“Love Island USA” crowns winners in season 8 finale

Key Points

• Trinity Tatum and Bryce Alakai Dettloff were named the winners of Love Island USA season 8.

• Four couples were up for the title after six weeks of love exploration in a secluded Fijian villa.

• The winners walked away with $100,000.

Love Island USA season 8 has come to a sparkling conclusion.

On Sunday night, Trinity Tatum and Bryce Alakai Dettloff were crowned the winners, a.k.a. the most compatible love match, in a season featuring fewer romances and more friendships, err, situationships, than ever before.

America’s, and the villa’s, favorite couple walked away with a cash prize of $100,000 after they decided to share the money. Across the Love Island franchise, the selected couple gets a pair of envelopes (one per person)—an empty one and one with the money in it. The person who has money in their envelope is asked if they want to split the cash prize equally or keep it for themselves—a task meant to be the ultimate relationship test.

Emmy-nominated host Ariana Madix previously announced that Aniya Harvey and Carl Lee Schmidt came in second, Melanie Moreno and Sincere Rhea finished in third place and Kayda Bosse and Zach Georgiou got the least amount of votes.

Bryce and Trinity were frontrunners from the beginning after they coupled up in the first episode on June 2. Love Island follows a group of singles who explore romantic connections in a secluded Fijian villa over the course of six weeks — “coupling up” with a person of their choice every few days. The catch? New “bombshells” could enter the villa at any moment.

Still, Bryce and Trinity chose each other time and time again during recouplings, and confessed their true feelings for each other following the Casa Amor experiment. (The infamous mid-season twist in the Love Island franchise separates original couples into two villas and introduces a new batch of singles to test the islanders’ loyalty before a dramatic recoupling.)

Bryce even asked Trinity to be his girlfriend during the season, and both insisted they’re focusing on each other as they return to “the real world.”

“I think Trinity and Bryce are going to kill it [in the real world],” dumped Islander Jen Terry told Entertainment Weekly. “I love seeing them together. They are super happy. Even when they’re not in their private chats, they’re in the kitchen together, they’re working out together. I have loved watching Trinity open up to him a lot more because I feel like Bryce has always been pretty open with her and now she feels super comfortable with him and I just love watching them together.”

On Friday’s episode, Kenzie Annis (coupled up with Casa Amor’s Dylan Wrona) and KC Chandler (coupled up with Casa Amor’s Tierra Davis) were sent home during the results of America’s vote, in which viewers saved the four aforementioned couples to advance to the finale.

This season, which premiered on June 2 and released 35 quick-turnaround episodes, reached 2.3 billion minutes viewed in the first two weeks, according to NBCUniversal. Peacock’s first-party data also revealed that 26 percent of engagement for season 8 came from phones and tablets.

And reportedly, this summer’s run saw 27 percent new viewers to the series, reinforcing the franchise’s growing appeal.

Hosted by Vanderpump Rules alum Madix and narrated by comedian Iain Stirling, Love Island USA streamed exclusively on Peacock, with new episodes dropping daily at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET, except for Wednesdays.

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A companion series titled Aftersun, hosted by Ciara Miller and Tefi Pessoa, also aired every Saturday in the time slot.

Although fans will certainly miss all the French fries talk as Love Island USA comes to an end, a reunion will air on August 31.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly