Love Island Bows Out With 5.9 Million

Celebrity Love Island delivered a parting blow to Big Brother last night, ending its five week run with a peak audience of 5.9 million at 10pm, trouncing Channel 4’s rival reality show, which peaked at 4.2 million despite over-running ITV by half an hour.

Love Island averaged 5 million viewers across its hour and a half show last night, in which Fran Cosgrave and Jayne Middlemiss scooped the £100,000 prize money. Big Brother, meanwhile, averaged 3.4 million.

Big Brother was also beaten in the critical 16-34 year old audience, with Love Island securing a 36% share, while Channel 4’s reality offering settled for just 10.7%.

Love Island’s finale last night marked the end of what ITV has labelled a “successful” series, with the show recording the second best performance of its run, while the series as a whole averaged 3.6 million viewers and an 18% share.

Commenting on the show’s performance, a spokeswoman for ITV said: “Celebrity Love Island has been the most talked about show of the Summer. It was commissioned for the 10pm slot and has done very well, denting stiff competition from Channel 4’s Big Brother.

“At 10pm last night almost 6 million people were tuned in to see Jayne and Fran declared the winners with an impressive 40% share of young viewers. We are obviously delighted with this performance and the series as a whole.”

Love Island has performed well in the last few weeks, with surprises such as the addition of ex-Playboy playmate, Nikki Ziering, keeping viewers hooked in the face of competition from Channel 4’s more established competitor (see Love Island Playmate Stuns Big Brother).

Meanwhile, Channel 4 has extended its deal with Endemol UK to retain the UK rights to Big Brother for another two years, signaling the broadcaster’s continued confidence in the programme (see Channel 4 Extends Rights To Big Brother).

Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com