Stream It Or Skip It: 'Love Island USA' Season 6 on Peaco*ck, where Ariana Madix hosts a group of barely-dressed singles desperate for marriage (2024)

Ariana Madix has taken over as host of the newest season of Love Island USA, which debuted on Peaco*ck this week. The reality dating show, which is filming in real-time from a villa in Fiji and airs six nights a week, features ten contestants pairing up with each other and hoping that they remain compatible for the duration of… the show? Their lives? Whichever!

LOVE ISLAND USA (SEASON 6): STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The show opens with the new dating pool contestants – and host Ariana Madix –lip syncing to “I Came Here For Love.” Right after that performance, announcer Iain Stirling joins in to let us know that, once again we are here to watch, “ten sexy singles on a quest to find true love.”

The Gist: For six weeks, ten “Islanders” will live in a villa in Fiji and spend that time coupled up. What sets Love Island USA apart from most other tropical villa-based dating shows is just how eventized it all feels. The show is filmed in real time and airs every day and because of that, it really lets things breathe. We’re not trying to cram a story arc into ten tight episodes, we’re allowing these relationships to evolve, and maybe fail, over weeks and weeks. But in the premiere, the sequence of events is really no different from shows like Perfect Match or Too Hot To Handle; we watch contestants –in this case, all the women – arrive in the house and introduce themselves, we get some of their backstory, you know the drill. And each one of them appears absolutely ecstatic to meet her four new best friends. Ariana Madix feels so natural in the role as host, maybe because she’s a reality veteran, or maybe because she’s a superfan of the show and she’s already been on it, but when she arrives and introduces the men, the women’s heads nearly explode with excitement.

Among the ten singles are Chipotle-lover Kaylor, bundle of energy/hyperactive sweat gland owner Hannah, animal lover Leah, short king Kordell Beckham (brother of football star Odell), and season 5’s Rob Rausch, a professional snake wrangler. After they all meet, they take part in a kissing challenge to determine some compatibility which will help them pair up. After some passionate tongue, three couples self-select one another, while two couples, Hannah and Kendall, and Kordell and Serena, are basically chosen for each other by default.

From there, the couples all spend time with each other to determine if the other is worthy of sharing their bed. While everyone on the show gives off a first impression that suggests they’re purely sex-crazed, what’s most surprising is listening to them all earnestly claim to be looking for a spouse and real commitment. Most of the pairs seem compatible (except maybe Kordell and Serena?), but as they all keep getting to know each other, a bombshell named Liv enters the house and threatens to disturb the peace and steal one of the men away. Liv steals snakewrangler Rob away from his match, Leah, with whom he seems to have shared a nice connection. Rob seems almost dismayed to have been picked by this beautiful blonde Australian, but hey, you don’t come to Love Island to play things safe. He, of all people, should know this.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of?: Love Island UK kicked this whole series off, natch, but also the aforementioned Perfect Match and Too Hot To Handle.

Our Take: Love Island USA is a show about commitment; all the contestants are looking for one, and as a viewer, you have to make a serious one to watch the entire season, six days a week for six weeks. (Not to mention the fact that the premiere episode was over 90 minutes long.) The general formula hasn’t changed compared to past seasons, and that’s a good thing, because one of the best things about the show is the way episodes end on cliffhangers and relationships can change on a dime. (In a scene from the next episode, bombshell Liv is shown asking Rob, “Are you mad that I chose you?” and honestly, I’ll be tuning in because it seems like, yeah, he might be!)

The beauty of a show like Love Island USA is just how well we get to know the contestants, whether that means rooting for them or rooting against them (or just wondering what their deal is). I guess I shouldn’t be surprised or mad at the fact that the show seems to place a heavy emphasis too on the women and their looks, but that’s the one aspect of the show that always seems so skewed. I mean, yes, of course I want to watch a makeup contouring video, but just not like, right now as these women glam at their makeup table.

So far the islanders are all a mix of superficial and shallow but also genuine and optimistic about their relationships; the special trick this show pulls is convincing us to stick with it long enough to see how those traits balance out and work for them all by the end.

Sex and Skin: So much skin. This is the type of show where the microphone packs are larger than any item of clothing on anyone’s body.

Parting Shot: After Liv the Bombshell steals Rob away from Leah, Leah is told that she’s now single and, “it’s never good to be single on Love Island.” That is, unless two new, sexy men are invited at the last minute to join the show. And here they come right now.

Performance Worth Watching: This is truly a house full of ten competing, bold personalities, but so far, Kaylor, a Pittsburgh native who can do the whole accent ‘n’at, and Hannah, the one whose makeup smears on every man she kisses and who has the hands and feet that don’t stop sweating, stand out.

Memorable Dialogue: “When I meet the love of my life, I’ll pop out a whole football team for him,” Kaylor tells Serena when Serena asks how many kids Kaylor wants. Spoken like a girl who grew up near Penn State.

Our Call: Love Island USA is the quintessential summer dating show, and the six-week-long commitment it asks of the audience plays into that summer escapism. This season’s couples seem dramatic and potentially volatile (the air is thick with the jealousy that’s coming off of some of the women when Liv arrives) which also means they’re especially watchable: STREAM IT!

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.