said he often has a short amount of time to add his one-liners, and if that is true, the guy is brilliant and brings so much fun to the series.
Love Island USA is on hiatus. The reality dating competition series will return later in 2022 to Peacock.