Maya Jama was set to welcome two former winners for the third season of the ITV dating series
Love Island host Maya Jama(Image: ITV)
Love Island: All Stars 2026 has officially been postponed after the ITV series’ production team were evacuated over ongoing wildfires, ITV has confirmed.
It was announced by ITV on Monday (January 5) that Love Island: All Stars was coming back for an extended third series on ITV2 and on ITVX on Monday, January 12. Maya Jama was slated to once again be on presenting duties, with Iain Sitrling providing his usual commentary.
Beginning in 2024, Love Island All Stars has featured iconic contestants from previous seasons of the ITV reality show. The series has seen exes reuniting and new romances forming in the tropical location where the programme is filmed.
Among those announced to be taking part was Millie Court, who won series 7 with Liam Reardon in 2021, and Jess Harding, who won series 10 in 2023 with Sammy Root. The son of Ronan Keating, Jack, was set to head back to the villa having previously taken part in the Casa Amor section of the series in 2022.
Teasing what to expect just days ago, a spokesperson said: “Once again, fan-favourite Islanders from across 10 years of the show will return to the famous Villa in search of that much-wanted spark, while navigating the relationship dilemmas of bombshells, heads turning and unfinished business.
“Returning to scorching South Africa, the third All Stars series will run for a bumper six weeks instead of five.”
The full cast of Love Island: All Stars series 3(Image: Joel Anderson/ITV/Shutterstock)
It emerged on Saturday morning (January 10) that the production site had to be evacuated due to wildfires near the South African villa, only days before the series was due to air. Islanders were expected to enter the villa on Saturday to begin filming.
However, a wildfire has caused a road closure en route to the villa in South Africa. The wildfires have impacted South Africa’s Western and Eastern Cape as the strong winds and high temperatures have fuelled the blazes.
While fire services said on Friday (January 9) that significant progress was made overnight in some areas, wildfires in Langrug and Franschhoek areas in the Boland were still burning ‘out of control’.
ITV confirmed the reports on Saturday evening that the series has been delayed, stating that an update on a new airdate will be provided in due course.
An ITV spokesperson said: “Further to a production evacuation owing to ongoing wildfires in the area, our assessment of the location site has concluded that filming will need to be postponed.
“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.”
Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, a Love Island source said that the edit team would only have half the amount of time to put together Monday night’s episode if filming was to get underway on Sunday (January 11).
They said: “It’s a nightmare. It’s left the team scrambling to arrange alternative options on what’s the most difficult day in terms of logistics for the crew – it’s called the ‘get in’ day and they need to make sure everything is running on time and that the islanders don’t get a glimpse of each other before arriving at the villa.
“The filming for their arrivals/meetings take hours. Safety is priority though and they have plans in place for such situations. But not ideal given the show hasn’t even begun.”