Ariana Madix’s Bravo Twist Revived the Show from Boredom

Love Island USA is, finally, good TV.

For its sixth season, Love Island USA dropped host Sarah Hyland in favor of Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix. While Ariana is a great host, Sarah was also good, making the host change inconsequential. What truly stands out is the new ethos of the series. Love Island USA has now been Bravo-fied.

In the past, the American spinoff of the U.K. dating show lacked fan engagement. Previous seasons offered few memorable characters, and the drama was mundane. Love Island USA needed an adrenaline shot, and NBC found it by adding elements reminiscent of Vanderpump Rules.

The experiment has yielded impressive results. NBCUniversal reports that the streaming reach has doubled from prior seasons, making the show Peacock’s most-watched and most-talked-about series. In a critical time, Love Island USA got the much-needed Bravo boost.

Like any good Housewives franchise, Love Island USA unhesitatingly scraped the bottom of the barrel for talent. For example, Rob, who is on his second chance to sow chaos and act like a pretentious douchebag, and Aaron from The Traitors UK. Kordell, Odell Beckham Jr.’s brother, is another addition who unabashedly admits he’s an aspiring actor, model, and Cheez-It ambassador. Surprisingly, Kordell is among the less exciting characters.

The girls, lacking reality TV experience or notable connections, make up for it with their whiplash-inducing decisions. For example, Kaylor breaks down when Aaron shows interest in Liv, only to cozy up to newbie Connor in the next episode. Liv, skipping over Aaron, chooses Rob seemingly just to stir controversy, only for them to realize they can’t make it work after Liv confesses she likes Ed Sheeran while Rob prefers beabadoobee.

Throughout the season, fans have been mapping the template of Vanderpump Rules onto the islanders. With Madix’s presence, this connection feels inevitable. Liv is often called a “girl’s girl” like VPR’s Ariana or Katie, though Serena seems more fitting for that title. Rob and Aaron have been compared to VPR’s Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz, respectively. Rob has the sinister streak of Sandoval, while Aaron is more dopey like Schwartz. The duo even has a lustful homoerotic tension reminiscent of the Toms’ relationships.

The show is also edited with the Bravo flair. It relies heavily on confessionals and cuts to spats of drama mid-conversation. The editing gives a comforting sense that a cleverly sarcastic individual is behind the scenes, sipping iced coffee and pulling the clips together. This knack for drama is a key to Bravo’s success, even reflected in the soundtrack’s choices like “HOT TO GO,” “Von Dutch,” and an emotional acoustic rendition of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.”

Like old seasons of RHONY, the show is simply funny. Connor tells JaNa he’s into reading, and she earnestly replies, “Before I got here, I was reading the dictionary.” Early-out Hannah hasn’t quite mastered makeup setting, leaving any guy she kisses looking like they raided a powdered donut factory. Kaylor struggles to determine whether the U.K. is in Europe, while JaNa cries over her limited knowledge of plant species.

If Love Island USA has a focal point, it’s Leah. Her viral soundbites make her a standout, like many good Housewives. Among them is the infamous, “suck my dick, whatever you’ve heard about me, times it by a million, and if you think it’s bad, make it worse.” She even has a stellar Rob impression, almost as good as RHOSLC’s Meredith’s impression of Whitney. Dubbed the “Calabasas queen” by TikTok, Leah is reality TV gold.

Then there’s the dumping drama. The girls vote to dump Andrea, who had paired off with Rob. This causes Rob to threaten to leave the villa. The events are dramatic, campy, slightly produced, but captivating. The emotional spills of RHOBH’s Amsterdam dinner party and RHONJ’s wine-throwing Cabo fight converge in two utterly shocking episodes. Though Rob stays, the crying sessions around the makeup counter almost make it worth it.

Since that blowout night, the drama has become more subtle. Here lies the flaw in declaring Love Island USA a full-out Bravo affair; once relationships solidify, the drama feels staid. There are still peaks: the unraveling of Kendall’s “nice guy” act, the psychological torture of Kaylor, and Leah’s side commentary. Some cute moments adhere to the Love Island tradition, like Serena and Kordell finally working out their slow-burn relationship and JaNa finding her Prince Charming in bombshell Kenny. However, these moments pale in comparison to the first half of the season.

Despite the occasional slump, this sixth season is far superior to any previous iteration of Love Island USA. The initial CBS premiere was maddeningly boring, and the later move to Peacock slightly improved things. The show’s strength grew slowly, reaching a tipping point in its fifth season when Sarah Hyland reprimanded an islander for calling her question “mad disrespectful,” muttering with gravity, “boys will be boys.” It was a glimpse of a new era, which has now fully come to fruition.

In multiple of Ariana’s walk-ins, contestants mistake her for a bombshell, assuming she’s joining the cast. This mix-up feels apt as Love Island has transformed into a romantic Vanderpump Rules, filled with delicious Stassi-wannabes and unknowing Jax lookalikes. Given the underwhelming recent season of VPR, NBC might want to consider hiring them.

Source: The Daily Beast