Love Island Viewers Devastated By Major Change To This Year's Final: 'They Robbed Us'
Love Island fans had major cause for celebration on Monday night as Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Davide Sanclimenti were crowned the public’s favourite couple – but there was one major change made to this year’s final that they were less than thrilled about.
For the past seven series, the public have voted for their winning Love Island couple, who were then presented with the somewhat difficult choice of whether to share their £50K prize or steal the whole lot for themselves.
As with the short-lived (but still much-missed) ITV game show Golden Balls, if only one of them chose to steal the money, they’d get the whole lot for themselves, whereas if both did, they’d leave empty-handed.
So far, all seven of the winning pairs have decided to simply share the money, which might explain why at the beginning of Monday’s live show, Laura Whitmore explained to viewers that they wouldn’t even be giving the winning couple the choice between “love or money”.
Despite no winner having ever put the “share or steal” loophole into action, fans were still gutted to hear the option had been taken away completely, particularly as in 2022, it could have made for some explosive viewing:
Did Laura just say that they don’t have to choose between love and money? So no one can steal the 50k? #LoveISlandpic.twitter.com/4xv1RfneBw
— Seema Diaz (@eeaiadzcia) August 1, 2022
Soooo no split or steal? #LoveIslandpic.twitter.com/vC7yo5bMGq
— David (@WrittenByDavid) August 1, 2022
Did I just my hear that they aren’t asking them if they want to split the money this year?!???? #LoveIsland
— Toni Russell (@ToniRussell12) August 1, 2022
Wait no option to steal this year? ITV are you well? #LoveIsland
— ada enechi (@adaenechi) August 1, 2022
Sorry, they're not asking asking choose between love or money? When we have Ekin and David RIGHT THERE??? SMH #LoveIsland
— Emma Kelly (@TooManyEmmas) August 1, 2022
Did they get ride of split or steal the money????! #LoveIslandpic.twitter.com/C5kEkf4gaS
— ~ (@finstahtw) August 1, 2022
Not even asking them to split or steal the money?? I've wasted 8 weeks of my life #loveislandpic.twitter.com/3S3SjDIevp
— ry (@ryangrxnt) August 1, 2022
Wait they don’t do the split or steal the money anymore??? I waited 8 weeks for nothing #loveislandpic.twitter.com/1UAe9Tuh0F
— Love Island Reactions ❤️ (@da1lymemes) August 1, 2022
Nar they robbed us. Why did they not do the money split or steal? I would of loved to have seen davide walk away with 50k and say you’re a liar you’re an Actress im taking the money ???? #LoveIsland#LoveIsland2022@LoveIsland
— Abbie (@abbie_leader) August 1, 2022
So we never got to see if one of them stole the money or not? Poor show! #LoveIsland
— Paula Shack (@Pollypoptart) August 1, 2022
Where was the option to steal the money? #LoveIslandpic.twitter.com/VfO5cWYYoY
— ashleyhollmann (@ashleyhollmann1) August 1, 2022
Wait.. they aren't doing the split or steal the money?! WTF has this series been for then??????? #LoveIslandpic.twitter.com/rULW1OIlAO
— Olivia???? (@OliviaOakes10) August 1, 2022
LMAO NO SPLITTING THE MONEY ARE YOU JOKING #LOVEISLANDpic.twitter.com/dezqdnv6hL
— Zoe ❀ (@Zoe_A_Thomas) August 1, 2022
wait why didn’t we get the love or money choice #TALKSWITHASH#LoveIslandpic.twitter.com/6MnPHiosqq
— becca ???????? (@beccaa_sm) August 1, 2022
How is there no stealing money now? #LoveIslandpic.twitter.com/wqCVPUyFLJ
— Laila ???? (@lailaa_duhh) August 1, 2022
Wait what happened to splitting or stealing the money?? #loveislandpic.twitter.com/b337clZBsH
— ???????????????? (@Hed_F1) August 1, 2022
Why did they not do the split or steal with the prize money?! I wanted to see Ekin-Su steal the lot ???? #LoveIsland#ActressLiarpic.twitter.com/Q4x51NzNaQ
— Tim Peers (@timpeers11) August 1, 2022
All that time manifesting Ekin would steal it wasted
— davide & luca slander account (@ThiccPearJuice) August 1, 2022
Why isn’t love or money an option this year? Love island producers scared someone would just run with the money ???????????? #LoveIslandpic.twitter.com/i9uX1G4OpY
— Luna???????? (@MsMisery4) August 1, 2022
Just want Ekin Su to steal the money and say ‘now who’s the fucking actress?!’#LoveIsland
— Luke Kempner - EDINBURGH 2022!!! (@LukeKempner) August 1, 2022
Ekin-Su and Davide were named this year’s Love Island champions ahead of runners-up Gemma Owen and Luca Bish in second place.
Also making the final were third place finishers Indiyah Polack and Dami Hope, while Tasha Ghouri and Andrew Le Page were in fourth.
Love Island will return to our screens next year in the winter, as two new series are set to air in 2023.
Meanwhile, the final also included a confirmation from ITV2 that they’d acquired the rights to Big Brother, with a reboot of the long-running reality show debuting on the station next year.