Sophie Monk has revealed on Instagram that she will be returning as host of Love Island Australia for the second season. But that is not the most surprising part of her announcement. The fact that there will be a Season Two is far more shocking, at least when you look at the ratings.
Judging from Now to Love‘s own audience, the ‘looking-for-love-in-swimwear’ reality show had a loyal core audience – but looking at the hard cold rating, it failed to set Australia’s couch critics on fire, rarely notching up ratings over 195,000.
But Sophie’s announcement plus a couple quotes from Channel Nine’s program director Hamish Turner in Mumbrella last week give Love Island fans hope.
“I think there’s things we would do editorially different, there’s things we would do from a promotional perspective different,” Turner said.
“… overall the audience, the way they consume… that’s definitely key learnings for us in terms of what we would do to apply to a second season.”
Sophie announced her return as host in a typically self-deprecating post on her Instagram Stories.
“Sorry… I’m coming back.” Sophie wrote across a screen grab of a story from The Daily Telegraph. Source: Instagram
Sophie Monk’s management as well as Channel Nine have also come out recently and denied reports that the former Bachelorette would be axed as host of Love Island if a season two did eventuate.
“Sophie’s appearance on Love Island is exactly what we wanted and expected, and is in line with the format’s hosting duties as seen on the UK version,” a Channel Nine spokesman told The Daily Mail.
“Sophie is a treasured member of the Nine family and has a long-term deal with the Network. She is currently filming a travel show for us in Italy [see her Instagram post below] and we look forward to working with her on various upcoming projects.”
In the earlier stages of the Love Island season, Sophie copped a significant amount of criticism from show fans and critics about her lack of involvement on the show.
Viewers went on social media describing her as a “bogan” and “an embarrassment”. And then one of the evicted singles, Charlie Taylor added fuel to the fire when he revealed he barely saw the host during his time in the Spanish villa.
He told Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa, “I’ve seen her twice in the last eight to nine days – in the first and last episode, I saw her.”
Then there were concerns that the usually upbeat and funny blonde – who’s rumoured to have accepted a whopping $1m pay packet for the job – was reaching breaking point herself, losing weight and finding it hard to cope with the viewer flack.
The under-fire star took to social media to declare she was feeling homesick, telling fans she misses her family on her Instagram story.
“My nephews and niece make me so happy. I miss them,” she wrote, accompanied with a sad face.
But panning, poor viewer turnout and homesickness aside, it’s good news for fans that we will see both Sophie Monk and a new band of love-seeking sexy singles hopefully some time next year.
Love Island Australia winners Tayla Damir and Grant Crapp. Source OK!
Love Island did manage to get a bit of a following. Figures being bandied around claim that show garnered 180,000 YouTube subscribers which generated a total of 150 million views – but most of these were from outside of Australia.
And it was good news for contestants Tayla Damir and Grant Crapp who won the show and decided to split the $50,000 cash prize.
