Has I Kissed a Boy made Love Island obsolete?

At the start of each summer, Love Island fans welcome the return of their favourite reality dating show on ITV. In recent years, though, viewers have complained that the long-running ITV series starts off “boring” or “slow”, as contestants are introduced to one another and begin getting to grips with their “situationships“.

Just two days into the latest series, however, fans are already seeing things heat up on their screens thanks to coupled-up islanders Molly March and Mitchell Taylor, who shared a kiss in the second episode on Tuesday night (6 May).

But instead of celebrating just how much Love Island has upped the ante this year, viewers have been quick to issue warnings to Molly, a social media influencer and musical theatre performer. Some claimed the pair were “moving too fast” while others predicted that Molly would get “her heart broken”.

This pearl-clutching over Molly and Mitchell’s first kiss is surprising, given how much hanky-panky Love Islanders got up to in the early years of the series. But the recent reticence over the pash is anew development among viewers, who seem to have forgotten the debauchery that took place in earlier series. Remember 2019 contestants Terry Walsh and Malin Anderson having sex in front of their housemates? Kissing on the second night seems rather chaste, now.

Meanwhile, “moving too fast” is the name of the game on I Kissed a Boy, the UK’s first gay dating show. Hosted by pop singer Dannii Minogue, the series launched on BBC Three last month and follows a group of single men living it up in an Italian villa. The clue is in the name: they have to kiss the moment they meet, before they can say a single word to one another.

I Kissed a Boy has proven to be a breath of fresh air for reality TV fans who love watching the drama unfold, early kisses and all. In fact, after the debut season ended on Monday 3 June, some viewers jumped straight into Love Island – and quickly realised something was missing.

“Finishing I Kissed a Boy last night and going straight to Love Island tonight is quite the culture shock,” one person wrote, while another added: “Campaign to replace all episodes of Love Island with endless repeats of I Kissed A Boy for state-sanctioned education and joy in equal measure.”

The series has proven so popular that the BBC has announced a lesbian spin-off series: I Kissed A Girl. At the same time, Love Island – once adored for its high-stakes drama – has been dogged by controversies, from social media trolling of its contestants to statements from women’s charities about concerning behaviour on display. The series has been tangled up in its long list of rules that were introduced to curb such antics and protect islanders from unwanted backlash. As such, contestants are banned from nudity and masturbating, as well as drunken sex and sex without a condom. More seriously, gaslighting, manipulation and unwanted sexual advances are strictly not allowed, to the relief of both contestants and viewers.

These rules are necessary and welcome, but also engineer an environment that makes developing an organic, genuine relationship even more difficult in front of the cameras. Punters have long been reading the last rites for Love Island, but the final nail in the coffin may have arrived in the form of a progressive, exciting new format in I Kissed A Boy. Where Love Island has started to feel stale, at long last we have a new dating show that’s spontaneous, joyous – and no one blinks twice at an early bit of snogging.