Love Island Nigeria Keeps Coming Soon. Who Is Actually Making It This Time?

Applications for Love Island Nigeria close on November 14, which leaves would-be Islanders three days. The application site, loveislandnigeria.com, calls this Season 1 and lists Soundcity, Spice and ONTV as broadcasters. It doesn’t name a production company or give eligibility rules. The December 20 premiere date appears in the bio of the @loveislandng Instagram account, which posted a trailer on November 3 and said applications were open.

Nigerians have been promised this show before. In September 2020, Digital Play, the media company run by Toyin Subair, announced it had acquired the format from ITV Studios. The following June, at a launch event in Lagos, Digital Play Africa named Odiri Iwuji of the UK-based Chudor House Productions as executive producer and promised an October 2021 debut on FreeTV channels, including ONTV and MTV Base. On October 31 that year, THISDAY reported that the show still hadn’t aired and that its last call for applications on Instagram was dated October 7. Back then, people were already questioning whether the format would work here, and the season never arrived to settle it.

In November 2023, Group8, the company behind Soundcity, Spice and ONTV, said it and unnamed partners had secured exclusive rights to Love Island Nigeria through its production arm, Cre8. It listed the same three channels the new site uses. No season followed that announcement either.

That’s where this year’s version gets interesting. MoreBranches reported last week that it found no link between the 2021 organisers and the current one. Then ITV News’ The Rundown said on Snapchat that this season is a partnership between Digital Play Nigeria, Group Eight Africa and a company it called Chawda House Productions, which reads like a misspelling of Chudor House. If that’s right, the 2021 team and the 2023 rights holder have joined forces. None of this appears on the application site, though. Applicants are being asked for their photos and personal details by a website that doesn’t say which company will receive them.

Capital XTRA noted that the Instagram account follows ITV Studios but hasn’t been confirmed as connected to it, and that some fans have openly wondered whether the application form is collecting data under false pretences. That suspicion may be unfair. The names in the ITV report are real companies with a real history with this format. But the organisers could end the guessing with one paragraph on their own site naming the producer, the rights holder and who controls the data. Nigeria’s Data Protection Act expects organisations collecting personal data to say who they are and why they want it.

Demand isn’t the issue. During last year’s Love Island USA season, Nigerians tweeted about the show more than 2.1 million times, peaking at 574,000 posts in a single day, more than South Africa or Ghana. Love Island South Africa made it to air in 2021. Nigeria has the audience, the channels and a format licence that has apparently changed hands at least once, and it still hasn’t had a season after six years.

If you’re applying before Friday, read the terms on the form and check who they say will hold your information. Use photos you’d be comfortable seeing anywhere. Nobody should be asking you for money, a BVN or a PIN to get into the villa, and the same rules apply as with the FG grant scams doing the rounds this month. A real production will usually contact shortlisted applicants directly and explain contracts, medical checks and filming dates before anyone signs.

The December 20 date puts the premiere in the middle of a Detty December that’s already crowded with concerts and ticket debates. Whether it actually airs will tell Nigerians more than any trailer has. Until then, the most useful thing the organisers could publish is the names of the companies behind the show.

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