{"id":36007,"date":"2023-08-22T13:07:21","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T11:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1876979"},"modified":"2023-08-22T17:00:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T15:00:05","slug":"love-island-fans-call-for-format-change-amid-same-sex-usa-pairing","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/love-island-fans-call-for-format-change-amid-same-sex-usa-pairing\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Island fans call for format change amid same-sex USA pairing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"> Love Island fans took to social media after Love Island US contestants Kassy Castillo and Johnnie Garcia shared a kiss. <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Lidia Molina-Whyte\n                \t\t<\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Tuesday, 22 August 2023 at 11:07 AM<\/p><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body> <p>Love Island is over this side of the pond, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/reality-tv\/how-to-watch-love-island-usa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">US<\/a>\u2018s fifth season is in full swing \u2013 and making waves. In a recent episode, contestants Kassy Castillo and Johnnie Garcia confessed their attraction for one another, which culminated in a kiss.<\/p>\n<p>Both girls have been involved with male contestant Leo, who was coupled up with Kassy when he pursued bombshell Johnnie in Casa Amor.<\/p>\n<p>Though their intimate moment came as a surprise to viewers, the pair have been flirting behind-the-scenes, with fellow contestant Carmen telling Kassy: \u201cYou guys just flirt so much, but y\u2019all are always funny about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Love comes in unexpected ways! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LoveIslandUSA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LoveIslandUSA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dcdxUwHirJ\">pic.twitter.com\/dcdxUwHirJ<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Love Island USA (@loveislandusa) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/loveislandusa\/status\/1693439658783539542?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 21, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"\/>\n<p>Johnnie also said that her door \u201chas been open, but I never thought that she was serious\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2021, ITV boss Amanda Stavri told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RadioTimes.com<\/a> that it would be a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/reality-tv\/love-island-2021-gay-contestants-exclusive-newsupdate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">challenge<\/a>\u201d to include gay contestants due to the series\u2019 format.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of gay Islanders, I think the main challenge is regarding the format of Love Island. There\u2019s a sort of logistical difficulty, because although Islanders don\u2019t have to be 100 per cent straight, the format must sort of give [the] Islanders an equal choice when coupling up,\u201d she said.<\/p> <p>In the wake of Kassy and Johnnie\u2019s kiss, fans of the reality have taken to social media to show support for the same-sex pairing, calling for the series\u2019 format to be changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cITV in 2021: Same sex pairings on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/reality-tv\/love-island-summer-2023-release-date\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Love Island<\/a> would be a \u201clogistical difficulty.\u201d Tweak the format!\u201d, one fan wrote on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TweetMeRyan\/status\/1693582665566298494\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a> (which was recently rebranded as X).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/reality-tv\/love-island-summer-2023-final-mistake-newsupdate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Love Island fans spot major mistake during 2023 final<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/reality-tv\/love-island-iain-stirling-new-twist-final-week-newsupdate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Love Island\u2019s Iain Stirling pitches intriguing new twist for final week<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Others joined in, adding: \u201cKassy and Johnnie are my winners, they need to couple up #LoveIslandUSA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a completely shocking turn of events, Love Island USA is proving that including LGBTQ+ Islanders isn\u2019t a \u2018logistical difficulty\u2019 after all! Who\u2019d have thought it!!!! #LoveIslandUSA,\u201d another <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/harrisonjbrock\/status\/1693928919731142949\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it remains to be seen whether Kassy and Johnnie\u2019s budding romance inspires the series to tweak its format, but fan support is certainly promising.<\/p> <div class=\"brightcove embed\"> <div class=\"embed__intrinsic\"> <div class=\"brightcove__player vjs-playlist-player-container\"> <video data-video-id=\"6333789224112\" data-account=\"69912529001\" data-player=\"ByeOf0VZEl\" data-embed=\"default\" data-application-id=\"\" controls=\"\" class=\"video-js\"> <\/video> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script src=\"\/\/players.brightcove.net\/69912529001\/ByeOf0VZEl_default\/index.min.js\"\/> <p><strong>You can watch all previous seasons of Love Island UK on BritBox \u2013 you can sign up for a <\/strong><a 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Island fans took to social media after Love Island US contestants Kassy Castillo and Johnnie Garcia shared a kiss.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/36007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}