PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
Young People Are Obsessed With Love Island USA
Courtesy of Peacock
Gen Z audiences have turned Peacock’s reality series Love Island USA into cultural daily-appointment viewing.
The Big Picture: Reality TV has had it rough over the past several years. Shows like The Bachelor and American Idol used to command NFL-level ratings a decade ago, but the genre’s viewership is now only a fraction of what it once was: 34% of the top 50 broadcast shows in the early 2010s were reality series, compared with just 12% in 2023. The popularity of Love Island USA offers the industry hope that young people still have an appetite for unscripted drama… even in the streaming era.
Behind The Viewership: Despite already being eight seasons in, Love Island USA is more popular than ever, according to Bloomberg.
The first three episodes this season racked up 2.3 billion minutes viewed, putting it in the same league as premium scripted hits like House of the Dragon and The Bear.
80% of viewers who started watching the season in its first two days have already watched at least 15 episodes — an incredible engagement rate.
This season generated over a billion social media impressions across platforms in just 16 days after its premiere. The numbers have only continued to climb since then and will likely reach a crescendo after the July 12 finale.
Last Looks: Why does Gen Z love Love Island USA so much? Beyond the juicy drama, the show’s nearly daily schedule fuels instant FOMO, while its interactive voting app puts viewers in the decision seat, letting them decide which contestants stay and which get booted off the island. That engagement has translated into major trading volume on prediction markets, with Kalshi even giving the show its own “dedicated tab” in its culture section.
Gen Z has also proven to be starved for in-person socializing… and Love Island USA is helping fill that gap. The show has sparked a wave of public watch parties, with bars reporting boosted business thanks to group viewing — a notable turn of events given how much less Gen Z drinks than previous generations.
Prediction: Not only will there be plenty of imitators of Love Island USA’s format, but expect streamers to experiment with new ways to fuel communal audience engagement between episodes.
Together with Function
Function Gives Your Body An Honest Look
The best way to take care of your body is to understand it.
That’s why Function gives members access to more than 160 lab tests, generating thousands of signals about how their body is functioning.
That’s 5× as many tests as a typical annual physical.
It covers everything from your heart, hormones, thyroid, liver, kidneys, heavy metals, nutrients, and inflammation.
You also get member pricing on MRIs and CT scans that screen for signs of cancer, prior stroke, aneurysms, fatty liver, and hundreds of other conditions.
Understanding your body is the first step toward taking control of your health, whether that means catching an issue before symptoms appear or making small lifestyle changes. That’s the idea behind Function — and its mission to help people live 100 healthy years.
Own your health.
PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.