SOMETHING ABOUT HER
Ariana Madix’s ‘Love Island’ Cameo Is a Big F-You to Tom Sandoval
Cheating ex Tom Sandoval wouldn’t watch the reality-dating show with her, so Ariana got revenge by guest-hosting. She says it was a “dream” come true
“You don’t sit there and watch episodes of Love Island with me,” Ariana Madix said when she tried to explain her idea of quality time to her then-boyfriend Tom Sandoval in what was supposed to be the Season 10 finale of Vanderpump Rules.
The scene between the former couple shows them going back and forth about how they didn’t feel connected and had different ideas of intimacy. “Well, no, I don’t have time to watch fifty goddamn episodes of Love Island,” Sandoval shouted back. “No, I don’t.”
Fast forward to almost one year later: Following her breakup from Sandoval after learning that he cheated on her for months with their fellow cast member and her friend Rachel (formerly known as Raquel) Leviss, Ariana found herself on the actual set of Love Island USA in Fiji hosting a challenge for the Season Five islanders, making her guest appearance on the Peacock series a full-circle moment.
Ariana told Rolling Stone that she was “over the moon” when NBC approached her to make the cameo, which aired on Tuesday night’s episode. “I have seen every episode of every iteration of Love Island and it is my favorite show,” Ariana said. “Most of my friends are well aware of my obsession and were just as excited as I am for me to be able to live my dream.”
To say the world has rallied around Ariana since the news about Scandoval broke back in March is an understatement; not only have her friends, family, and fans been publicly supportive, but her star has been on the rise professionally with innumerable brand deals, a role in a Lifetime movie, the announcement that she’s joining the cast of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars this fall, and her upcoming sandwich shop Something About Her — with Vanderpump Rules co-star Katie Maloney — fully funded and set to open later this summer. Now she can add a guest spot on Love Island USA as another accomplishment to her long list of achievements this year alone.
“Timing is everything,” Corie Henson, the executive vice president of unscripted development for NBCUniversal, told Rolling Stone. According to Henson, Love Island USA was in pre-production in May when the episode of Vanderpump Rules aired in which Ariana talks about how much she loves the show.
“We knew that Ariana was a big fan of the show and we’re always having those conversations with the lifestyle team to try to find folks in their world that are fans of our shows and vice versa so that we can do this sort of cross-pollination,” Henson said.
Sharon Vuong, who’s the executive vice president of alternative programming for NBCUniversal, told Rolling Stone they were eager to bring Ariana into the Love Island fold when they saw the conversations happening online as a result of her bringing up her fandom in the VPR episode.
“It was all over Twitter about how she said something about wanting [Sandoval] to ‘make the time to watch Love Island with me,’” Vuong said. “And we thought, when we shoot this summer maybe there’s an opportunity where she can come and hang out with us for a little while and see if we can make that work.”
It wasn’t easy to figure out the logistics of getting Ariana to Fiji since she’s also in the middle of production on Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules, not to mention a number of other projects she has going on, according to Henson and Vuong. Ariana is in high demand in the entertainment industry and the timing was so tight they almost didn’t pull it off. But getting Ariana to the iconic Love Island villa was a priority for NBC because they wanted her on screen in another one of their shows, so they “moved some pieces around in the tetris matrix of both shows” so they could squeeze it in.
“It was touch and go. We were actually trying to get her to Fiji for the premiere week and because of timing, there was like a day or two where we were devastated because we thought that this was going to go away,” Henson said.
They didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until Ariana was on the plane.
“We wanted to make sure the first place you saw her after Vanderpump was here on one of our [NBC] shows,” Henson continued. “She has so many big things planned for the coming months but we just wanted to make sure that we were able to [get her on Love Island]. It was important to keep her in the family.”
When the news dropped that Ariana was going to be on Love Island, fans speculated what exactly her role would be. Ariana wasn’t a proper “bombshell” in the way it’s typically portrayed on the show, when a new cast member comes into the villa looking to couple up with someone while everyone else is already paired up (plus, she’s in a new relationship). She ended up making an appearance while hosting a popular challenge for cast members called the “Mr. and Mrs.” challenge, which Vuong said is like Love Island’s version of “the Newlywed Game” where couples have to answer questions about each other and their preferences.
Knowing they would have limited time with Ariana on set, Henson said they wanted to engage her in an activity “that was specific to her experience” and where she was interacting directly with the islanders, having the ability to give them some advice based on her personal life that has become public fodder.
“The game is all about getting to know your partner better and going into your relationship with eyes wide open,” Henson said. “You can tell with a bit of a wink and a nod how the game relates back to everything that viewers just saw [Ariana] go through with her relationship. We wanted to do something that really spoke to what everyone was talking about with her experience and let her sort of be herself and not overproduce the segment.”
As an avid viewer of the reality series, Ariana said she knows that the “Mr. and Mrs.” challenge “always brings its own type of drama to the show.”
“There are specific questions I knew would cause rifts between couples and would cause them to question their partners,” she said. “I also learned a lot about all of them in the process.”
Ariana entered the villa halfway through Episode Eight, shocking cast members who were excited to see her. Hannah hugged Ariana hello and then said in her confessional interview, “I’ve been watching her on Vanderpump for years, she’s just an icon. You look up ‘bad bitch’ in the dictionary, you’re going to see a picture of Ariana.”
As the VPR star introduced the game the islanders were going to play, she told them, “Take it from me, it’s important to know who you’re dating or sharing a bed with and if they’re not the one for you, trust me: it’s better to find out sooner rather than later.”
For Ariana, hosting on Love Island USA was different from other projects she’s been a part of because of “how fun it was.”
“I’ve done so many things that have brought such a level of joy to my life, but hosting my favorite show is really the most fun thing I could have been asked to do,” she said.
The NBC executives were so impressed with Ariana’s Love Island appearance and their experience working with her behind the scenes that they have high hopes for her future trajectory in reality television beyond just Vanderpump Rules; they hope they can continue to work with her across different shows. Vuong, who was on set with Ariana in Fiji, said the VPR star was familiar with the Love Island contestants when they were all filming and “was really dialed-in as if she was producing the show.”
“We’re going to snatch her up as soon as we can. We’d love to have her do something more than just guest star. She is primed and ready for primetime. That’s definitely a conversation that we’ll be having,” Henson said.
Plus, it doesn’t hurt that fans are unanimously rooting for Ariana right now. “Everyone wants to see her win,” Henson continued. “It’s a great silver lining.”
As a Love Island superfan, Ariana said she was surprised to see how big the villa actually is in person and while she was excited to meet every cast member, she still has her favorites.
“I was so excited to meet all of them, but I definitely have my faves and seeing them, I was actually starstruck,” Ariana said. “I love Kay Kay and Keenan together, Destiny is so beautiful, Carmen and Hannah were such amazing additions to the villa, and I want to hang out with them so badly. Kassy and Anna are gorgeous and all I want is for Bergie to find his person. If I ever find out that Keenan breaks Kay Kay’s heart, I will riot.”
When asked what it was like to travel to Fiji and film for Love Island USA while in the midst of filming the current season of Vanderpump Rules, Ariana said, “Being able to come to Fiji, a place that I have always dreamt of seeing in real life, and being able to be a part of this season of Love Island and the Love Island family at large, was such a welcome blessing in my life. I would do it all over again a thousand times.”
The unscripted NBC execs said they’ve seen success using their ecosystem of talent across different shows, citing The Traitors as a main example, which premiered on Peacock in January 2023. Reza Farahan from Shahs of Sunset, Brandi Glanville from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kyle Cooke from Summer House, and Kate Chastain from Below Deck were all contestants on the series who originally appeared on different Bravo shows. Henson said the second season of the show will also include talent and cast members from the world of NBCUniversal.
“Bravo talent really knows how to do television. When you drop them in these other worlds, they come alive,” she said. “It’s such a boost to our formats as well, so we’re going to keep doing this for as long as we can.”
Both Love Island USA and Vanderpump Rules are filming this summer while the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are in a dual strike against major studios and streaming services. Historically, in the absence of scripted content, networks have leaned on reality television to carry the weight and fill in time slots. Some networks have already released their reality-heavy fall schedules, though the NBC execs claim they’re uniquely positioned to handle the coming months.