Inside Love Island's 'dry runs' after two stars were discovered during secret process

Love Island bosses have to hold a "dry run" before the series goes on camera - and one of this year's standout stars was found during that period.

In television terms, a dry run is a rehearsal of a programme before the real one filmed, and producers of the ITV2 dating show have to have a separate cast to work with for the sake of logistics before cameras actually start rolling on set. Other shows known to undergo a dry run before the series goes into production, including Big Brother. The 12th series of Love Island is currently on air, and Lauren Wood has become a prominent Islander thanks to her love triangle with Harrison Luna. Insiders recently claimed that Lauren impressed bosses so much that they "guaranteed her a slot in Casa Amor", but she is not the only one.

It has also been claimed that Ty Isherwood - who is currently coupled up with Lauren - was also part of the dry run, meaning that the pair of Islanders knew each other well before their love blossomed. Revealing that they even got close then, a source explained to The Sun : "Ty and Lauren are acting like they’ve only just met but that’s far from the case. They hooked up during the dry run, which is where a fake cast moves into the villa to test out everything from camera angles, to kitchen appliances and run-through challenge.

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"And then they even saw each other on the outside before ITV invited them back to be part of Casa Amor. Now they’re both in the main villa pretending like none of this ever happened but it’s all entirely fake and ITV know about it. Viewers deserve to know it’s all a huge sham." The programme, which initially aired in the late 2000s, has been on-screen in its revived format for a decade, and another famous face face from the villa was initially from the dry run.

Sanam Harrinanan emerged victorious from the ninth series in 2023 alongside her now-fiancé Kai Fagain and she is thought to have been discovered in the dry run, which takes place two months before the actual competition, reports The Tab. Plenty of others have also found success through the pre-production stage, and series eight contestant Summer Botwe previously explained how they work.

During a Q&A section on Instagram, she said: "In short form: they take 12 people who applied or were scouted for the show to do a test run of the show for 2 days, to check all the cameras work and everything is running smooth before they film with the actual chosen contestants."

At the time, she noted that the stage also serves as a chance for hopefuls to show potential, adding: "However it's also like opportunity to show your personality and vibe to producers as 1/2 are usually chosen from the dry run to either be a bombshell or casa amor contestant in the real show"

But Summer also revealed that she ended up being selected alongside Billy Brown, who was briefly involved with eventual finalist Tasha Ghouri, but insisted that neither of them knew at the time that either of them would be chosen for the show before they saw each other on set, adding: "A secret: both me and billy done the dry run and we were besties but neither of us knew we were chosen to do casa so we were stunned at the casa recoupling fire pit when we saw each other."

Narrator Iain Stirling has previously exposed the details of the dry dry run before as he spoke out on the "crazy, mad" process of it all on the So Bad It's Good podcast, noting: "We've had dry runs of Love Island when we put people who aren't going into the show. We literally have a three-day practice where people go in and they're in Love Island but it's not on telly. It's sort of crazy, it's mad."

And in revealing that the dry run can sometimes be more outrageous than the actual show, he said: "And if you think people going on the show get up to no good. Imagine what they do if they know it's not televised. Let's say it's not that dry in some cases."

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