🌈 – ‘Love Island’ Contestant Yulissa Escobar Removed From Villa After Using N-Word in Viral Videos
The latest season of “Love Island” isn’t yet a week old, and already it’s mired in scandal.
Contestant Yulissa Escobar was abruptly ousted from the villa with little explanation from narrator Iain Stirling during the second episode of Season 7, which aired June 4.
Different from the traditional departures, in which contestants are either voted off by the public or their fellow “islanders,” Escobar seems to have been removed by the powers that be.
For many, her exit was welcome – before the show even began to air, Escobar, 27, became the subject of controversy when several clips of her using a racial slur on a podcast surfaced.
Backlash quickly reached a fever pitch online, with fans of the show vowing to vote her off when they got the chance.
That opportunity never came, however, when just short of 20 minutes into the show, Stirling said simply, “Yulissa has left the villa.”
Escobar, who had used a racial slur toward Black people when describing a previous relationship, was coupled up with 22-year-old Ace Greene from Los Angeles.
With the Miami native gone, Greene is now single, free to “recouple” with the other bikini-clad twentysomethings looking for love in NBC’s Fiji “Love Island” villa.
“Love Island USA,” a spin-off of the popular U.K. reality series, has proven a massive boon for NBC, particularly Season 6, which produced three closely followed couples.
The format, which sees eligible singles from across the country live in a villa, summer camp style, and play musical chairs with their romantic relationships, is ripe for online commentary. As fans get to watch along, sometimes voting their least-liked individuals out, the side conversation around the happenings in the villa becomes as much an activity as watching the show itself.
