''The Villa'' is a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series, originally produced by

Talent TV Talent has two principal meanings: * Talent (measurement), an ancient unit of mass and value * Talent (skill), a group of aptitudes useful for some activities; talents may refer to aptitudes themselves or to possessors of those talents Talent may ...

from 1999, and aired on

Sky1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

for four series until 2003. Reruns previously aired on

Fox Reality Fox Reality Channel was an American pay television channel. It was launched on May 24, 2005, and was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group. It featured many shows that were originally on the Fox network (or produced by Fox). The channel also featu ...

until this station closed. The Dutch version ran sporadically until 2019, when it was cancelled due to a case of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

Format

Executive Produced for Sky by Jamie Robert, ''The Villa'' took four men and four women, computer-matched for compatibility, and flew them from the United Kingdom and Ireland to an exotic Spanish villa for a week of fun and activities in and around the

Costa Del Sol The Costa del Sol (literally "Coast of the Sun" or "Sun Coast") is a region in the south of Spain in the autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the coastline of the Province of Málaga and the easte ...

. Cameras would follow the players around all week in ''Big Brother'' style, to see if the computer matched the right couples or if it was wrong. Voiced by Mark Little, the show featured student age participants, so involved a lot of snogging, fumbling, drinking and Brits behaving badly. The "players" were typically easy on the eye, and spent the week teasing each other but rarely actually hooking up for the cameras. At the end of the week, the computer's matches are revealed to see if the couples paired off the way it predicted.

Incidents on the Dutch version

In 2011 a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

production of ''The Villa'' was broadcast on

RTL 5 RTL 5 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched on 2 October 1993. It mainly broadcasts American films and hit series but also reality shows, comedy, travel, international shows and local productions including ''Expeditie Robi ...

. Original eight episodes of ''De Villa'' were scheduled but one episode was withdrawn because one of the contestants appeared to be a convicted

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

er. The show was recorded in

Lloret de Mar Lloret de Mar (; ) is a Mediterranean coastal town in Catalonia, Spain. It is south of Girona and northeast of Barcelona. With a population of 38,402 in 2021, it is the second largest town in the Selva comarca of Catalonia. Lloret de Mar attra ...

. Following ''De Villa'' six episodes of ''New Chicks: Brabantse Nachten op Curaçao'' were broadcast by RTL 5. This show was based on the fourth season of British ''The Villa'' and was hosted by Nikkie Plessen and recorded on

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

. The original British series aired earlier on Dutch television.

Broadcast of sexual assault scene and cancellation

In 2019, in a revamped version of the show, two male contestants sexually assaulted two female contestants. Both scenes of the assaults were broadcast, which led to severe public outrage. As a result of that, broadcaster RTL pulled the plug of the show and deleted the episode from its online streaming service. After the cancellation, it was revealed that contestants claimed that the production company had pushed them to conduct "unacceptable behaviour". Responding to that, RTL programme director Peter van der Vorst axed all the channel's reality series, including ''

Love Island Love Island may refer to: Film * ''Love Island'' (1952 film), an American film directed by Adam Lloyd starring Todd Wathen and Eva Gabor * ''Love Island'' (2014 film), directed by Jasmila Žbanić Music * ''Love Island'' (album), a 1978 album ...

'', '' Temptation Island'' and ''Free Love Paradise''.

References

External links

''The Villa''
at

The Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...

Press Release on Series4 format changes

Commentary on UKGameShows.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villa, The Sky UK reality television shows 1990s British reality television series 1999 British television series debuts 2000s British reality television series 2003 British television series endings British English-language television shows