Love Island sheds nearly a million viewers as episode airs in later slot
The programme showed the fallout after the latest dramatic recoupling.
Love Island suffered a drop of nearly one million viewers after Tuesday night’s episode was delayed due to the World Cup game between England and Colombia.
The ITV2 dating programme, which usually airs at 9pm every night, was broadcast in the later slot of 10pm due to the football match going into extra time on ITV.
Love Island had first been billed to air at 9.30pm on Tuesday, but was pushed back by a further 30 minutes so it would not clash with the sporting event on the other channel.
The episode drew an average of 2.5 million viewers with an audience share of 13.2%, according to overnight ratings.
It peaked at 3.1 million viewers.
The previous night’s episode of Love Island became ITV2’s most-watched programme ever, pulling in an average of 3.4 million viewers in the overnight ratings, which take into account those watching on catch-up channel ITV2+1.
Shortly after 9pm, the official Love Island Twitter account told fans the programme had been pushed back into a later slot.
The announcement made a reference to contestants Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer’s reunion in the previous edition of the programme, after they were separated in different villas.
The tweet read: “And you thought the wait for Jack and Dani’s reunion was long!
“We’ll now be on after football at 22.00pm on ITV2.”
Many of the show’s viewers took to social media to voice their disappointment.
One reacted: “No! Too late for early morning workers! Anyone interested in Love Island wont be watching football.”
Another complained that the show’s fans in the rest of the UK had not been considered.
They wrote: “Very discriminatory towards us Scottish, Welsh and Irish viewers.”
The episode saw Jack and Dani declare their love for each other, while Dani went for a chat with her boyfriend’s former flame, Ellie Jones.
Georgia Steel also told her former partner, Josh Denzel, that she does not believe he is happy with his new girl, Kazimir Crossley, in a tense conversation following their reunion.
