Love Island could be heading for the same fate as Celebrity Big Brother, amid growing speculation that the long-running dating franchise may be “rested” after a sharp decline in viewing figures.

The latest instalment, Love Island: All Stars, launched on ITV2 at 9pm on Sunday night but attracted just around 500,000 viewers, a disappointing figure for one of the channel’s flagship brands. The underwhelming launch marks a significant drop compared with last year’s series opener, which drew more than 750,000 viewers at the same point in the schedule.

Industry publication Broadcast reported that the show was even outperformed by BBC Four, where more viewers were tuning in to watch snooker during the same time slot — a comparison likely to raise alarm bells for ITV executives.

Hosted by Maya Jama, Love Island: All Stars is a lavish and costly production, requiring an overseas location, a large production crew, round-the-clock filming, and extensive post-production. With budgets running high, declining audiences make the show increasingly difficult to justify, particularly at a time when ITV has other reality hits delivering far stronger returns. Shows such as The Traitors, for example, have been pulling in up to eight million viewers per episode, highlighting a clear shift in audience tastes.

The disappointing figures have fuelled concerns that viewers may be growing fatigued with the traditional dating-show format, which Love Island has dominated for nearly a decade.

Earlier this year, ITV confirmed it would postpone the next series of Celebrity Big Brother until 2027, while also downgrading it from ITV1 to ITV2 following falling ratings. Although a civilian series of Celebrity Big Brother is still planned for later this year, it will need to reverse its downward trend to avoid further cuts.

A source told us “ITV will be all too aware that MTV, once home to lavish dating series not too dissimilar to Love Island has closed down after viewers completely lost their appetite for this kind of programming. Execs will be desperate to find big new formats to fill the void and attract some of the share which the BBC are winning with formats like The Apprentice, Race Across The World and The Traitors”.

With Love Island now facing similar challenges, industry insiders suggest ITV may be forced to reconsider the future of one of its most recognisable franchises unless viewing figures recover quickly.