‘Love Island USA’ Charlie on Hannah and Pepe’s relationship
Charlie Georgiou watched his “Love Island USA” episodes — but doesn’t care to see Hannah Fields’ new relationship with Pepe Garcia-Gonzalez.
“Love Island USA” has been turning heads this season, but not in the way the show’s producers intended.
Eagle-eyed fans of the raunchy Peacock dating competition show have taken to social media in recent weeks to poke fun at – or level accusations in light of – editing mistakes throughout the hour-plus-long episodes in the currently airing Season 7. On TikTok, these exposés have racked up millions of views.
One such clip from the show centers on Jeremiah Brown bringing both Iris Kendall and Andreina Santos breakfast in the women’s dressing room, which is treated as a currency of sorts in the “Love Island” universe. The episode cuts to a shot of his former partner, Huda Mustafa, glancing to the side with an expressionless face, implying she had clocked him moving on to other female castmates.
“The editing is crazy because Huda wasn’t even in the ROOM,” @dollyringz wrote on top of the footage, which appeared to show Huda’s chair at the vanity lacking an occupant. “Convinced the producers hate her #huda,” the caption reads.
USA TODAY has reached out to “Love Island” reps for comment.
Taylor, Olandria and Clarke love triangle gets an edit
On X, @pttercrux earned more than a quarter-million views with a five-second video in which Olandria Carthen takes part in a nighttime challenge and asks her fellow islanders seated in the bleachers, “Which islander do you think is most likely to take a relationship to make it to the final?”
The thing is, as the camera cuts to the bleachers, Olandria is seen sitting behind Cierra Ortega and Nic Vansteenberghe in the bleachers as the crowd reacts with a drawn-out “Oh.”
In yet another clip, Taylor Williams pulls former partner Olandria for a chat while he’s coupled up with Clarke Carraway in Casa Amor. The edit makes it seem as if a bikini-clad Clarke is reacting to their private conversation, and the show later cuts to her seated fully clothed on an orange kitchen barstool, which had just been unoccupied in a wide shot of Taylor and Olandria’s conversation.
How ‘Love Island’ episodes get out within 24 hours
Some viewers are finding the humor in these “gotcha” moments, while others have accused producers and editors of having nefarious intentions in painting a cast member in a certain light.
It’s common for unscripted series to show storylines out of order from how they happened in real life. Sometimes, it’s as innocuous as choosing a shot that better conveys an emotion or explains the plot and its characters. At worst, editors are guilty of “Frankenbiting” – cutting up a person’s sentences to make them say something else entirely, or using their words out of context.
As Season 5’s Johnnie Garcia explained in a June 19 TikTok, “A lot of people look at conversations and they seem a little bit cut up or they seem very short. You’re only seeing two to three minutes of maybe like two to three hour long conversations.
“So just remember that. It’s easy to cut thing up, and it’s easy to make things look a certain way.”
Famously, the “Love Island” franchise, among other reality shows, uses opaque cups so there are no visible continuity errors with liquid levels that would be seen in transparent glasses.
“Love Island” operates on a light-speed schedule: Episodes air the evening after the recorded events, per TheWrap‘s 2024 interviews with the show’s production team.
A team of 30 editors and 20 producers (as of 2024) ensures footage is edited in real time throughout the day. An executive producer oversees the conversations and scenes that are strung together to create an episode, then narrator Iain Stirling watches the rough edit over Zoom to write his jokes. After his voiceover is woven into the show, the episode is screened by Peacock’s legal and standards and practices teams.
How to watch ‘Love Island USA’
“Love Island USA” streams on Peacock every day except Wednesdays. Saturday’s episodes are “Aftersun” panel-style sit-downs, starring “Love Island Australia” host Sophie Monk.
