by Thinus Ferreira
Britain's ITV Studios has gone silent and doesn't want to answer any questions over what it makes of its embarrassingly bad local Love Island South Africa adaptation of its format reality show on M-Net (DStv 101) - a show in which it is a production partner and that has been highly criticised for its lack of diversity in casting and a litany of cringe-worthy and ongoing production mistakes.
It's also raising questions of whether ITV Studios's already-commissioned Love Island Nigeria or Love Island Naija will suffer the same bad-production fate after the format licensing rights was acquired by Digital Play for Nigeria in late-2020.
It's not clear how ITV Studios would ensure that some kind of oversight takes place for its Nigerian version of Love Island that has been apparently been absent with the much-maligned Love Island SA.
Love Island South Africa, a local adaptation of an ITV Studios format produced by Rapid Blue, remains mired in scandal after it was engulfed in a firestorm of criticism since its debut last Sunday.
DStv subscribers have been up in arms over the lack of diversity in its casting of contestants, as well as a litany of highly embarrassing production gaffes that have continued in playout since the start of the series.
At Rapid Blue, also responsible for The Bachelorette SA also currently on M-Net, Love Island SA is overseen by executive producers Adi de Lancey and Duncan Irvine, series producer Abigail Clark, series director Nadia White, and Kim Thwaites as head of production.
Love Island South Africa lost its main sponsor LottoStar while insiders said that the crew is in a "flat spin" and feeling as if they're "living through a nightmare" as they are scrambling to try and attempt fixes and workarounds.
M-Net also pulled the plug on all Love Island South Africa repeats and reduced the original episode order by axing the Love Island SA Unseen Bits episode on Sunday.
Illegally ripped copies of Love Island SA episodes, including Sunday's mistake-filled debut episode, are available for streaming and download across the internet. where they have already presumably been watched thousands of times.
M-Net and MultiChoice last week also scrapped and backtracked on a promised new feature called "Early Access" that was introduced by Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice Group CEO of general entertainment and that would have made the day's Love Island SA episode available for viewing an hour earlier before broadcast on DStv Catch Up.
On Monday night MultiChoice and M-Net for the first time made episodes of Love Island SA available on DStv Catch Up after more than a week's absence.
M-Net hasn't responded to any media enquiries, with MultiChoice and its PR firm Aprio that have continued to decline repeated interview requests over the past week to try and talk to M-Net executives and Rapid Blue producers to explain the issues around the show, what went wrong, the casting choices and the causes behind the low production values.
With several questions in media enquiries as yet unanswered, Joanne Botha at Aprio told TVwithThinus to "please refer to the channel’s social media pages".
There M-Net's only comment to date late on Tuesday was a statement card, not issued to the media, saying "We are working tirelessly to fix things".
The glaring production gaffes, extremely unusual for a show on M-Net as DStv's most premium pay-TV channel, continue to inflict reputational damage on MultiChoice, M-Net, Rapid Blue and the Love Island format name as a brand, and has been made worse by the lack of any communication with the media and DStv pay-TV subscribers.
More than a week after the debut of Love Island SA there's yet to be a virtual press conference from the pay-TV operator's top execs to take questions.
There have been no statements yet from Yolisa Phahle as MultiChoice Group CEO for general entertainment, group executive of general entertainment Gideon Khobane, Nkateko Mabaso as group executive of programming, M-Net director Jan du Plessis; or Kaye-Ann Williams as M-Net's head of local productions, who don't appear to want their names attached to anything to do with the reputational damage around Love Island South Africa.
ITV Studios in London is likewise shying away from the embarrassment of Love Island South Africa and is now trying to put distance between itself and the latest adaptation of its format with episodes that screen like a film school class of how-not-to for first years.
Love Island is owned by ITV Studios and Motion Content Group Ltd and is distributed internationally by ITV Studios.
Maarten Meijs, president of global entertainment at ITV Studios was initially happy to put his name to a supplied quote in a press release from ITV Studios about Love Island South Africa, in late-2020 saying "This is the second version on the African continent, following the Nigerian acquisition earlier this year, and we can’t wait to see how this local adaptation will find its way to the South African viewers".
Of course, Maarten Meijs then saw how ITV Studios' Love Island South Africa turned into a cringe-worthy horror show.
In February, the ITV spokesperson Heather van den Berg van Sapoaroea, in a press release still said that "The South African singles will couple up in a not so modest villa in the Cape Winelands. Romantic atmosphere guaranteed!"
TVwithThinus made media enquiries to ITV Studios about Love Island SA since last week but ITV Studios failed to respond to any of the emails seeking comment for this article and asking various things about the local adaptation on M-Net.
Neither Paul Moore (ITV Group communications & corporate affairs director), Lee Taylor (ITV Studios publicity manager), Laura Saunders (International PR lead) or Heather van den Berg van Sapoaroea (ITV Studios Global Entertainment head of communications) acknowledged emailed media enquiries over the past few days or responded to questions posed to ITV Studios, as the people that ITV Studios list for responding to press queries.
ITV Studios was asked how it feels about what has happened with Love Island South Africa and whether ITV Studios is happy or at all concerned over the hugely negative reaction over the South African adaptation of its format.
Paul Moore, Lee Taylor, Laura Saunders and Heater van den Berg van Sapoaroea were also asked whether ITV Studios feels that the South African version of Love Island is acceptable to be broadcast to pay-TV subscribers in Africa.
Viewers also asked about the "I got a text" in-show device that has been absent since the debut of Love Island SA on M-Net and only showed up on Friday last week but in a mangled way, and why it lacked the iconic sound.
ITV Studios was asked to what degree does ITV Studios allow localised adaptations to change or not to adhere to things like
that after viewers complained and said that they're disappointed and don’t understand why the show
doesn’t look and work the same.
New contestants - so-called "Bombshells" in-show - have also been revealed and introduced beforehand and not been kept secret as in other series which was another bad thing viewers noticed.
ITV Studios was also asked why these changes have been made that deviate from the format but again ITV Studios also didn't answer this question.
Furthermore, viewers have been asking why ITV Studios' Love Island SA is taking place at a vineyard with apparent farm tractor noise in the background and looking so bad on-screen when the United Kingdom and
French versions - also filmed in South Africa looked - so much better.
Again there's been no response from ITV Studios' Paul Moore, Lee Taylor, Laura Saunders or Heater van den Berg van Sapoaroea.
Can ITV Studios stop or halt a format show like Love Island South Africa if it's not done "well enough” or what interventions are possible? Does a
channel like M-Net and Rapid Blue license a format like this and once they have paid they have free reign to make an adaptation irrespective of a certain standard?
And what is ITV Studios doing, if anything, in relation to Love Island SA in regards to the controversy over the casting
and also the low production values of the show after DStv subscribers are constantly complaining about the
sound, editing, camerawork and other aspects of the show’s look?
Is ITV
Studios intervening, and if so, how?
ITV Studios' Paul Moore, Lee Taylor, Laura Saunders or Heater van den Berg van Sapoaroea were also asked if someone from ITV Studios are ever physically on-set before or during
production of a local format, and if yes, how it worked for Love Island South Africa and during
Covid-19.
Does this person or people do any oversight or how does exactly ITV Studios
“protect” or shepherd its format during a local adaptation in a country like
South Africa?
Again, ITV Studios reps responsible for communicating and liaising with the media didn't bother with responses to any of these questions.
