A ‘Love Island USA’ Season 8 Star on ‘Dancing With the Stars’? Don’t Bet on It

“The mirrorball is CALLING your name,” Dancing With the Stars professional dancer Ezra Sosa commented under Kenzie Annis’ first TikTok post after being in the Love Island USA villa for a month. “SHUT THE FRONT DOOR,” Annis replied. 

It turns out, though, the Mirrorball is likely not calling any new Islanders’ names, because of the contract terms set for the cast of the Peacock series. Post-season, Love Island USA contestants are placed under a one-year exclusivity period, which limits what projects Islanders can take on after their time in the villa, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The Ankler reported on the terms of this exclusivity period in a Tuesday report, noting that this “puts some guardrails around the opportunities [Islanders] can say yes to.” And it appears contracts go farther than determining what brand deals a cast member can take on — they also cover what television appearances cast can make. 

Love Island USA contestants are seemingly not able to appear on TV shows for a year after their stint on the dating show. “Contract-wise, I think it’s just that you can’t go on any shows a year after the finale,” season four Islander Deb Chubb revealed in a June TikTok.

That’s why, despite online fanfare, you probably won’t be seeing any season eight Islanders on Dancing With the Stars season 35, which will air on ABC, which also notably falls outside of Peacock’s home at NBCUniversal. That’s also likely why many Islanders opt to join Peacock’s Beyond the Villa spinoff; they’re unable to join any other reality show, so exceptions likely are made for the franchise series.

A high-level TV source tells THR that limited non competes have become a standard part of the casting process for reality TV. It gives the network or streamer veto power over any brand or commercial deals the talent may pursue (many shows have sponsorship deals and they don’t want a conflict there), and it gives them a window to see if they want to sign up the talent in question for any future shows or spinoffs.

If you take a look at Love Island USA cast member’s post-villa reality appearances, a trend emerges. Season six Islander Jana Craig finished her turn with the show in July 2024; she swiftly joined Destination X less than a year later in May 2025… but that show is under the NBC banner, which could call for an exception. Rob Rausch also finished season six in 2025, and appeared and won The Traitors in 2026, falling outside of the one-year period. Still, Traitors is on Peacock which falls under NBC, keeping the TV appearance in the family. 

The first contestant to hail from any Love Island show, Maura Higgins of the UK’s iconic fifth season, will make her debut in the ballroom this fall. She’ll be joined by a fellow franchise face in Aftersun host Ciara Miller.

But the time to strike with the Love Island USA season eight cast would be now with season 35. And Dancing casting head Deena Katz is not shy in tapping into timely castings, in fact, she embraces them. Take Miller for example, who was caught in the middle of a reality TV scandal earlier this year right before her Dancing cast was announced. (Plus, it didn’t hurt that Katz and Miller had already worked together on Traitors, which Katz casts for.)

“I already knew Ciara. She was on Traitors, and she’s wonderful. She’s stunning, she’s gorgeous; she’s all these things,” Katz told The Hollywood Reporter in April. “And then the stuff that happened to her, it was a really of the moment thing that we all felt like it was the right time. We really wanted her on the show, but it was also the right time to announce her.”

So it appears if Love Island USA fans want to catch up with their favorites from season eight on the small screen, they might just have to wait to tune into Beyond the Villa season three next year. 

Because yes, things can always shift, and exceptions technically could be made for an Islander to make the jump from Fiji to the ballroom. And if the casting doesn’t happen this year, there’s always season 36.

But unless they’ve managed to make a name for themselves outside of the Love Island universe (take Higgins, for example), that one-year exclusivity period means time — or better put, the terms of their contract — might just not be on Islanders’ sides.