‘Love Island’ is set to launch with two huge villas and double the contestants this year.
The dating show will return to screens this summer and, in order to emulate the success of last year’s series, bosses are planning to recruit more singletons and throw them into two separate houses in a bid to kick off the new instalment with a bang.
A source told The Sun newspaper: "Planning for this year’s Love Island is well underway and producers already have some big plans up their sleeves.
"Given just how massively popular the show became last year they’re desperate to make sure the next series really kicks off with a bang.
"They’re planning on the season opener beginning with two big villas – just like they introduced midway through last series. And they want to throw in nearly double the amount of contestants to really stir things up. Planning is still in the early stages but what is for sure is that it’s going to be bigger than ever."
Bosses were forced to consider more contestants after they received more than 60,000 applications in the space of 12 hours when the form was set live last month.
And it’s hardly surprising that people are keen to get on the show this summer as those who have appeared on it over the past two years – including Kem Cetinay, Olivia Buckland, Jess Shears and Nathan Massey – have had huge success off the back of it.
Producers also decided to launch a sister show this year called ‘Survival of the Fittest’, which runs on the same format but sees contestants take part in challenges, as they were hoping it would do as well as ‘Love Island’ and, thus far, it’s proving popular.