Why We Rarely Ever See Love Island Contestants In The Pool
"Love Island" is considered one of the best British reality TV shows, and a big part of the show's charm is its beautiful villa, as viewers can imagine lounging about in the villa themselves. The UK version of "Love Island" was forced to create a new villa in 2022 as, according to Metro, the previous villa had been rented and was no longer available. This gave the show a chance to revamp the look of the show and make some practical adjustments. Executive producer Mike Spencer explained this to The York Press: "It's the first time, I think, that we've designed it more editorially," Spencer explained. "We know how many chat areas we need, we know you want those places you can sneak off to." Thus, this was all kept in mind when designing the villa.
Fans got their first look at the villa through a tour on Instagram that showed off the changes such as the giant heart out front or the pop-art-inspired paintings in the bedroom featuring mouths and tongues suggestively licking fruits. However, while fans may fantasize about taking their own vacation in the villa, many have noticed that the contestants rarely use the pool that's available to them, despite always lounging around it.
There's two major reasons to avoid the water
UK contestant Zara McDermott, speaking to Closer, offered up the explanation that contestants can't wear microphones in the pool, so the production team prefers that they stay on dry land. "You're not allowed to really talk or have any conversations if you don't have a mic on," McDermott explained. "So obviously if you're going to have a chat you're encouraged to get out and then that's when they'd film." While this makes perfect, practical sense, there may also be another explanation.
Another UK contestant, Kady McDermott (no relation), also speaking to Closer, had an alternate explanation for why the contestants never use the pool: "We didn't actually get in the pool a lot because it's so cold," McDermott explained. "Because we went into the villa at the end of May and it's just about getting into summer, the pool hasn't been heated or anything." Of course, both explanations can be true.
As one Reddit user, u/SunsetDreams1111, pointed out, going in the pool just generally doesn't make good television. "It's not great TV, just like eating. We know they eat, but we don't always see it. When editors need to cut a show down, they need a lot of dialogue to fill in the gaps." That's a good point, as there are probably many activities that the contestants engage in that never make it to the final cut (and a lot of it probably for very good reasons). They could, of course, set up full live streams of the moments that are cut from the final edit of the show, much like "Big Brother" does, but viewers are probably better served cutting straight to the juicy drama.