Ever wonder how Love Island USA is pulled off? Considering the show is filmed basically in real time, airs almost every night, and still manages to be flawless reality television, the production crew is clearly doing some magic. And apparently there’s a lot of prep work involved ahead of each season—to the point where they do a full test run with a mock cast.

“It’s been something we inherited from the U.K. [show],” executive producer Bernie Schaeffer told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of Season 8. “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.”

He also noted that working with the same production team is key to keeping things running smoothly during the weeks-long filming process. “A lot of people come back to the show each year, and they really know how to make the show. We rely on that,” Bernie explained. “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.”

Of course, hiccups do happen. Like, the official Love Island USA app crashing last week, causing the show to have to push back the recoupling. But honestly? It was nothing they couldn’t handle!