How ‘Montoya, please!’ He broke the Internet

Reality TV Gold has a new definition of three words: “Montoya, please!”

If you have been close to social networks during the last fifteen days, you will know that the raw drama enters the Internet, this awards season has not come from Hollywood, but the love tragedy was developed in clips published in the television program of Spanish reality Temptation Isla.

The spiral crisis of the contestant José Carlos Montoya to see his girlfriend Anita deceive with another man is like an island of love uncensored in steroids.

On Temptation Island, couples are taken to a tropical island, separated and sent to separate villas full of attractive singles ready to prove their loyalty. In a final turn, each movement made is recorded for the other half to see.

Forced to see a real -time graphic transmission of betrayal, Montoya’s emotions swell until it breaks, breaking all the rules of the program.

Blighted to the now infamous pleas of the host Sandra Barneda (“Montoya, please!”), Ramp on the beach to confront the couple, pulling their shorts with anguish while the rays scratch in the sky.

A second clip shows the resulting confrontation: Anita turns the script, shouting Montoya’s own indiscretions before collapsing in tears, begging forgiveness.

“This is cinema,” wrote a one X user, publishing a clip that has now been seen on the platform an amazing 224 million times since February 4.

“Montoya. The tension … you don’t need to speak Spanish to understand, this is crazy.”

However, those behind the Tempation island of Spain see their success as more than just a shock value. Executive producer Juanra Gonzalo tells me that they are delighted with the “completely unexpected” global reaction, and believes that the attraction of the program lies in their relationship.

“In Love Island, all people are single. In Temptation Island, there are real couples, and they are putting their love at risk,” he says. “I think (audiences) I know too. These emotions and reactions cannot be falsified.”

“Everyone wants to know what their boyfriend or girlfriend is doing when they are not with them. We can imagine, but we don’t know. Temptation Island allows the audience to ask: ‘What would you do in that situation?'”

The magical ingredient to do this work is a careful casting. “Montoya and Anita were perfect, they are very emotional and expressive,” he says.

Gonzalo calls Montoya, an ex officio singer with anterior television experience, a “special man.” At 31, he told Casters that “I would never experience love like this before”, after having been with Anita “every day for a year.”

“She is a strong woman with a lot of character,” adds Gonzalo.

Sun’s senior show reporter Lottie Hulme says that the “authentic emotion” of the program distinguishes it from competitors like Love Island, Love is blind, married at first sight and is naked.

Seeing such emotions without restrictions and raw can be highlighted for British and American viewers, who have become accustomed to brilliant and well worn competitive reality formats such as Love Island and reality shows semi-written shows such as Made in Chelsea.

“It was refreshing and almost shocking to see something such a raw, because it is something that we simply do not see in the reality shows in Great Britain today,” says Hulme.

“We are at a point with the reality culture of reality where we ask ourselves ‘What if’?

Together with the built stories, those marketed reality shows to influential pipeline It has made existing formats feel “predictable” adds Hulme.

The audience figures reflect this.

Love Island currently transmits its All Stars edition on ITV2, which began last year. The 2024 final attracted 1.3 million viewers – A sharp fall of the peak of six million of its apogee of 2019.

While this season’s figures remain solid, Even the BBC Two audience on launching nightThe program now usually only dominates non -land channels.

A curious peculiarity of the Montoya phenomenon is that the Spanish program is not available to see in the United Kingdom, an irony that has only fed its illicit appeal in social networks.

The previous versions of the United Kingdom and the US failed to take off, and the Banijay production company says that it does not currently plan to transmit the Spanish version in the United Kingdom.

After Montoya’s Meltdown caught the attention of Love Island, Maya Jama, he published: “They would never allow this on the United Kingdom television. For many reasons. But it is one of the best things I’ve seen.”

When asked why, she simply replied: “People would complain.”

Like the older brother rather than Love Island has been subject to Complaints to Ofcom.

A heated confrontation between 2021 Love Islanders Faye and Teddy about Teddy’s behavior at Casa Amor (a segment similar to the premise of Temptation Island) caused 25,000 complaints from ofcom.

Despite the surprised reactions that Gonzalo’s program has caused, he says that it operates within the strict limits, suitable for its stellar schedule slot.

“Not everything we register is transmitted,” he says. “We are very careful, we only show a few seconds of sexual content.”

Temptation Island is only the last of a series of Spanish dating shows particularly in octane.

Take false love (or deep false love), for example. Currently transmitting in Netflix, intensifies the premise of Temptation Island asking couples to decide whether the videos of the other are real or very convincing to Deepfakes.

So, is the content that the British public finds shocking differently in Spain?

When I raise the love of Zara Holland Island stripped of its Miss Great Britain After having sex in the program in 2016, Gonzalo is surprised and welcomes the most cheerful reaction of the Internet to Anita’s sexual scenes.

“As in other countries, things in Spain are progressing since the past, this is positive for our vision of women and sexuality,” he says, adds that no genre must face double ratings.

In the United Kingdom, there has been greater scrutiny and awareness about the impact that reality TV can have on the mental health of the cast members, after the Deaths of several former contestants.

When I press Gonzalo about this, given the intensity of the experience of Montoya and Anita, he says that a team of psychologists monitors the contestants before, during and after filming.

Montoya received private support after his beach getaway.

“We ensure that I was not alone, that I had a safe space to process everything. It was important for us to provide the right help,” he says.

Looking towards the future, Netflix is ​​to relaunch an American version of the program next month.

Gonzalo is ready for the fight. He laughs at the playful Internet suggestion that the beach scene should win an Oscar, then adds: “My team deserves all awards. An Oscar. And a Bafta!”