Love Island confirms start date for 2024 summer series

Love Island has announced the long-awaited start date for its summer series, as it returns to ITV2 for an 11th season.

The popular dating show sees a group of charismatic singletons share a villa in Majorca as they attempt to find love and survive public “dumpings”. The goal is for islanders to find love and win over viewers to win the £50,000 prize.

On Monday (27 May), this year’s romance-hungry hopefuls were revealed, ranging from a sweet salesman to a personal shopper.

Just over three months since Love Island’s all-star winter series, which ended in February, fans will be able to watch a brand new lineup of contestants as they go for chats, figure out where their heads are at and inevitably realise: “It is what it is.”

The show begins on Monday 3 June at 9pm on ITV1, ITV2 and ITVX simultaneously. Love Island will continue on ITV2 and ITVX for the remainder of the series.

In a post on the programme’s official account on X/Twitter, a picture of presenter Maya Jama dressed in red with a flaming heart in the background can be seen with the caption “We’re coming in hot”, alongside a flame emoji.

Committed fans were eager for the show to start as they urged: “Hurry up and show the lineup.”

“I’ll be sat,” said another fan, while one student lamented: “Really, just when I’m starting to write exams.”

However, not everyone was thrilled as they hoped that the show could shake up its format with interesting characters and surprising games.

“Let’s hope it was better than the last get some interesting people in, do good challenges. Or this will be the last I see,” threatened one viewer.

Others were even less impressed as they hit out: “Abysmal show. Get it in the bin.”

Still, its faithful followers were ready and waiting for a summer of new drama.

“I don’t know how and why Love Island just does it for me. Pure giddiness,” said one fan.

The show has adopted some changes from previous seasons including having the islanders pausing their social media accounts for the duration of their time on the show (as opposed to being run by their family and friends).

Training on inclusive language and behaviour around disability, sexuality, race and ethnicity, and microaggressions is also said to be provided to contestants and staff.