A ranking of the most savage Love Island challenges in history

If there is one thing Love Island viewers can agree on, it’s the joy that is felt when the Islanders take part in challenges. Whether it’s the heart rate challenge or the lie detector test, there is always something for our viewing pleasure. Despite these challenges being fun and games, they are equally just as savage and almost always cause drama in the villa. Over the years, some fan favourite challenges have been cut by producers and we have seen the introduction of new, dare I say, better challenges.

Whether or not your favourite challenge has been and gone in this season of Love Island, or you’re desperately hoping the producers have been listening to our prayers and bring back the lie detector test. Here is a considered ranking of the most savage challenges in Love Island history:

10. Baby challenge

The baby challenge is certainly the most wholesome challenge the Islanders have to do, so much so there is barely anything savage about it. There are some golden moments over the years when the Islanders have to care for a fake baby for an entire day, whether it was when Anna and Jordan had to co-parent despite breaking up after TWO DAYS, or when Tommy started doing tricks with his baby. The words “Uh Tommy” still ring in my head to this day.

All in all, not so savage but definitely provides all the laughs we all need before we all begin to cry when it’s parent’s day.

9. Heart rate challenge

Very rarely does the heart rate challenge cause a lot of drama in the villa because most of the Islanders take it as a bit of fun. That is until your heart rate gets raised the most by your ex-girlfriend despite confessing your strong feelings for someone else. I’m looking at you Jacques.

The most savage thing about the heart rate challenge is the outfits the Islanders get put in. I will forever demand justice until the end of my days for Mary and her little mermaid costume.

8. Snogathon challenge

The snogathon challenge is when each group of Islanders had go round and kiss the other Islanders with blindfolds on and the blindfolded Islanders have to rate the kiss out of 10. Sounds harmless? Wrong. Back in 2019, Curtis rated a kiss with Arabella 10 out of 10 because he felt a “good connection”. When it came to Amy’s kiss, he rated it a seven. He tried to justify it by saying he didn’t realise it was Amy he kissed when he rated it a seven, but Amy said: “I scratched your neck like I always do, so you knew it was me.” To make matters even worse, he rated everyone else higher than Amy. Ouch.

7. Spit the Roast

The most disgusting and vomit inducing challenge is when the Islander couples have to spit food items into each others mouths or sometimes liquid depending on which challenge the producers scratch off their bingo card. The savage thing about this challenge is the fact they have to do it. I couldn’t think of anything worse. It’s hell in there.

6. Snog, Marry, Pie

We just cannot forget the iconic snog, marry, pie challenge in 2019 when Anton royally messed up with Belle. When choosing who to snog, Anton chose Islander Anna Vakili and said: “I’m going to kiss this person because they were the best kisser in the kissing challenge.” After mugging off Belle, he decides to pick her to marry. She stood her ground and said: “You’ve mugged me off, you’ve embarrassed me, you’ve made me feel like sh*t.” Dark days.

5. Licence to swill/Mugged off

The moment the Islanders got the chance to swill others, chaos erupted. The Islanders were told a secret said in the villa and the others had to guess who the secret was. After guessing who was being mugged off, the Islander chosen had a cold mug of tea thrown over them. Nobody can forget when 2016’s Adam Maxted told the other boys he could have sex with Liana and couple up with someone else. He said: “I could bang her and then just choose Tina.” His dirty laundry was revealed in the challenge, and Liana was not best pleased.

4. Movie night

A new introduction post Casa Amor is the movie night challenge, where the Islanders have to answer questions and the correct team gets to reveal a scene they would not have seen or even known took place. The first movie night was in 2021 after Casa Amor, where the girls finally found out what the boys got up to in Casa Amor in HD. Faye’s reaction to watching Teddy in Casa Amor received almost 25,000 Ofcom complaints.

3. Lie detector

Although the lie detector test has been scrapped, it goes down as true Love Island history. One moment that has placed this challenge in the top three is in 2017 during Gabby and Marcel’s test. Marcel asked Gabby in the lie detector if she loved him, she replied yes and the detector said she was lying. It was horrific, eyes popping out of people’s sockets, tears, there is a clear reason they no longer do this challenge. I am happy to I don’t have to bare witness to such uncomfortable television again.

2. Headlines challenge

The headlines challenge was chaos. In this challenge, Islanders had to fill in the blanks of national headlines about themselves. It always ended in tears and arguments, probably more tears. In 2020, the headlines challenge got 350 Ofcom complaints, after one of the headlines misled some of the Islanders.

The headline read: “Casa Amor causes Callum, Finn, and Nas’ head to turn on tonight’s Love Island.” This caused an uproar because viewers were well aware how loyal Finn was to Paige in Casa Amor. Despite it all being cleared up and them winning the show together, at the time Paige doubted Finn and said: “There’s cameras and people watching.”

1. Tweets challenge

The crème de la crème of Love Island challenges is the Twitter challenge, where Islanders have to fill in the blanks about what viewers have been saying about them. Back in 2017, the Islanders had to guess which Islander was being spoken about in a tweet from none other than Stormzy! The tweet said: “Chris, you’re too good for her mate.” This was in response to Chris and Olivia, and I genuinely can’t think of an equally savage and hilarious moment in Love Island challenge history.