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Love Island USA season 7 concluded on July 13, 2025, during which Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales were named the winners. While the season featured many heartfelt and memorable incidents, it also included some controversial moments, such as the exits of Cierra Ortega and Yulissa Escobar due to their previous alleged racist comments.
In an exclusive report by TMZ, published on July 11, 2025, Joy Tenenberg, the current Unscripted Casting Director and former Development Casting Producer for ITV, which airs Love Island UK, stated that the scandals from season 7 were a "huge miss for production."
She further defended the casting directors, explaining that the responsibility of doing a thorough background research on the islanders to find information from years ago rested on the shoulders of the production and legal teams. In contrast, according to Joy, the casting directors were required to check on more recent information, something that was from a year or two ago.
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As a result, Joy blamed the Love Island USA season 7 production team for allowing mistakes that resulted in blunders.
ITV casting director criticizes the Love Island USA production team for missing out on crucial information during background checks
Love Island USA season 7 started on a promising note, aiming to deliver a drama-filled summer to fans of the show. However, the reality show took an unexpected turn when original islander Yulissa Escobar was removed from the show after the first episode. In episode 2, host Iain Stirling announced her exit, saying, "Yulissa has left the villa."
The matter came to a head when a podcast clip of her using alleged racial slurs resurfaced online. It immediately caught the attention of netizens, who demanded her removal from the show. As a result, the producers evicted her from the villa.
On July 6, 2025, the Love Island USA cast member addressed the scandal and issued an apology for using a word she "had no right in using" on Instagram.
While reflecting on the contestant's exit from the Peacock show, Joy told TMZ that she was shocked that the production had not learned much from the history of reality TV. Acknowledging the reaction from fans for not conducting proper research, Joy defended the casting community, noting that "this sort of background check should've been vetted by production."
She was surprised that the producers had overlooked something so controversial. From her experience, it was a "huge miss for production." Joy added that "those wishing to be the next Love Island bombshell" had to undergo a thorough and detailed examination process, which was "like 15,000 steps long," implying that the scrutiny was intense.
With such a detail-oriented process in place, Joy shifted the blame to producers while defending the casting directors.
Cierra Ortega was also removed from Love Island USA, though at a later stage in the series, for reasons similar to Yulissa's case. A screenshot of a post of her allegedly using a racial slur resurfaced, sparking outrage among fans. It compelled producers to step in and evict her from the villa. Shortly after her exit, Cierra also addressed the issue on Instagram, taking accountability for her actions.
While dissecting Cierra's case, Joy mentioned that her seemingly racist post would not have shown in a background check, as it was deleted long ago. However, she added that the incident regarding Cierra was unpredictable because someone else had been holding onto a screenshot of the post to post later on.
Joy also stated that in her experience, they would rely on the candidate to shed light on anything from their past that may resurface later, resulting in a scandal. So, the contestants were allowed to warn production about potential mishaps before proceeding further.
To conclude, according to Joy, if a racist post from a year ago resurfaced, the blame would fall on the casting directors. However, if the information was much older than that, it was the responsibility of the production and legal teams to tackle the situation beforehand.
Joy believed that due to the current state of Hollywood, with many people losing their jobs, the production team of Love Island USA was "small" and "rushed." Consequently, it resulted in mistakes.
Love Island USA season 7 is streaming now exclusively on Peacock.
