All Stars villa evacuated over wildfires

Filming for Love Island: All Stars has been postponed after the villa was evacuated due to wildfires, ITV has said.

The third series of the popular dating programme spin-off – filmed in South Africa – was due to premiere on Monday.

But a statement posted on the show’s Instagram page said: “Health and safety is our greatest priority and will always come first, and therefore the transmission of Love Island: All Stars will be delayed until a date to be confirmed.”

ITV has given no further details on when it hopes to resume filming.

State broadcaster SABC reported on Saturday that authorities were working with the South African Air Force to control several fire-related incidents in the Western Cape, where the villa is located.

Love Island: All Stars follows the same format as the original ITV programme, but with former contestants returning to the villa in a bid to find their match.

Hosted by Maya Jama, this year’s initial line-up is formed of 12 contestants including two former winners – Jess Harding, 25, and Millie Court, 29.

The son of Irish singer Ronan Keating, 26-year-old Jack Keating, is also part of this series’ cast.

Other contestants expected to appear are Belle Hassan, 27; Charlie Frederick, 31; Ciaran Davies, 23; Helena Ford, 29; Leanne Amaning, 28; Sean Stone, 26; Shaq Muhammad, 27; Tommy Bradley, 22; and Whitney Adebayo, 28.

At the height of series 12 of the regular format last summer, which saw 2.6m people tune in to watch the first episode, ITV said streams on subscription service ITVX were up 9% year on year.

However, viewers went on to make more than 14,000 complaints alleging bullying, abusive behaviour and misogyny – particularly in relation to a divide between some of the women in the ITV villa.

Media watchdog Ofcom said it would not investigate the series because the negative behaviour “was not shown in a positive light”, and was in line with what viewers have come to expect.

In response, ITV said participants get training in advance about “mutually respectful behaviour in relationships” and “behaviour patterns associated with controlling and coercive behaviour”.