How ‘Montoya, favor! “broke the internet

Relivery TV Gold has a new definition of three words: “Montoya, Por Favor!”

If you have been everywhere near social media over the past two weeks, you will know that the harsh drama that puts the Internet is on the award this season has not come from Hollywood, but the love tragedy played in videos published by the Spanish reality TV show Temptation island.

The spiral collapse of the competitor Jose Carlos Montoya when watching his girlfriend Anita Mami with another man is like an obscene love on the island of steroids.

On the island of temptation, the couples are taken to a tropical island, separated and sent to individual villas full of attractive singles, ready to test their loyalty. In the last twist, each movement is recorded for the other half to see.

Forced to look at a real -time graphic stream of betrayal, Montoya’s emotions swell as he clicks, breaking all the rules of the show.

Host’s scandalous requests for now, Sandra Barneda’s scandalous requests (“Montoya, favor!”), He descends on the beach to stand up to the couple, pulling shorts in grief as lightning piles across the sky.

A second clip shows the resulting confrontation: Anita reverses the script, calling Montoy’s own indiscriminate, before he collapses in tears, begging for forgiveness.

“This is a cinema,” wrote an X user, posting a video that has now been viewed on the platform stunning 224 million times since February 4.

“Montoya. Tensions … You don’t have to speak Spanish to find out, it’s crazy.”

Still, those behind the island of the temptation of Spain see his success as more than just shock value. Executive producer Juanra Gonzalo tells me that they are delighted with the “completely unexpected” global reaction, and he believes that the appearance of the show lies in his relativity.

“In Love Island, all people are unattended. There are real couples on Temptation Island and they put their love at risk,” he says. “I think (the audience) knows it 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. The island of temptation allows the audience to ask:” What would I do in this situation? “

The magic ingredient for doing this work is a careful casting. “Montoya and Anita were perfect – they are very emotional and expressive,” he says.

Gonzalo calls Montoya, a singer in trading in previous television experience, “special man”. At 31, he said on wheels that he “never felt love that way” by having Anita “Every Day for a Year.”

“She’s a strong woman of very character,” Gonzalo adds.

The Sun Lottie Hulme show business reporter says that the “authentic emotion” of the program distinguishes him from competitors like Love Island, Love is blind, married at first sight and dating naked.

Seeing such an undisturbed and harsh emotion, it can stand out in British and American viewers who are accustomed to shiny and well -worn competitive reality formats such as Love Island and semi -written reality shows such as Made In Chelsea.

“It was refreshing and almost shocking to see something so harsh because it is something we just don’t see in reality TV shows in the UK these days,” Hill says.

“We are in a moment with reality TV culture, in which we wonder” What if ” – are the competitors really their authentic I … or after following and a deal with the brand?”

Along with constructed storylines, commercialized Reality TV to influencer pipeline Make the existing formats feel “predictable” adds Hulme.

The numbers of the audience reflect this.

Currently, Love Island is broadcasting its All Stars Edition on ITV2, which began last year. The final in 2024 attracted 1.3 million. a sharp drop of six million peaks From its flowering 2019.

While the numbers for this season remain solid, Even matching the BBC Two audience in the start eveningThe show now usually only dominates the uncertain channels.

A curious strangeness of the Montoya phenomenon is that the Spanish show is not accessible to viewing in the UK – an irony that only nourishes its illegal attractiveness on social media.

Previous versions of the United Kingdom and the United States have failed to come out and the production company Banijay says it does not plan to broadcast the Spanish version in the UK at the moment.

After Montoya’s collapse caught the host of Love Island Maya Jama, she published: “They will never allow this on TV in the UK. For so many reasons. But this is one of the best things I’ve seen. ”

Asked why she just replied, “People will complain.”

Like Big Brother before him, Love Island is the subject of Complaints in ofcomS

Heated confrontation between 2021. cause 25,000 complaints of hensS

Despite the shocked reactions that Gonzalo’s show is provoked, he says he works within strict limits suitable for his Primetime Slot.

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

The Temptation island is just the latest in a series of particularly high-octane Spanish dating shows.

Take, for example, Falso Amor (or a deep fake love). Currently, he is surrendered to Netflix, he strengthens the premise of Temptation Island, asking couples to decide whether the videos of each other are real or very convincing AI Deepfakes.

So the content that the British audience finds shockingly viewed differently in Spain?

When I raised Zara Holland on the island LOVE ISLAND stripped off the title of Miss Great Britain After having sex in the show in 2016, Gonzalo is shocked and welcomed the brighter reaction of the Internet to Anita’s sexual scenes.

“As in other countries, things in Spain are progressing from the past – this is positive about our opinion about women and sexuality,” he says, adding that he should not face double standards.

In the UK, it has had increased control and awareness of the impact of reality TV, which may have on the mental health of members of the cast, following following deaths of several former competitorsS

When he pressed Gonzalo on this, given the intensity of Montoya and Anita’s experience, he says a team of psychologists observe competitors before, during and after the photos.

Montoya received special support after his Escapade Beach.

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

Looking forward, Netflix is ​​to resume the American version of the show next month.

Gonzalo is ready for the match. He laughs at the playful assumption on the Internet that the beach stage has to win an Oscar, and then adds: “My team deserves all the awards. Oscar. And BAFTA!”