January 12 2023
Love Island the UK reality TV sensation, is back in SA, as the Brits bring their chiselled and beautiful influencers, part-time models and, hopefully, some jokers to our shores. This is the second season of the show to be filmed in Cape Town, with the first having been shot and screened at the beginning of 2020.
Initially the house was set to be in Constantia but the Brits freaked out and moved the set to Franschhoek. The producers said the Constantia home was too close to the Cape Flats and feared kidnapping and other serious crimes. It’s pretty funny considering that the Cape Flats which house much of the southern suburbs have many upmarket areas and exquisite homes, restaurants and coffee shops as well as hotels and businesses; Cavendish anyone?
The Franschhoek home is in the Ludus Magnus Estate, in Franschhoek’s “Millionaire’s Row”. It will be rented for R163 500 (£8 000) a day for five months. Franschhoek is South Africa’s premium wine valley. Ludus Magnus estate is a 25-acre resort, located near Cape Town. The home is a mansion owned by a European couple.
It includes an Olympic-sized swimming pool, 17 bedrooms and a treehouse which includes a zipline, rugby and football fields, a 400m running track, mountain bike trails and also a Shiraz wine vineyard. The man-made “Love Island” island is in the middle of Ludus Magnus, complete with a beach and palm trees.
Love Island is a dating reality show where single people stay in a house and then “couple up” and compete in challenges. The winning couple is awarded GBP50 000. It is split between the two winners. Often winners of the ITV produced show go on to be reality TV celebrities in the UK and gain modelling, endorsements and other lucrative contracts.
The first episode will air on the night of January 16 2023.
The irony about moving to Franschhoek is that the contestants do not actually leave the house until they are eliminated, except for special location-based dates. During these times, they are blindfolded. They have no idea about the surrounds of the house and probably think they are right on the Atlantic Seaboard or Tableview coastline, for all we know. UK viewers are also shown very little of SA and the house could actually be anywhere in the world, almost.
The new host is model and socialite Maya Jama who has said the new season will focus more on the mental health of the contestants and not just their sexual antics.
The 2020 winter season was filmed in Constantia in a home owned by student housing developer, John Schooling.
alistair@propertyflash.co.za