When Liv Walker first heard from the “Love Island USA” casting team, she thought it might be a scam. After all, she had never even seen the show. Originally scouted for Season 5 of the reality dating show, Walker turned down the initial offer.
But when the casting team reached out again for the sixth season a year later in 2024, she decided to give the show a shot. Season 6 went on to transform the U.S. installment of “Love Island,” distinguishing itself from the U.K. version that had popularized the idea of dropping a group of young, ready-to-mingle strangers together into a private villa cut off from the outside world. The series switched to Peacock for its fourth season, replacing Vandenberg with Sarah Hyland — before Ariana Madix officially took over as host in Season 6.
Following her dramatic break-up with Tom Sandoval, the “Vanderpump Rules” star brought the Bravo audience over to Peacock, and the dynamic cast kept them watching. Just a head’s up, the show did better than ‘Bridgerton,’” Walker tells Variety. Those numbers have only continued to grow in the two years since.
This past summer, Season 8 drew 19 billion minutes watched, translating to 7.9 million views, according to data from Peacock. The newly Bravo-fied “Aftersun” spinoff, now co-hosted by “Summer House” star Ciara Miller, saw a 135% increase in viewership from last season. And with other spinoff series such as “Beyond the Villa” and “Love Island Games,” many Islanders continue their journey far beyond their original seasons.
For Walker, Season 6 was the beginning of what she calls “the catapult.” For the franchise, it was the beginning of a transformation from a reality dating series into something much larger — one that would transform its contestants into global celebrities and content creators in the process. In fact, several of the season’s Islanders say the opposite was true: They had no idea anyone would be watching at the scale they ultimately were. Kaylor Martin, who appeared alongside Walker in Season 6, was a senior in college when she applied.
She was working three jobs, had about 4,000 Instagram followers and rarely posted on social media. That naivete, she believes, is part of what made Season 6 resonate. The cast wasn’t performing for an audience they knew was watching.
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