Love Island Is Temporarily Canceled, Providing Opportunity to Catch Up On All 300 Hours of Love Island

Love Island, the sexy English reality television show where strangers are forced to couple up based on nothing, has been temporarily canceled. According to the Guardian, ITV’s director of television Kevin Lygo has decided that the show could not continue during this period of social distancing. “We have tried every which way to make Love Island this summer but logistically it’s just not possible to produce it in a way that safeguards the wellbeing of everyone involved,” he said in a statement. “We are very sorry for fans of the show but making it safely is our prime concern and Love Island will be back stronger than ever in 2021.”

As a one-time Love Island devote, I take this to be good news—now new fans of the series and curious parties alike can use the hiatus to catch up on nearly 300 hours of the show. That’s six seasons, not including international spinoffs: a season in the U.S., three seasons in Germany, two seasons in Australia, a season in Sweden and France… the list goes on. Even with Love Island off the air until 2021, there’s still so much Love Island to watch.

The same could be said about most quickly-produced reality television. Last week, ABC announced the forthcoming season of The Bachelorette starring Clare Crawley (a “who?” from Juan Pablo Galavis’s Season 18 of The Bachelor) has been delayed, replaced by a glorified clip-show of past moments from the franchise, called The Bachelor: The Most Unforgettable – Ever!. Each of the 10 episodes clocks in at three hours, and promises to highlight the most memorable moments of the show’s 18-year history. Instead, why not start getting through that 18-year history?

American Idol went remote and it was clumsy. Saturday Night Live did the same. All late night television, for that matter, has attempted entertaining video conferencing.

And yet, you can there are still old episode clips of American Idol on YouTube to stream. There are 45 seasons of SNL. Those shows are no doubt hurting, but that’s fine—you can always watch previous seasons. These shows will outlast us all, anyway, even in the few months they’re out of action.

And if that’s not enough, well, at least Below Deck: Mediterranean is coming back soon. Ahoy!