'Montoya, por favor!': Inside the Spanish reality show that broke the internet

If you've been anywhere near social media over the past fortnight, you'll know the raw drama setting the internet ablaze this award season hasn't come from Hollywood, but the love tragedy played out in clips posted from Spanish reality TV show Temptation Island.

Contestant Jose Carlos Montoya's spiralling meltdown at watching his girlfriend Anita cheat with another man is like an uncensored Love Island on steroids.

In Temptation Island, couples are taken to a tropical island, separated and sent to separate villas filled with attractive singles ready to test their loyalty. In a final twist, every move made is recorded for the other half to see.

Forced to watch a graphic real-time stream of the betrayal, Montoya's emotions swell until he snaps, breaking all the show's rules.

Blind to the now infamous pleas of host Sandra Barneda ("Montoya, por favor!"), he rampages down the beach to confront the pair, tugging at his shorts in anguish as lightning streaks across the sky.

A second clip shows the resulting confrontation: Anita flips the script, calling out Montoya's own indiscretions before collapsing in tears, begging for forgiveness.

... And finally reaches the villa to confront Anita

"This is cinema," wrote one X user, posting a clip that has now been watched on the platform a staggering 224m times since 4 February.

"Montoya. the tension … you don't need to speak Spanish to understand, this is insane."

Yet those behind Spain's Temptation Island see its success as more than just shock value. Executive producer Juanra Gonzalo tells me they are overjoyed by the "completely unexpected" global reaction, and he believes the show's appeal lies in its relatability.

"In Love Island, all the people are single. In Temptation Island, there are real couples, and they are putting their love at risk," he says. "I think [audiences] know it too. These emotions and reactions cannot be faked."

"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 lets the audience ask: 'what would I do in that situation?'"

The magic ingredient to making this work is careful casting. "Montoya and Anita were perfect - they are very emotive and expressive," he says.

Gonzalo calls Montoya, a singer by trade with previous TV experience, a "special man". At 31, he told casters he'd "never experienced love like this before", having been with Anita "every day for a year".

"She's a strong woman with a lot of character," Gonzalo adds.

The Sun's senior showbiz reporter Lottie Hulme says the programme's "authentic emotion" sets it apart from competitors like Love Island, Love Is Blind, Married At First Sight and Dating Naked.

Seeing such unfettered and raw emotion may stand out to British and American viewers, who have become used to glossy and well-worn competitive reality formats like Love Island and semi-scripted reality shows like Made in Chelsea.

"It was refreshing and almost shocking to see something so raw, because it's something that we just don't see on the reality TV shows in Britain nowadays," Hulme says.

"We're at a point with reality TV culture where we're wondering 'what if' - are contestants really being their authentic self… or are they after followings and a brand deal?"

Alongside constructed storylines, the commercialised reality TV to influencer pipeline has made existing formats feel "predictable" adds Hulme.

Audience figures reflect this.

Love Island is currently airing its All Stars edition on ITV2, which started last year. The 2024 final attracted 1.3m viewers - a sharp drop from the six million peak of its 2019 heyday.

While this season's figures remain solid, even matching BBC Two's audience on launch night, the show now usually only dominates non-terrestrial channels.

'Never allowed' on UK TV?

A curious quirk of the Montoya phenomenon is that the Spanish show isn't available to watch in the UK - an irony that has only fuelled its illicit appeal on social media.

Previous UK and US versions failed to take off, and production company Banijay says it does not presently plan to broadcast the Spanish version in the UK.

After Montoya's meltdown caught the eye of Love Island host Maya Jama, she posted: "They would never allow this on UK TV. For so many reasons. But it's one of the best things I've ever seen".

When asked why, she simply replied: "people would complain".

Like Big Brother before it, Love Island has been the subject of complaints to Ofcom.

A heated confrontation between 2021 Love Islanders Faye and Teddy over Teddy's behaviour in Casa Amor (a segment similar to Temptation Island's premise) sparked 25,000 Ofcom complaints.

Despite the shocked reactions Gonzalo's show has provoked, he says it operates within strict boundaries, suitable for its primetime slot.

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

Temptation Island is just the latest in a string of particularly high-octane Spanish dating shows.

Take Falso Amor (or Deep Fake Love), for instance. Currently streaming on Netflix, it intensifies the premise of Temptation Island by asking couples to decide whether videos of each other are real or highly convincing AI deepfakes.

So is content which British audiences find shocking viewed differently in Spain?

When I raise Love Island's Zara Holland being stripped of her Miss Great Britain title after having sex on the show in 2016, Gonzalo is shocked and welcomes the internet's more light-hearted reaction to Anita's sexual scenes.

"As in other countries, things in Spain are progressing from the past - this is positive for our view of women and sexuality" he says, adding no gender should face double standards.

Montoya 'given the right help'

In the UK, there has been heightened scrutiny and awareness of the impact reality TV can have on cast members' mental health, following the deaths of several former contestants.

When I press Gonzalo on this, given the intensity of Montoya and Anita's experience, he says a team of psychologists monitor contestants before, during, and after filming.

Montoya received particular support after his beach escapade.

"We made sure 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 ahead, Netflix is to relaunch an American version of the show next month.

Gonzalo is up for the fight. He laughs at the internet's playful suggestion that the beach scene should win an Oscar, then adds: "My team deserve all the awards. An Oscar. And a Bafta!"

-BBC