‘Love Island USA’ Executive Producer Dead After Medical Emergency

In an announcement, Peacock introduced that Baker died in Fiji, the place season eight is at the moment in manufacturing.

“ITV America and Peacock will honor in Tuesday’s episode of Love Island USA collection Govt Producer James Barker, who handed away final week in Fiji after struggling an surprising medical emergency,” the discharge acknowledged.

“James’ unimaginable loss has been deeply felt throughout not simply the complete Love Island USA manufacturing, however all through all of ITV and Peacock. He was a beloved and tremendously valued member of our collective household whose kindness, expertise and dedication left an indelible mark on all of us and everybody who had the privilege of realizing and dealing with him,” the assertion continued. “We lengthen our heartfelt condolences to James’ associate, household, pals and colleagues.”

Actual particulars surrounding the loss of life, together with the trigger, haven’t been launched.

Along with Love Island USA, Baker additionally labored on the Hulu courting collection Are You My First, the HGTV competitors collection Desk Wars with Tamera Mowry and Martha Stewart, and was co-executive producer on Cosmic Love, an Amazon Prime courting present that matche singles primarily based on their astrological indicators, and the second season of Declare to Fame on ABC.

However Love Island USA appeared to carry a particular place in his coronary heart. In a pinned submit on Instagram, he celebrated report scores for the present’s seventh season, gushing, “The minute I heard #loveisland was coming to the US I knew I needed to be aside of it. Now, 6 years later, we’re doing absurd numbers on @loveislandusa and I like my job greater than I ever have. Congrats to the group, previous and present. We did it.”

It isn’t clear if manufacturing on the present will likely be stopped or quickly suspended, however this isn’t the primary time producers on the present have made information in entrance of the digicam.

Three years in the past, two producers filed a bombshell lawsuit claiming a few of their colleagues prevented a black contestant from succeeding on the present, and that they witnessed sure crew members watch the forged bathe regardless of being instructed not to take action.

The swimsuit accused the defendants of race and gender discrimination, retaliation, failure to stop discrimination, harassment and retaliation, whistleblower retaliation, and wrongful termination.

Throughout their employment, whereas on location, Jasmine Crestwell and Alex Rinks mentioned they “instantly grew involved by the present’s labor practices.”

Rinks mentioned she complanied about alleged unsafe and unsanitary situations within the present’s supposedly luxe “villa” which was “in actuality, a ramshackle, dilapidated ranch with insufficient plumbing and inoperable bogs.”

“The villa was additionally unsanitary. Islanders typically had been restricted to particular moveable bogs related to their rooms. These bogs had been hardly ever cleaned and sometimes damaged and unusable. Showers within the villa’s bogs had been clogged and overflowing,” the swimsuit learn.

Crestwell mentioned she companied concerning the alleged mistreatment of islanders, notably a black feminine contestant named Serenti Springs, one of many “few girls of coloration on the present.”

ITV publicly denied the claims, categorizing the lawsuit as a “frivolous assault” and stating that the producers had been rightfully terminated for job efficiency points. The lawsuit remains to be ongoing.