Looks like we’re getting a Nigerian version of ‘Love Island’

Here's how Nigerian Twitter reacted to the news

Written by The Native - 21.Sep.2020

If Big Brother Naija has shown us anything for the past two months, it’s that Nigerians love reality shows and the drama that comes with them. For the past two months, a significant portion of the populace have been, as expected, glued to the ongoing fifth season of the show, and while this is now the norm for the well-established BBNaija brand, it’s also an indicator that the country is a potential hotspot for many entertaining reality show formats.

Over the weekend, word got out that the UK-originated reality show, “Love Island”, will be coming to Nigeria very soon, as the format of the show has now been acquired by Nigerian-based media and entertainment network, Digital Play, from its original producers, UK-based ITV studios. The executive chairman of Digital Play, Toyin Subair, publicised the news via his Instagram account, stating that the deal was announced during the ITV Studios Fall Festival that took place last week.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFUtvViFlpP/?igshid=3izrqc8o6mgw

After its successful reboot in 2015, “Love Island” quickly became a hit initially amongst viewers in the UK, before going to gather audiences across the world. With this level of success, the dating reality series has gone on to become an international franchise, spawning offshoots in over a dozen countries including the U.S, Australia, Sweden and more. Nigeria and Spain are the latest countries to co-opt the “Love Island” title and format.

Last summer, the timeline collectively watched the series’ 5th season every night, and together we fawned over the drama in the villa which housed two British-Nigerian contestants: Yewande Biala and Ovie Soko. Earlier on in the year, before the ‘rona turned the world upside down, we also enjoyed the likes of British-Ghanaian Leanne Manning and Michael Boateng who brought an extra layer of entertainment to the house. There is no doubt that with an exclusively Nigerian or African cast, the show is bound to be even more exciting than we know it to be.

There’s no certain date as to when the first season of “Love Island: Nigeria” will go into production and begin to air, however, it is definite that it will air on Lagos-based television station TVC, for terrestrial, and on 9 Vision Media for digital. Since the news got on Twitter, the potential—or inevitable—drama of a Nigerian version of “Love Island” has got many excited, resulting in a lot of jokes and excited reactions filling up the timeline. Check out some of the reactions below.

https://twitter.com/1ansong_/status/1307690095336656896?s=09

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