Love Island: More than three million watch final
This year’s Love Island final was watched by 3.4 million viewers - 100,000 more than last year.
The last episode of this year’s series was the most watched finale since 2019 and has pulled in around 2.7 million viewers across the run.
The Turkish actress from Essex, 27, and Italian business owner, also 27, won over viewers with their fiery but passionate relationship that spanned most of the series.
They beat Gemma Owen and Luca Bish in the final two, while Indiyah Polack and Dami Hope came in third and Tasha Ghouri and Andrew Le Page placed fourth.
In a twist, ITV this year scrapped the option for one of the winning couple to steal all of the prize money for themselves.
Both Ekin-Su and Davide arrived in the Love Island villa early on in the series as bombshell contestants and despite an initial attraction suffered a rocky relationship at first, with Davide branding her a “liar”.
However, they later became inseparable and dubbed themselves the “Italian snack” and “Turkish delight”, eventually professing their love for each other.
Upon hearing they had won, Ekin-Su burst into tears while Davide gasped and said “I can’t believe it” before they embraced their fellow finalists.
Laura Whitmore hosted the live final from the garden of the ITV2 show’s Mallorcan villa while a cheering audience watched on.
ITV has also announced there will be two series of the show in 2023 – a winter series in South Africa and a summer series in Majorca.
