Love Island type TV Show network CBS genre Reality

It could be a loooooong summer for CBS.

The network’s big new reality dating show Love Island debuted to only 2.7 million viewers and a 0.6 among adults 18-49 on Tuesday night.

That’s a lot less than recent episodes of other summer broadcast reality fare such as ABC’s The Bachelorette (1.5 in the demo), CBS’ Big Brother (1.2) and NBC’s America’s Got Talent (1.4), and seems especially low for a publicized series premiere.

Yet reactions from viewers on Twitter to the 90-minute opener were rather positive (“I hate how much I like this show,” was one reaction that summed it up). So the program could be — if you’ll pardon the expression — a grower not a shower.

CBS has bet big on Love Island, a format that’s a huge hit in the UK, and have scheduled the show five nights a week for the next four weeks — a massive and highly unusual commitment to a new series.

Image zoom Colin Young-Wolff/CBS

Related content: