Thread by @gavreilly

A thing to remember about #LoveIsland is the lag between filming and airing - and how, when it suits the storytelling, entire days are left out of the timeline you actually see on TV. (🧵)

(This is semi-prompted by an observation between @zaraking and @OrlaithCondon on the latest My Pod On Paper, about Indiyah having a possible change of heart about Ikenna - I’ve made similar points on that podcast before)

Point 1️⃣: Barring moments where there’s unexpected drama during the day, pretty much every episode starts and ends at nighttime, with what seems like a 24-hour-ish arc in between.

But there’s seven nights a week, and only six episodes - so already a day is cut out.

That may be a fixed day of the week each time - some former Islanders talk about being allowed out for a day, albeit kept away from the other contestants - or it may be time left for relationships to develop, on camera but off TV, with no expectation of yielding good telly.

We’re conditioned from Big Brother to presume that every day in an immersive TV environment is shot, every moment filmed, every exchange documented - and because Love Island never explicitly says otherwise, most presume that’s the case. But seven days into six shows doesn’t go!

And let’s be honest: you never see any of them doing any tidying, so the production team probably need off-camera time to go in and clean, restock the fridge, put new stickers beside each bed to assign them to Islanders, etc.

And there’s also the cosmetic angle to the show…

Someone who goes in with hair extensions/lip fillers/whatever prob needs to get them fixed up along the way. (When did you last see an Islander needing their roots done, or getting their fade haircuts refreshed?)

It’s a superficial programme; this is a necessary part of it all.

Point 2️⃣:

Day and night hours in the villa are very different than in ‘real life’. Look outside when an episode is finished: it’s 10pm and it’s still bright!

The nighttime scenes are evidently shot from nearly midnight onwards, probably well into the early hours.

And also…

…remember that most episodes end with @IainDoesJokes’ “𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵…” - often showing something that happens *one day/night later*.

Therefore the main body of each ep usually takes place *two* days before airing - e.g. what airs on Friday takes place Wednesday.

(There are some exceptions to this - there are nights which become so dramatic that they become full episodes in themselves; other times when viewer votes are involved and need an immediate TV payoff. I’ll come back to this in a mo.)

Side note: people who don’t work in TV may not appreciate how loooooong it takes to edit multi-cam recorded footage into a cogent TV item.

It’s a huge ask to edit something occurring at 2am Tues morning, to have ready for Tues afternoon ‘first look’, and a Tues night TV airing.

Plus, the producers will always want to know where a plot is going. Plots need payoffs; they won’t feature one couple on any given night if they know that couple isn’t going to cause a stir or have their relationship visibly deepen/weaken the next day. A day’s notice allows this.

So what we saw on Friday night - the Islanders going off for their challenge, Danica being there on return, and a recoupling being called - likely all took place on Wednesday day/evening/night.

The cliffhanger recoupling ends Friday’s episode…

…and picks up Sunday’s episode, now airing an event which likely occurred on Wednesday night (NB: I’m not criticising this).

The recouping happens, Luca sleeps solo on Wednesday night, date with Danica is probably Thursday daytime.

But Sunday’s ep ends with a vote…

…which closed at 10:30pm last night. Why the tight turnaround? Because the result was needed in the Villa, for the episode being filmed last night and which airs tonight.

(This is a case where the tight editing turnaround is warranted: a viewer poll needs an immediate payoff.)

So we’ll go from seeing Thursday daytime in one ep, to Sunday night in the next. 60 hours have been skipped or zoomed through in between.

(It’s probably already happened: Davide seemed to have a new haircut and beard trim by the end of last night’s episode, not there at start)

As a viewer this is worth knowing because it helps explain things that otherwise seem incongruous - e.g. Indiyah choosing to stay with Ikenna at the start of Sunday’s ep, but casting doubt about him by the end of it.

On air it’s a 40 mins gap; in real life it could be 48+ hours.

I’m not saying this as a criticism or a failing of the show. Most viewers would rather see the ‘highlights’ rather than padding the show with uneventful chatter.

It just helps explain how the practical concerns of a TV production influence what you see from the Islanders. /🧵