'Love Island' fans split over scrapped twist in final

Love Island crowned its 2022 winning couple on Monday night - but fans of the show were divided over a last-minute announcement that the traditional final twist had been scrapped.

The ITV2 dating show ends each season with the winners named as the viewers' favourite couple after a public vote and they are then asked whether they'll choose "love or money" as they're offered the chance to stay together and share the £50,000 jackpot, or split and keep the lot for themselves.

Read more: Love Island accused of misogyny over treatment of Ekin-Su and Gemma

Whichever half of the couple choose to split would get to keep the money while their partner walked away with nothing, but in a controversial move, the twist was axed from the 2022 final.

At the start of Monday's final episode, host Laura Whitmore announced that the winners would split the £50,000 and "wouldn't be asked to choose between love and money".

Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Davide Sanclimenti were named the winners who would each get half of the money, but fans of the show were split over whether they thought scrapping the decision was the right thing to do.

One viewer tweeted: "Isn’t the whole point of love island to see if their partner will share the money with them at the end… why would they get rid of that."

Someone else commented: "Wait they don’t do the split or steal the money anymore??? I waited 8 weeks for nothing."

Read more: Big Brother set to return with ITV reboot

Another viewer wrote: "No no no #LoveIsland what happened to the money bit?!?! We have been robbed."

Someone else tweeted: "No way they scrapped the option to keep all the money. Potential absolute scenes being stolen from us."

Although many winning couples have split shortly after the show's end, no one has opted to steal the money before - leading some viewers to think it had been the right decision to get rid of the twist.

One fan wrote: "I think they’ve finally realised how pointless the split and steal is."

Another added: "Have they finally stopped bothering with the split and steal option? Because it really never worked."

But someone else tweeted: "The first time I thought someone would steal the money and they don’t even do it… I’ve been robbed."

Ekin-Su and Davide were chosen as the winners over runner-up couple Luca Bish and Michael Owen's daughter Gemma, with many viewers sharing a photo of the second place contestants looking sour faced and comparing it to a famous scene from Come Dine With Me.

In the dinner party contest episode, one competitor told the winner: "You won, Jane. Enjoy the money. What a sad little life, Jane. You ruined my night completely so you could have the money and I hope now you can spend it on lessons in grace and decorum. Because you have all the grace of a reversing dump truck without any tyres on."

Many Love Island viewers replaced the name Jane with Ekin-Su in the quote, with one person commenting: "'You won Jane, enjoy the money' vibes."

Watch: Davide and Ekin-Su announced as Love Island 2022 winners