Only six of this year’s 36 ‘Love Island’ contestants were discovered through the general application process.
A new report has found that out of the 85,000 people who applied to be on the ITV2 reality dating show, only 17 per cent were chosen while 83 per cent were picked by professional agents or the ITV2 casting team.
In a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee report, ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said: "On series five of ‘Love Island’ to date (15 July), there have been 36 contributors.
"24 were found and cast by the programme’s casting team, six were put forward by professional agents, and six came through the general application."
A source who provides talent for the show added to MailOnline: "I’m always on the lookout for attractive people who might fit the bill for ‘Love Island’."
When previously quizzed about casting, Carolyn confessed there is a "rigorous" process which involves psychological analysis and around 98,000 people apply to go on the show each year.
She said: "We get about 98,000 applications for ‘Love Island’, they then take that down to about 90 to 100 as soon as they get a call back – at that stage they go through medical questionnaires, psychological questionnaires, assessments, that then goes down to about 30 or 40 who get selected to appear on ‘Love Island’.
"It’s a very rigorous process of screening that goes on before they actually get on to ‘Love Island’."
This year’s final saw Greg O’Shea and Amber Gill crowned the winners, beating favourites Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury – who were the only official couple in the final – to the top spot.
Newcomers Ovie Soko and India Reynolds – who had only been together for 12 days before the final – finished third, and Curtis Pritchard and Maura Higgins were fourth.
6 of 36 Love Islanders went through application process
