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Fiji is calling. Are you ready to answer?

Peacock’s Love Island USA has become a golden nugget for the streamer — the nationwide watch parties, sky-high streaming numbers and social media presence speak for themselves.

“Watching the videos of people jumping out of their chairs, screaming [and] cheering was so cool,” host Ariana Madix tells The Hollywood Reporter of all the fan support last year. “It was so validating because that’s also how I felt when I saw it. So it felt as though we were connecting from the other side of the world in our excitement for all of the things going on.”

But keeping that momentum with fans going is another challenge (and we’re not talking about those messy Islander challenges, iykyk). But it’s something the team behind the reality dating show embraces.

Love Island USA, based on the original U.K. reality series, follows a group of single Islanders in search of love in a stunning Fijian villa. Throughout their stay, they will couple up, while also facing challenges, temptations and plenty of twists and turns, including new “bombshell” Islanders testing their romantic connections.

Despite the U.K. franchise becoming a staple in British television after its 2015 launch, the first few seasons of the U.S. version struggled to resonate with American audiences to the same extent. Even once the show moved to NBC’s Peacock after a three-season run on CBS, seasons four and five still didn’t make it in the top 10 on Nielsen’s streaming charts.

But everything changed when season six dropped in 2024. It ended up being a perfect recipe with Madix, star of Vanderpump Rules, joining the show as the new host, a relatable cast of Islanders and top-tier drama that had viewers begging for more.

“There’s so many factors that have gone into the success of the show and the show really taking off when I became host. I’d love to think that I’m part of the fabric of that,” Madix says.

Season six reached a whole new level of success for Peacock, spending nine weeks in Nielsen’s top 10 original streaming series chart before peaking about halfway through. The season accounted for 6.58 billion minutes of watch time over its run. But the momentum didn’t stop there, as season seven in 2025 then became Peacock’s most-watched original unscripted series. The season spent 11 weeks in Nielsen’s top 10 and accounted for 11.4 billion viewing minutes in that time.

“The team really focused on making a show for the U.S. and for that audience, and focused on what made sense for the Islanders and keeping it fresh, keeping it new and all those little things that spark results in the success,” executive producer Bernie Schaeffer says of the show finally entering the pop culture zeitgeist. “And it’s being really thoughtful about what creative we are going to bring to every single season that comes along.”

With that in mind, as Peacock prepares to premiere the highly anticipated eighth season, producers can only hope to create as much buzz as the last two seasons. That might seem like a lot of pressure, but the team behind the cameras welcomes the challenge.

“We all want to do it,” Schaeffer admits. “It comes from the top. It comes from our showrunner, Ben [Thursby], who is always leading everybody to say, ‘How can we do this better? What can we do different?'”

Before the Islanders even step foot in the stunning, neon-colored villa they’ll call home for potentially several weeks (you never really know when you’ll get dumped from the island), the producers have their work cut out for them mapping out logistics so the season can run as smoothly as possible. The planning phase is especially important since the show films in real time and airs with a one to two-day delay.

“A lot of people come back to the show each year, and they really know how to make the show. We rely on that,” Schaeffer says. “Also as people grow, they do slightly different jobs. So the knowledge base continues and everybody helps each other out. It is a huge ship.”

Producers also do a Love Island test run with a mock cast weeks before the season gets underway, utilizing the rehearsal period to test production.

“It’s been something we inherited from the U.K. [show],” Schaeffer explains. “They started doing mock, and we’ve done the same and it’s great. It’s like a sports team where we’re about to go and perform, but let’s have a practice first. It gets us to get really locked into the season in terms of the technical aspect of the show, which is huge — a lot of moving parts, but also it allows us to test a bit of the creative.”

Once all the cameras are working, the neon signs are turned on and the fridge is stocked with eggs and avocado toast, the only thing missing is the Islanders. The cast is arguably the most complicated yet important piece to the Love Island puzzle, which Schaeffer says is a year-long process.

Since the Islanders are meeting for the first time once they enter the villa, there’s only so much matchmaking the casting department can do ahead of time. It becomes a wait-and-see mentality for how they will vibe. “We have an idea, but these are real human beings who want to find love,” the EP explains. “We don’t know how their connections are going to be.”

With anything that brings uncertainty, there’s going to be hiccups along the way. Last year, there were a few, most notably when online sleuths uncovered past racist clips and posts from two of the Islanders (they were both ultimately kicked off the show mid-season following fan backlash).

When Schaeffer reflects on the online discourse surrounding those Islanders last year, he says the team is always open to learning and improving.

“It’s always crucial we do our research, our backgrounds, our diligence, and that has always been the case,” he tells THR of the casting process. “At the end of the season, we always look at how we can do things better. And if we spot something we need to change, we will do that. That’s really our philosophy across the board, and it’s as thorough as we can make it.”

Though an Islander, Vasana Montgomery, has already been removed from season eight after alleged posts of her using the N-word emerged on social media days before the premiere (THR understands that the videos appear to be privately owned and not shared publicly until after the casting announcement, meaning they would not have been accessible for prior vetting), Schaeffer seemed exceptionally confident with the incoming cast during his chat with THR prior to the videos leaking. He predicts that “we’re going to have a wonderful Love Island summer” and “everybody’s going to really, really relate to the cast” this year.

He also teases that “there will be some returning challenges” that will see the Islanders battle it out but also “some new challenges that I’m really looking forward to.”

“I know Ariana really liked the milk challenge. I’m not sure if that’s coming back,” he quips, referencing the show’s “What’s Your Beef?” activity that sees the Islanders pass milk mouth-to-mouth to fill up a bucket. And Schaeffer was correct, as it really is one of Madix’s favorite moments from last season.

“Everyone hates the food challenges and things like that, but I just think they’re so funny because they’re wacky and they’re not sexy at all,” the host tells THR. “And sometimes I think we get sexy all the time on our show. So it’s nice sometimes to have something that’s silly and gross and weird.”

Fans will just have to keep watching to see if the Islanders get subjected to dairy products once again, but Schaeffer reminds viewers that anything “can change at the last minute” depending on what’s unfolding in the villa.

“We have a roadmap for all those things, but if things change, we can pivot,” the executive producer says, quoting the wise words of Ross Geller.

Season eight of Love Island USA premieres on Peacock June 2.