The BBC’s ambitious attempt to rival the steamy allure of Love Island has crash-landed spectacularly, with its new reality show Stranded On Honeymoon Island set to be axed after a disastrous debut. Costing a staggering £5 million to produce, the show limped onto BBC One last Wednesday, only to draw a measly 848,000 viewers—barely edging out a documentary about Nazi U-boats airing simultaneously on BBC Two. By its third episode on Friday, viewership plummeted to an abysmal 517,000, dwarfed by the 1.4 million who opted for a repeat of Jeremy Clarkson’s Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on ITV.
A TV insider didn’t mince words: “These numbers are catastrophic for a prime-time BBC One slot. It’s a masterclass in misjudging your audience. Trying to serve a Love Island-esque show to a traditionally older, more reserved viewership was a recipe for disaster.” The insider also highlighted the jaw-dropping expense of flying dozens of contestants and crew 13,000 miles round-trip to a remote island in the Philippines, calling it “a spectacular waste of resources.”
Stranded On Honeymoon Island, hosted by the ever-charismatic Davina McCall, sees twelve singles paired up after speed dating, “married,” and marooned for 21 days to test their compatibility and survival skills. Yet, despite McCall’s star power—evidenced by her ITV hit Long Lost Family pulling double the viewers at the same time—the show failed to connect. Critics were brutal, with The Sun’s Ally Ross branding it a “horror show” and “12 gobby exhibitionists on a tax-funded holiday.” He argued it felt more suited to ITV2 or E4 than the state-funded BBC, where it landed like a cultural mismatch.
This flop marks another blow for BBC One’s recent track record. Just weeks ago, Joel Dommett’s £30 million reboot of Survivor was also canned after a single series, despite averaging 2.6 million viewers—a figure now looking enviable compared to Honeymoon Island’s collapse. The BBC defended the show, stating, “We don’t judge success based on overnight ratings in an on-demand world. This series was commissioned to target young audiences on BBC iPlayer.” But with numbers this dire, it’s hard to imagine a second chance.