Casa Amor is a pivotal point in any Love Island season. The couples are divided by gender, with one group leaving the main villa to test out a new location in Casa Amor, filled with tempting new Bombshells to meet. Meanwhile, the second group of Islanders remains back at the main Villa, where they are also introduced to a group of new potential connections. This year, the Love Island USA producers have found a way to maximize the Casa Amor drama in Season 7. Instead of giving the Islanders the option to remain with their chosen couples, the contestants were forced to re-couple once the Casa Amor episodes began.
The producers of the Peacock series couldn’t have found a better way to stir up drama in the Villa. By forcing the Islanders to explore new connections and then bringing back more Casa cuties to the main Villa, Love Island USA producers have found a way to force the contestants to explore outside their main connection without anyone getting villainized for tempting someone away. As series host Ariana Madix frequently observes, the point of the dating series is for connections to be tested, and closing things off too early in the romance is considered taboo. This season’s Casa Amor switch-up shows the Love Island USA producers are committed to testing connections and stirring up drama.
‘Love Island USA’ Producers Have Found the Best Casa Amor Strategy
This season’s new big twist was that no one could choose to remain with their couple once Casa kicked off. In the past, Islanders were permitted to stay loyal to their old partners if they chose. If they didn’t want to get to know the Casa Bombshells in a display of loyalty to their original couple, that was their prerogative. However, these demonstrations of loyalty in Casa Amor have almost become performative at this point, as contestants know that viewers respect loyalty in the long run, even if the series thrives on drama.
Another shocking twist was the decision to keep the two Islanders who were dumped from Casa, allowing fan-favorites Nic Vansteenberghe and Olandria Carthen to return to the main Villa as a newly formed couple. According to Madix, who recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, producers getting messy with the new Casa Amor rules is a deliberate strategy. The new rules allowed the series to “shake things up,” according to Madix.
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The Vanderpump Rules alum noted that the Casa Amor shake-up was necessary so that no one could play it safe in the Villa and behave for the viewers’ approval. Already thinking ahead, she confidently quipped, “It makes it so that next season, no one knows what’s going to happen.” Even in Season 7, the switch-up has caused so much chaos in the Villa that it seems like no couple is totally secure, with the drama still affecting the Islanders days after the test came to a close.
Season 6 of ‘Love Island USA’ Also Had a Casa Amor Twist
It was clear that the Love Island USA producers have been interested in switching up the Casa rules in recent years. In Season 6, the Islanders were given a very different set of rules compared to this year. Rather than being forced to re-couple, the guys in Season 6 were provided a secret choice: to either stay in the Villa and continue getting to know their main squeeze, or relocate to Casa Amor to see if there were any new connections to explore. Unilaterally, the boys chose to ditch the main Villa and take the trip to Casa.
Since there wasn’t a single guy who chose to stay with their Villa lady, the Season 6 Casa switch-up was lackluster. While the girls were eventually informed of the choice the boys had been presented with, there wasn’t much drama to be squeezed from the scenario once the choice was made and the ladies accepted it. In comparison, in Season 7, the fallout from the forced re-coupling is still reverberating in the Villa. The drama between Huda Mustafa and Chelley Bissainthe is heating up due to Huda’s decision to pursue Casa Bombshell Chris Seeley, who was in a love triangle with Chelley and her Villa partner, Ace Greene. Even now that Casa Amor is over, the drama from the re-coupling is still being felt in the villa, so it seems Love Island USA producers have found a winning strategy to switch things up this year.
