‘This is our Super Bowl’: How ‘Love Island USA’ became a South Florida phenomenon

After the seventh season of “Love Island USA” came to its gripping conclusion on Sunday, there was no denying the real winner of the show, which has become a cultural phenomenon, is South Florida.

Not only has the show filled its roster with contestants that hail from South Florida, but it has also filled sports bars and restaurants during the slow summer months when the professional teams are between seasons. Fans across South Florida — and the country— flocked to local bars and restaurants that hosted watch parties during the season.

This season was the most watched of “Love Island USA,” the American version of the popular UK series of the same name. In the show, hot, young singles ditch their day jobs to spend a summer in a villa in Fiji where they couple up, break up, make out and fuel six weeks’ worth of memes, drama and social media discourse — all while wearing tiny bikinis and high heels. The show is filmed in real-time, which means fans can influence what happens by voting.

At The Dead Flamingo at Casa Tiki in Little Havana, over 120 fans packed the bar and lounge space, sipping on “Love Island”-themed cocktails like Hurricane Huda and Soul Ties with rose petals strewn on the bar counter for Sunday’s season finale. The Dead Flamingo was one of the first bars in Miami to jump on the idea as young women posted on social media about wanting bars to host watch parties, said Michael Guerrero, the bar’s multimedia manager.

“It’s what the girls demanded!” Guerrero said. “It did give us that feel of people watching something together, and in this case, mainly girls. Girls wanted to feel like guys do watching a sporting event.”

The “Love Island” watch parties, held twice a week, have been a hit. Reservations for seats at the bar’s lounge space sold out for every watch party, Guerrero said. During intermissions, the hosts grabbed audience members on stage for flirty games, like “hottest make-out session” and “worst date story.” The bar even raffled Labubus, the trendy plush toy popular among Gen Z (and apparently, “Love Island” fans).

“I love it. For guys, they have their sports. For girls, this is our Super Bowl,” said Carla Lumbi, 31, who wore a shirt with cast member Amaya Espinal’s face on it to the watch party at the bar.

When Espinal and accountant Bryan Arenales, a Latino couple, won the show, Lumbi and the rest of the bar jumped out of their seats to cheer. Espinal and Arenales are the first Latino couple to win “Love Island USA.”

Nic Vansteenberghe, a 24-year-old Jacksonville native who graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, was the only Floridian to make it to the finale. Vansteenberghe and his partner Olandria Carthen, known as “Nicolandria,” were the runners-up.

Vansteenberghe, a registered nurse and model, lived in Miami and then traveled for three months before going on the show, said Vansteenberghe’s manager Ron Gerard of NEXT Management Miami.

Besides Vansteenberghe, season 7 of Love Island USA’s South Floridian cast members included:

• Austin Shepard, a 26-year-old pool technician who lives in Fort Lauderdale
• Chelley Bissainthe, a 27-year-old Haitian-American day trader born in Miami
• Yulissa Escobar, a 27-year-old mobile bar owner from Miami
• Elan Bibas, a 24-year-old technology consultant who lives in Miami
• Gracyn Blackmore, a 25-year-old who lives in West Palm Beach

But the South Florida representation on the show was not without controversy. Escobar was unceremoniously removed from the villa on the second episode after a clip of her saying the N-word on a podcast resurfaced.

Vansteenberghe unknowingly became one of the season’s main characters, with fans (and even his own family members) hoping that he would finally couple up with Carthen, despite their previous ties to other contestants. Nicolandria also had the support of major brands, NFL teams, the University of Miami and Delray Beach native and tennis superstar Coco Gauff.

“nicolandria stans we upppp #LoveIslandUSA,” Gauff posted on X.

But perhaps Vansteenberghe’s biggest contribution to the show was a viral conversation he had with fellow islander Huda Mustafa when she revealed to him that she has a daughter back home. Just google “I’m a mommy” and prepare to go down the rabbit hole.

Back at The Dead Flamingo, “Love Island” fan Julia Ceresani, 24, said she and friends Brooke Howard and Yami Figueroa were happy to see the South Florida representation on the show.

“I absolutely love it. I think Florida gets such a bad rep normally, although, I don’t know how good the show is for that honestly,” Ceresani said, laughing. “But I love that they’re repping Florida in a non-crazy, Florida Man way.”

Howard, 30, was pleasantly surprised to learn that Vansteenberghe was a fellow FAU alum, though she was hoping for Iris Kendall and Pepe Garcia to win.

“Go Owls!” she said.

This story was originally published July 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM.