It was definitely a fix.
No questions about it.
Everyone has their own personal favourites but honestly; Paige and Finn? No shade to them but in six months to a years time, I doubt any of us will be thinking of them, whereas people from last summers season are still relevant!
In a way, I get why they won, but still, a lot of the viewers (myself included) are disappointed. Paige and Finn seem like a ready made couple, even in their winners’ photo, they look like a couple who’ve been together for years. That’s not a bad thing, I just mean the winners of this season kind of reflect how underwhelming and anti-climactic this season actually was!
Outside of the Shaughna-Callum-Molly situation, Leanne getting the “ick,” Mike being painted as a savage (we’ll get to that later) and a few other moments, this wasn’t a hugely interesting season.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it as this was my first time actually watching the full season but I definitely think it could’ve been juicier.
Siânnise went from being hated to one of the viewers’ favourites once she coupled up with Luke T, so a lot of people were rooting for them to win, which is what I was expecting to happen so I was slightly disappointed hearing that Paige and Finn had won. As many have said, as a couple, they’re great… But as entertainers/social media personalities, their star will probably burn out very quickly. I can’t see her doing any of the Boohoo/PLT deals, so I’m guessing she went on the show to try to further her career as a singer. As for Finn, he never made it as a pro footballer, so I have no idea what’s in store for him , but it’ll certainly be interesting to see it all play out.
I’m guessing Luke Squared will get some sort of bromance related spin-off, like Tommy and the other guy did. Despite what some people are saying, I do feel like Luke M and Demi will last (not necessarily forever ) but I feel like they’re both so bubbly and they seem to get on well, I don’t see why they’d break up anytime soon. Luke T and Siânnise probably will go the distance too, both have that corny goofyness (in a loveable way) going on and they seem really into each other; they definitely should’ve won but I feel like people just aren’t ready to see a black person/black couple win this show.
Which brings me into my next point.
I definitely had gotten to a point where i kept forgetting that Jess and Ched wee even there but I was surprised to see them come in fourth. Although I was rooting for Demi, I knew her and Luke M wouldn’t win ; and I also didn’t think they’d come in third. I feel like Jess and Ched technically are a stronger couple, being that they’ve been together pretty much since meeting and have had more time to build a connection, so I thought they would finish in a higher place.
But I think voters and whoever else controls who wins, intentionally put them in that place because they just didn’t want to see Ched go any further than that. They definitely had the potential to win but with him being a black man that kind of automatically made it so they wouldn’t
win.
Going back to what I said about Mike before, I definitely think that he was given such bad press (especially with this mystery fourth girl he supposedly romanced??) for the same reason that he and Priscilla came fifth, the same reason Jess and Ched were fourth and why Siânnise and Like T didn’t win – it’s a race thing. Mike’s previous employer even tried to release stories to tarnish his character all just because they don’t wanna see a black man be prosperous! I’ve seen headlines that completely skip over Leanne’s presence, despite me knowing that she wai a involved in the story being told, and honestly; I think as black people we shouldn’t really be surprised at this stage, but STILL! It’s not easy to see.
And you may think it’s odd that I’m “playing the race card” after saying I was rooting for Demi, but me rooting for her wasn’t on the basis of her race. Obviously from day one I was rooting for Leanne and Mike to win, then she let us all down so Mike had to turn savage for a few episodes to stay in the game and then he finally met Priscilla. If Mike and Priscilla had made it to the final, I would’ve most definitely been rooting for them but for obvious reasons, they didn’t. I like Demi because of her character and she seemed to not catch a break for ages until she finally secured it withLuke M.
Even outside of voting and those who made it to the final, if we look at the contestants’ number of social media followings, Leanne and Priscilla as black women, have quite low numbers, in comparison to someone like Eve, who was on the show for just a few episodes and they both had quite significant storylines whilst being with Mike.
On a side note, I feel like the Caroline Flack tribute was slightly forced. It’s a good thing that they did it, but why did they wait until the final? Yes, Iain Sterling gave his tribute on the first episode after her passing but still, I suppose it was better than nothing.
Hopefully the summer season will be slightly more interesting.
All photos sources from Instagram
NOA World Entertainment 