Love Island: Current season receives highest number of complaints in the show’s six-year history

More than 33,500 complaints have been logged by Ofcom over this year’s series

The latest season of Love Island has received the highest number of complaints in the show’s six years on screen.

As revealed by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, the seventh series of ITV’s hit reality show has registered at least 33,540 complaints since it began in June.

This is the most complaints that any season of the popular dating show has ever received.

Love Island began in 2015 and is currently broadcasting its seventh series, which is due to conclude with a final episode on Monday (23 August).

A large portion of these complaints were issued by viewers over an episode that aired earlier this month (6 August), during which contestant Faye Winter shouted repeatedly at her partner Teddy Soares.

A total of 24,910 objections were filed to Ofcom over the incident. An Ofcom spokesperson told The Irish Mirror at the time: “We’ve received a high volume of complaints about last week’s Love Island, which is consistent with a trend of growing complaints about high-profile TV shows.”

The broadcasting watchdog is yet to decide whether it will investigate the Winter-Soares argument.

As reported by The Times, the winter edition of Love Island last year received 1,125 complaints, while the season in 2019 received 2,837.

Faye Winter on Love Island (itv)

Beyond just reality shows, Ofcom revealed that it has received 142,660 TV complaints in the 12 months leading up to 31 March.

The watchdog told The Times that discriminatory behaviour was “now more commonly perceived as unacceptable than previously”.

The Independent has contacted a representative of ITV for comment.