ITV chief Dame Carolyn McCall has dismissed the suggestion that white participants on Love Island are at an unfair advantage.
During the last four years of Love Interest, viewers have expressed concerns that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) contestants can get less screen time than their white counterparts, and can also be overlooked when the islanders start coupling up.
This issue was raised once again at the beginning of the current series, when it was pointed out that the final three of the original contestants to couple up were all black or mixed race.
However, while answering questions from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee about reality television, Dame Carolyn McCall insisted she does “not see the evidence” to suggest that BAME contestants get “less of a fair ride” on Love Island.
“I don’t see the evidence for that genuinely and if there was we would take that very seriously,” she explained.
“I mean if you look at the current show and you look at Yewande and Danny and Arabella, Yewande and Danny had an enormous amount of airtime, in the last two or three episodes as a result of what was going on with them.
“And actually one of the most popular couples at the moment are Michael and Amber, who are both from a BAME background.”
Dame Carolyn was speaking the morning after fan favourite Yewande Biala was dumped from the island, after her partner Danny Williams chose to couple up with Arabella Chi instead.
Earlier in the series, former Love Island contestant Marcel Somerville called for changes to be made to the ITV2 show’s casting system, in order to make it more inclusive and fair.
Since then, Sherif Lanre has been removed from the show after making accidental physical contact with another islander, which he then made an explicit joke about.
When some viewers pointed out that a white contestant had used similar language a year earlier and not faced any repercussions, a Love Island rep told HuffPost UK: “We would strongly refute any accusation of racism. All of the Islanders are treated fairly and in accordance with our duty of care.”
After leaving the villa, Sherif also claimed that one of his unnamed co-stars had “repeatedly” used the n-word while rapping a Drake song in the villa.
A Love Island spokesperson also responded to this, saying there is no video evidence to suggest this incident took place despite the Islanders being “monitored… 24/7”.