Here’s How to Watch ‘Love Island’ UK in the US to See Which Brits Get Together in Season 8
If you live across the pond, you may want to know how to watch Love Island UK in the US online for free to not miss a second of season 8.
Love Island UK, which is the original Love Island, premiered in 2005 on ITV, but it wasn’t until it was rebooted in 2015 for ITV2 that it became the reality TV dating show we know and love today. Since it was rebooted in 2015, Love Island UK has aired seven seasons and led to dozens of international spinoffs in countries like the United States, Australia, South Africa and Spain.
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The show, which is one of the highest rated series in the UK, has also led to real-life marriages and babies for couples who met as contestants such as season 2’s Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey, who are married and share two children, and season 3’s Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt, who welcomed a baby in 2020. So where can Americans stream Love Island UK season 8? Read on for how to watch Love Island UK in the US if you want to see how the Brits get on.
When does Love Island UK air?
Love Island UK season 8 airs Sundays to Fridays at 9 p.m. GMT (5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT) on ITV2.
How to watch Love Island UK in the US
How can one watch Love Island UK in the US? Love Island UK is available to stream for free on ITV2’s website, which has new episodes from the current season—season 8—as well as episodes from the past seven seasons. However, to watch the show in the US, Americans will need a VPN, a service that allows users to set their computer’s location to another country and access websites that would otherwise be restricted by location. The most popular VPNs out there are ExpressVPN, NordVPN and PureVPN—all of which offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Read on for how to sign up for them to watch Love Island UK in the US.
Watch Love Island UK in the US With ExpressVPN
Watch ‘Love Island UK’ With ExpressVPN $0+
ExpressVPN is one of the most popular VPN services, and the one we recommend above all others for a simple reason. The service—which allows users to set their location to more than 160 locations in 90 countries with unlimited bandwidth—offers a 30-day free trial and a money-back guarantee. After the free trial ends, Express VPN costs $8.32 per month for a 12-month plan ($99.95 in total), $9.99 per month for a six-month plan ($59.95 in total) or $12.95 per month for a monthly plan. Along with access to more than 160 locations, Express VPN—which takes about five minutes to set up—also promises lightning-quick connectivity, 24-hour live-chat support and allows users to connect to any device, from computers to phones to tablets. Of course, users can do more than watch Love Island UK in the US with a VPN. Along with Love Island UK, VPNs also allow users to access international versions of Netflix, Disney Plus and HBO Max (which have different content than in the US) as well as stream international services like Hayu, which has access to programs like the Real Housewives, Below Deck, The Bachelor and hundreds of other reality TV shows.
Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to watch Love Island UK in the US with ExpressVPN’s free trial.
Sign up for ExpressVPN and create an account
Log into your ExpressVPN account and click “Download” on the “Dashboard” or in “Set Up Your Devices”
Once you’ve installed Express VPN, enter the “Activation Code” from the “Dashboard” or in “Set Up Your Devices”
Once ExpressVPN is set up, change your location to “UK” by clicking the connect icon to read “Connected” and selecting the country in the “Smart Location” menu
Visit the Love Island UK page on ITV2’s website
Sign in or create an account and watch Love Island UK in the US
To watch Love Island UK in the US live, click “Watch Live” on the top and watch episodes live on Sundays to Fridays at 9 p.m. GMT (5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT)
Watch Love Island UK in the US With NordVPN
Watch ‘Love Island UK’ With NordVPN $0+
Nord VPN is another popular VPN service recommended by YouTubers like PewDiePie, Casey Neistat and Philip DeFranco. The service—which offers a 30-day free trial and a money-back guarantee—costs $3.29 per month for two-year plan ($78.96 in total), $4.99 per month for a one-year plan ($59.88 in total) or $11.99 per month for a monthly plan. Along with access to more than 59 countries, NordVPN also allows users to connect to multiple devices (from computers to phones to tablets) and offers a 24-hour live-chat support. Read on for step-by-step instructions for how to watch Love Island UK in the US with NordVPN’s free trial.
Sign up for NordVPN and create an account
Log into your NordVPN account and click “Downloads” on the left-side menu
Once you’ve installed NordVPN, log into your account
Once NordVPN is set up, change your location to the “UK” by clicking “Quick Connect” or searching the country in the menu
Visit the Love Island UK page on ITV2’s website
Sign in or create an account and watch Love Island UK in the US
To watch Love Island UK in the US live, click “Watch Live” on the top and watch episodes live on Sundays to Fridays at 9 p.m. GMT (5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT)
Watch Love Island UK in the US with PureVPN
Watch ‘Love Island UK’ in the US With… $0+
Another popular VPN service is Pure VPN, which offers a 31-day free trial and a money-back guarantee. After the free trial ends, users can sign up for Pure VPN for $1.99 per month for a two-year plan ($53.95 in total), $3.24 per month for a one-year plan or $10.95 per month for a monthly plan. Pure VPN offers more than 6,5000 servers in over 78 countries across the world, as well as 24-hour live-chat support. Read on for step-by-step instructions for how to watch Love Island UK in the US with PureVPN’s free trial.
Sign up for PureVPN and create an account
Once you’ve created your account, scroll to the bottom of PureVPN‘s homepage and select the VPN that fits your device: Windows, MAC, IOS, etc.
Click “Download the app”
Once you’ve installed PureVPN, log into your account
Once PureVPN is set up, change your location to the “UK” by searching for the country in the right bar
Visit the Love Island UK page on ITV2’s website
Sign in or create an account and watch Love Island UK in the US
To watch Love Island UK in the US live, click “Watch Live” on the top and watch episodes live on Sundays to Fridays at 9 p.m. GMT (5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT)
Watch Love Island UK on Hulu
Watch ‘Love Island’ on Hulu $6.99+
If you can avoid spoilers, Love Island UK episodes will also be available to stream on Hulu two weeks after they air on ITV2. The first episode of Love Island UK season 7 will be released on Hulu on June 20, 2021. New episodes will be released daily. If you haven’t watched the past seasons of Love Island UK, seasons 1 through 7 are also available to stream on Hulu, as well as seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Love Island Australia. (Love Island US seasons 1, 2 and 3, are available to stream on Paramount+.)
For those who can wait, Hulu offers two plans: an ad-supported plan for $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year (which saves users about $14 from the monthly rate) and an ad-free plan for $12.99 per month. Hulu’s live TV service, Hulu+ With Live TV, costs $69.99 per month for its ad-supported plan and $75.99 per month for its ad-free plan. Both Hulu+ With Live TV plans also come with Disney+ and ESPN+.
Hulu also offers a student discount for $1.99 per month for its ad-supported plan (which saves users $5 per month or $60 per year.) Users can also subscribe to The Disney Bundle, which includes Hulu’s ad-supported plan, Disney+ and ESPN+ for $13.99 per month. The bundle saves users about $8 per month from subscribing to each service individually.
How does Love Island UK work?
If you’re new to the series, here’s how Love Island works: The show starts with 10 or so singles who are invited to a villa on a tropical island with the hopes of finding love. Within moments of meeting each other, the contestants must couple up. As couples, the contestants are required to sleep in the same bed and complete challenges with each other, such as a classic Love Island game where they have to transfer food from their mouth to their partner’s. As the season continues, more contestants are invited to the villa, and islanders already there have to make a choice about whether to stay with their current partner or couple up with someone new.
Each week, there’s a re-coupling and the contestants who aren’t in a couple are sent home. In the end, the public votes for their favorite couple among the finalists, and the winner receives a cash prize. On Love Island UK, that prize is 50,000 pounds. However, the money doesn’t go to both members of the couple. It goes to one person at random. That person must then decide whether to share the money with their partner or keep it for themselves.
Where is Love Island UK filmed?
All eight seasons of Love Island UK have been filmed in Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, Mallorca, in Spain, aside from season 6, which was filmed Constantia, Cape Town, in South Africa. Unlike the previous seasons, season 8 is filmed in a new villa in Mallorca. The season 7 villa—which was first used in season 5 in 2019—is located on the Spanish Balearic Island of Majorca, in Sant Llorenç des Cardassar on the east side of the island. The villa included a super-sized hot tub, infinity pool, outdoor kitchen and terrace. In total, there were 73 cameras in the villa, which are placed near areas like the pool, the kitchen and the communal bathroom. The villa also has hidden microphones to catch what contestants say. The house also has a “beach hut,” where contestants can speak to the camera in private. Fans can also stay in the villa, however, it will cost £3,000 for a week, according to The Sun.
Who’s in the Love Island UK cast?
See below for the 11 original contestants in the Love Island UK season 8 cast.
Amber Beckford, 24, London
Andrew Le Page, 27, Guernsey
Dami Hope, 26, Dublin
Davide Sanclimenti, 27, Manchester
Gemma Owen, 19, Chester
Ikenna Ekwonna, 23, Nottingham
Indiyah Polack, 23, London
Liam Llewellyn, 22, Newport
Luca Bish, 23, Brighton
Paige Thorne, 24, Swansea
Tasha Ghouri, 23, Thirsk
Who is the Love Island UK host?
The Love Island UK season 8 host is Laura Whitmore, who also hosts the spinoff, Love Island: Aftersun. Whitemore has also hosted reality shows like Survival of the Fittest and starred on series like Celebrity Juice. She replaced original Love Island UK host Caroline Flack in season 6 after Flack’s death in 2020.
In an interview on the “Life’s a Beach” podcast, Whitmore opened up about what it’s like to live in the Love Island villa. “It smells so bad,” she said. “If you think about it – that amount of people, about 40 or 50 islanders go through it the whole summer. It starts off with about 10 or 12 and then more keep going in. And they’re like 18-year-olds.” She continued: “The carpet, the fake tan, the make-up, the BO – it stinks! “You know when they try to cover the BO with Lynx Africa? That’s what it smells like.”
Who is the Love Island UK narrator?
The Love Island UK season 8 narrator is Iain Stirling who has narrated the show since season 1. In an interview with GQ in 2021, Stirling opened up about how his experience on Love Island UK has changed over the years. “In previous years, it might have been, ‘Redo this joke, please,'” he said. “That’s pretty uncommon these days because the producers trust us more [laughs]. Me and Mark, my writing partner — he works for ITV Studios in development and he’s the guy who actually came up with the Love Island format, 50-year-old Scottish vegetarian, really interesting guy — we’ve just really got the tone down. We’ve also just started asking them beforehand, like, ‘Can we say this?’ Saves us a lot of time. Now, it’s things like, ‘Can you say these people’s names in a different order because they’re sat on a bed in this order?'”
He also told the magazine about how he knew Love Island UK would be a success from the first episode. “God’s honest truth — the very first coupling. When I saw the footage of the very first, original coupling on Season 1, I was like, ‘This is unbelievable,'” he said. “I couldn’t believe how much I cared about everyone instantly. The first time a boy came down and they said, ‘Step forward if you like him,’ and no one stepped forward I was like ‘I can’t not watch this, it’s madness.'”
He continued, “Especially then, they were all such characters. Like there was this girl, Hannah, who was from Liverpool — and for an American, now that is a fuckin’ linguistic journey. Her accent was unbelievable. And she was a former Playboy bunny, and she had this insane swimsuit on, and had had a lot of work done. There’s a big thing with women in Liverpool, Scouse girls, on a Saturday you walk around a mall in Liverpool, every woman has got rollers in her hair, getting ready for a night out. She just had this massive blow dry, her hair was huge, platinum blonde, and she had these glass heels on. A builder from Essex got coupled up with her. I was just like, ‘I love this.’ I loved it. I honestly loved it.”
Despite his witty narrations, Stirling also told GQ that he would “never” hurt contestants on purpose. “No, never. We were never told to make fun of the show. [Mark and I] figured that out ourselves. We just thought, if we make fun of the show first, other people can’t really,” he said. “Also, the only reason it works is because the show’s actually quite good. Like with making fun of the dates, the Islanders can be at a rubbish table or whatever with plastic champagne glasses, but they still have to be on quite a nice beach.”
He continued, “If they were just in someone’s shitty backyard and it looked terrible, and I said ‘that’s terrible,’ it’s not funny. It has to come from a point of actually being quite good. If the show ever actually gets bad, we are in a difficult position, because it’s not comedy if you’re just saying something’s bad that is bad. I think self-deprecation is also a very British thing. I’s very British to say, ‘This is bad. Isn’t that funny?’ You’ve got to say ‘I’m shit,’ and then everyone will go ‘Oh yeah, I’m shit as well.’ That’s what Love Island does really well.”
Love Island UK is available to stream on ITV2 with a VPN. Here’s how to watch it for free.
Watch ‘Love Island UK’ in the US $0+
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