From playboys competing against nice guys to shock twists: How FBoy Island aims to change the game for reality dating shows

FBoy Island wants to portray a more relatable take on modern dating (Picture: Backgrid)

FBoy Island is the new kid on the block in the world of reality dating shows and it’s hoping to flip the script on how we portray the dating world on TV.

Mixing elements previously familiar to fans of The Bachelorette, Temptation Island, Bachelor In Paradise and Love Island, the HBO Max series sees three women (Nakia Renee, CJ Franco and Sarah Emig) enjoying life in a lavish villa in the Cayman Islands with 24 men living next door.

Half of the men hoping to win their hearts are ‘Nice Guys’ who truly want to find love, while the rest are self-proclaimed ‘F**k Boys’.

You know the type, the men who just like to play the field, sleep around and leave a trail of broken hearts in their wake.

These FBoys have chosen to take part in the show in order to trick the ladies into thinking they are Nice Guys so they can win ‘up to’ $100,000.

The trio of ladies are aware that FBoys are mixed into the group, but they have no clue who is who. The aim of the game is to do everything in their power to avoid falling for the bad boys.

The show’s creator Elan Gale (who previously worked as a producer on The Bachelor) spoke exclusively to Metro.co.uk about how he came up with the concept for the show and revealed why he hopes to highlight a more realistic dating experience that viewers can connect with.

Explaining how he shaped the idea for the series, the super-producer stated: ‘I felt we were missing a show that really reflected what I heard about when I talk to people about dating in real life. I hadn’t seen a show yet that really got into the parts of modern dating culture such as endless swiping, ghosting, love bombing, and people being f**k boys.

‘They are slightly translated and mutated into other TV shows, but I wondered what would happen if we took a show where we acknowledged that this was such a common reality of dating, especially for young women. And rather than letting it be the subtext, we made it the plot.’

12 Nige Guys and 12 FBoys will battle it out to get the girls (Picture: Backgrid)

He continued: ‘When you go on dates with people, no matter what, you end up putting your best foot forward. It’s the same with dating shows that are like “Here are a bunch of amazing people, pick your favorite”. But I think that it’s more realistic to say, “Here are a bunch of people, some are great, some probably aren’t great and the trick is figuring out which ones actually like you”.’

Naturally, the casting process was as careful as possible to avoid bringing an FBoy who was pretending to be a Nice Guy but Elan admitted it was a potential plot twist that could have made the show even more refreshing.

He explained: ‘The short answer is you never really know. We did our due diligence as much as we could but you just have to take people at their word. I think you often see that there’s a couple of the f**k boys on the show, who might actually kind of be nice guys deep down inside if they didn’t like the playboy game so much.

‘I think that is the beauty of this format for coming years is that it’s all shades of gray. No person is 100 per cent f**k boys, or 100 per cent nice guy. But hopefully, there’s a sliding scale and people move closer to Nice Guy more often than they slide into f**k boy.’

Three leads will do their best not to give their hearts away to a FBoy (Picture: Backgrid)

Working with showrunner Sam Dean (who also worked on Love Is Blind and Married at First Sight), the pair focused on how they could make the show feel fresh.

‘We almost worked backward as we created the show. The main goal was to create a show where FBoys could be free to be themselves within the confines of dating. But also a place where nice guys would have the upper hand’, Elan noted.

He continued: ‘We also wanted to give the FBoys a chance to reflect, and to tell a variety of stories so we were able to come up with multiple twists that would bring those out.

‘We also decided to make sure we were focused on the real leads which are the ladies so they get to make all of the decisions on the show. We also had to figure out when to reveal the FBoys or the Nice Guys because we didn’t want it to happen too soon. We tried to embrace the fact dating on a whole is a funny, bizarre, and infuriating process.’

Comedian Nikki Glaser helps leads CJ Franco, Sarah Emig and Nakia Renee navigate their journey on the show (Picture: Backgrid)

When it came to finding a host for the program, Elan only had one woman in mind – comedian Nikki Glaser.

Elan explained: ‘I’ve been a big Nikki fan for years. When we were creating the show, she was my first choice. Top to bottom. When I called her, she actually thought I was asking her to be one of the leads – which would have been fantastic.

‘But she’s great as the host because she talks about a lot of these topics in her comedy. She’s honest and relatable and just so funny. Plus, she’s a giant dating show fan so she knows that this world. As a comedian, she has the ability to have that snark and to be able to deliver those cutting jokes, but it’s clear she not trying to hurt feelings. She’s providing a tongue-in-cheek kind of derision.’

Elan revealed his hopes for the series to help viewers find comfort in the absurdity of the dating world as well as learning lessons about how to go about their own search for love.

He mused: ‘I think this is a show that’s obviously primarily designed for younger people who see themselves in these cultures. At the same time, I hope that there’s a wider audience of people who get caught up in how the relationships play out in a way they really haven’t seen on dating shows before.

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‘I hope people come for the spectacle, and stay because it’s fun and they grow to care about these amazing ladies and the wild collection of guys on FBoy Island.’

The first three episodes of FBoy Island air available to stream on HBO Max, followed by three additional episodes on August 5 and the final four on August 12

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