19 March 2023 , 21:40
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Love Island fans were left moaning over the opening segment of the show as it returned for a special reunion episode on Sunday night.
Love Island ’s winter series returned for one special episode tonight as the ITV2 reality show hosted its reunion just a week after the grand final in South Africa.
New Love Island host Maya Jama was joined live in the studio by superfans Indiyah Polack, Sam Thompson and all 35 of the 2022 Islanders to relive the most dramatic moments from this year's series.
Yet the live show kicked off with a performance of an Ella Henderson track in the ITV studio, which Love Island viewers bemoaned as not relevant to the show.
Taking to Twitter, one wrote: “Already off to a bad start with this performance lmao,” a second questioned: “Is this a concert or a reunion??”
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Fans complained the song was too lengthy (ITV)Another asked: “Is this live performance necessary??!” as another chimed: “That song went on for a bit too long.”
“A whole 5 mins for this middle of the road, go-home-the-club is closing song oh lord,” another wrote.
It comes after a fashion insider claimed Love Island's social media ban could be the end of the show as we know it.
The stars of the current series have left the villa with underwhelming numbers of Instagram followers after a change in rules stopped them from building their social media presence while on the ITV2 show.
The live show kicked off with a performance (ITV)Last week Pretty Little Thing - who signed Molly-Mae Hague and Gemma Owen from the show - revealed they will not sign anyone from the most recent series. And now insiders claim budding influencers are put off applying for the next series as they miss out on big money deals.
It's been claimed that the number of singletons applying for the show have already "slumped" following the latest series.
A spokesman for ITV told the Mirror: "Love Island is primarily about people looking for love."
This year's winners Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan, had 173,000 and 153,000 Instagram followers respectively the day after they left the villa last week.
Love Island ’s winter series returned for one special episode (ITV)Meanwhile, Gemma Owen finished the summer series last year with over a million followers – after gaining 920,000 while her family ran her Instagram account during the show.
None of this year's contestants have left the villa with more than a million followers on Instagram.
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The closest is Jessie Renee Wynter with 709,000 - although she previously appeared on the Australian version of the show before a social media ban was in place.
Her boyfriend Will Young has 499,000 followers but was already a hit on social media before he entered the villa.