Ariana Madix and Iain Stirling on ‘Love Island USA' Season 7 Surprises, Heart-Rate Challenge Aftermath and Toxic Fans: ‘To Be Cringe Is to Be Free'
Back in May, a TikTok account claiming to be Stirling announced his departure from the U.K. version to focus solely on 'Love Island USA.' The post sent shockwaves among the fandom, since Stirling's voice has become synonymous with the British dating show since its launch on ITV2 in June 2015.
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'I'm staying, OK,' Stirling told Variety over Zoom. 'I love both of them so much. I'm going nowhere. It was a fake account that made a fake post.'
Stirling is well known to American audiences as the voice behind the Peacock mega-hit reality dating series 'Love Island USA,' and has been narrating the islanders' activities since joining for Season 4 in July 2022. While the cast and crew film in Fiji, Stirling records his quick and witty voiceovers from his in-home recording studio in London.
'Love Island USA' has experienced a significant increase in viewership after the immense popularity of Season 6. Currently in its seventh season, the show's success has continued, with this season drawing more than 1.6 billion minutes watched the week of June 13-19, according to Luminate's streaming data.
When asked what makes this season different than last year, Stirling talked about the team dynamic among the current islanders. 'Last year had legendary love islanders, and you never have that many excellent contestants on one series,' he said. 'It was a weird fluke. This season is more of a team sport. Everyone's just moving mad, and creating this beautiful synergy. This year, the show's doing all the work, and last year, the individuals were.'
In an interview later in the day, 'Love Island USA' host Ariana Madix said: 'Going into this season, people would ask me what advice would I give for the islanders going into Season 7. My biggest thing was to not try to be anything like anyone in the past season, and I feel like they've lived up to that.'
She continued: 'What's really beautiful about this show in general is that the audience can always suss out if they feel like someone's being genuine and authentic. As the season gets closer to ending, people's true colors will continue to come out, and the audience will have their say.'
Here, Madix spoke with Variety about the dynamics of Season 7.
I immediately felt that going into night one — they seemed more nervous and reserved. And I thought, 'Is this a Gen Z thing? Am I witnessing the difference between being a millennial and being Gen Z right in front of my face? That they're just more scared of being perceived?' I don't think it's more about the audience or wanting to be a certain way because of cameras. I think it's genuinely being nervous just to be open, because they have been perceived their whole lives online, and there's a genuine fear sometimes of being called cringe. I wish people would take a tip from the older millennials, such as myself, that to be cringe is to be free. As the season has progressed, you're seeing a lot more of their inner cringe come out, and they feel a lot more relaxed.
I feel protective of them because I know — regardless of whether the audience likes them or not — every single one of them is in that villa doing their absolute best. Even if they make a wrong choice or they do something that people watching the show say they would never do, no one can ever know what it's like until you're in their shoes. I love our passionate fan base and engaging with a lot of the online discourse about the show, because the community is part of what makes the show so amazing. But if you are harassing, doxing and cyberbullying, that's not a true fan of the show — because our fans wouldn't do that. Those are people who I would rather they either don't engage at all or find a way to engage in your group text.
There's a conversation that could be had with Ace as well, because he seemed very enthusiastic about Huda's performance. But when I watched the whole episode, it was hard for me to pinpoint where they said that she went too far, because I felt that all of the islanders were participating to the fullest. We'll have to see how that conversation pans out with Chelley and Huda. With Huda's skills, I would feel some way, too, just because I can't do that.
It's hard to say. Moments before that, I saw people doing splits on people and three-way kisses. I saw a lot happening that makes it difficult for me to say, because I'm curious about what the line is.
I love sisterhood. I love it when girls support each other. Sometimes, this season, it has felt a little like they wanted to be a sisterhood before they got to know each other well enough to say that. It feels like that makes them scared to be honest with each other. Hopefully, this will be a moment of honesty between them. Although, I didn't like when Huda was mad during those challenges. Now, I don't like when anyone gets mad during the challenges. I support people not getting mad in challenges and going all out. It is interesting that [Huda's] feelings have changed, although I wish her feelings would have changed back then.
That shakeup was so necessary, because we've seen season after season girls go to Casa and not engage whatsoever, only to be loyal to people who are then not loyal in return. We also see people try to use their return from Casa as a way to garner goodwill with the audience. It's happened where it's been very genuine. However, we've also seen people try to use being loyal or doing a lot in Casa just to come back single to be with their partner. I don't want to see people try to recreate things from the past because they think that that's going to be their way to skate through to the finale. Making it so the islanders don't know what to expect prevents anything like that. It was necessary because we also see some Casa people come in every year and not have any choice in anything that goes on. They come in for a few days, and then they're gone. We don't get to know them. We also see Casa people come in every season and be villainized entirely because they did exactly what Casa people are supposed to do.
This year, I love that we gave the Casa people agency over who they wanted to get to know. I loved the way that we made it so that everybody was going to recouple; nobody was singled out and couldn't be villainized for the crime of just getting to know a new person.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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Chicano punk icons Juanita y Juan keep on rocking for new generations
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There's something going on, and I don't know about it. You don't know about it, because it's not for us to know about. You both have shown many Latinos how to live authentically to your identity, to your values. What's a quick bite of encouragement or advice for young, weird Latino kids? Especially now, when it's hard not to feel demoralized about what's happening across the country? K.C.P.: Well, to live authentically is a path that can be lonely. But it's also very empowering. And I get to be in my 60s and say I've done music exactly as I've pleased. That is possible. I had no idea how to play guitar until Jeffrey Lee Pierce said, 'Here's a guitar. I think you can do this. And you're gonna do it.' I thought, 'If this one person believes in me, then I'm gonna try it.' You just have to say yes to yourself. A.B.: I would also say you're not alone. Every day, there's a bombardment of things in the world and in the U.S. that you want to resist. It's very easy to become despondent and overwhelmed. But you don't have to feel like you're lifting this whole weight by yourself. It's important to know that you do have a community that stands with you. We're all working in different ways. We're all a band. We're going to make it through this together.
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