Joey Essex holds court in the Mallorca villa of Love Island (Image: ITV) DOI: Joey Essex is unveiled as new contestant Starmer v Sunak...
v Essex? Welcome to the most unlikely ratings battle ever as two prime ministerial hopefuls plus a reality show regular Joey Essex went up against each other on ITV after the popular star had been parachuted into Love Island . Everyone had looked shocked on Love Island by Joey’s sudden presence, wondering if he’d walked on to the wrong set in Spain. If anyone was a candidate to do so it was Essex.
But no one looked as baffled as Keir Starmer in Starmer v Sunak (ITV, Tues) when he was asked about a £2,000 tax rise by Sunak. This was a rare TV moment. Love Island had returned 24 hours earlier (ITV1, Mon) bizarrely following Coronation Street in the schedules.
ITV1 went from the Corrie cobbles to cobblers. Bosses are doing everything possible to drag Love Island into the mainstream. They’re no longer satisfied with a few bewildered grannies watching it with their grandkids.
Not only had they launched it on the main channel on a Monday night, but they’d tossed Joey Essex, a familiar ITV face, into the melting pot of Mallorca. It suddenly gave Love Island a celebrity feel even though some of the boys looked at him blankly as he walked in. Their faces were saying, “Who's this geezer?” Well, he's just spoiled your eight-week holiday as he did later for Sam, the contestant who got dumped.
Joey Essex has been on just about every show wi.
