Beating Channel 5 staple Big Brother in Monday night's ratings, the erotically-charged TV contest won 6.9% of the audience share with 1.3million viewers over BB's 1.2million.

ITV2 has already started looking for 2017's participants after announcing earlier this week that season 3 had the green light.

The show caused uproar among the viewing public for broadcasting sexually explicit encounters between housemates. Nonetheless, Love Island's audience peaked at 1.5million, improving on last year by 700k. 

Particular media furore was caused when Miss Great Britain Zara Holland was stripped of her title for having sex on the show with scaffolder Alex Bowen. She later left the programme to be with her mother, who was unwell. 

The winners of season 2 were announced on Monday as Nathan Massey and Cara De La Hoyde. The competitors opted to share their £50,000 prize money, with Miss De La Hoyde saying: "He better not leave me when we get back. I'll be so p**sed off."