Prepare for the Summer of Love Island

On Monday night, the season five premiere of Love Island—the U.K.s favorite dating competition show—drew 3.3 million viewers to ITV2, according to Deadline. Its a stunning coup, besting an already impressive season four premiere episode, which drew 2.9 million viewers last year. All those viewers also made the reality series the highest-rated show at 9 p.m., local time. In addition, 488,000 people watched the live simulcast on ITV Hub, the networks on-demand service; its also already the most-watched show of the year for 16–24 year olds.

In other words: welcome, folks, to the summer of Love Island. The hit show revolves around a handful of young, single men and women who are sent to live in a paradisiacal Mallorcan villa for the summer, coupling up in the hopes that theyll find true love. U.K. viewers vote for their favorite couples until just one duo is selected to win the £50,000 prize at the end. Episodes air daily; by the time season four wrapped, there were 57 episodes total.

Though it may seem like ITV is saturating the market and hurting the shows ratings by airing episodes so frequently, the daily format has proven addictive, pulling in millions of viewers who tune in for every little move in the villa. One of the biggest episodes of the last season drew in 3.2 million viewers; more than 4 million viewers tuned in for the season finale. By the end of season four, the show became the most-watched program in ITV2 history.

For American viewers, the show is more of a recent success, thanks to Hulu picking up the rights to seasons one through four in 2018, while season four was still airing in the U.K. Its become such a hit that CBS is plotting an American version, which is set to premiere July 9. Like the British version, it will also air five days a week. Instead of Mallorca, contestants will live together in a villa in Fiji. And the U.S. isnt the first country to license the model—Germany, Sweden, and Australia all have their own versions of Love Island, proving the global appeal of the U.K. phenomenon thats taking over television this summer.

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