‘Love Island USA’ host Ariana Madix reveals she eavesdrops on contestants: ‘I love gossip’

NEW YORK – As a reality TV star in her own right, Ariana Madix is uniquely qualified to host a show like “Love Island USA.”

In the reality competition returning Tuesday, June 3, for Season 7 (streaming daily this week on Peacock), singles attempt to couple up and compete for a $100,000 prize.

“It’s not easy to put yourself out there in a dating sense, but let alone a dating world that the entire world is watching,” Madix tells USA TODAY of the contestants on “Love Island USA.”

Madix, the 39-year-old, perhaps best known for her run on Bravo’s “Vanderpump Rules,” knows about fearlessness in love.

“They’re so brave. I always hope that they have fun, too. Because that was something I loved about last season,” she said. “There was drama, but there was such beautiful friendship as well.”

Drama melding with friendship is also an apt description of the precursor to her very public halt from “Vanderpump” when Madix’s boyfriend of nine years, Tom Sandoval, cheated on her with another one of their co-stars, Rachel “Raquel” Leviss. Dubbed the “Scandoval,” it played out while Bravo cameras were rolling for the TV show in 2023.

Madix has a front row seat to all of it. The actress and Broadway performer returns to “Love Island USA” after hosting Season 6.

Madix reveals that on a typical day in Fiji, she’ll work out at the hotel gym for three hours. Then she heads to the makeup chair: Madix says her hair and makeup typically take about two hours. The glam team saves the last 15 minutes until they know for sure that Madix will be heading in to film.

“We watch the live feeds of what’s going on in the villa, which is really fun,” Madix dishes of how she and the team spend their time before the host is needed. “You can change the channels between the groups of people and what they’re talking about. I love gossip and I love to eavesdrop, so it’s perfect for me.”

Would Ariana Madix ever star in a Bravo reality TV show again after ‘Scandoval’?

Madix is very happy with her career at the moment. She reflects that before her role on “Vanderpump Rules,” the actress would hold down “four or five different jobs at once” to pay rent.

“Now that I’m able to have jobs that I really enjoy doing, I get to live my dream out,” she says, noting she still gets to try different things, from authoring a cocktail book to running a restaurant (she co-owns the West Hollywood spot Something About Her with fellow “Vanderpump” alum Katie Maloney). “I really appreciate when people just let it happen and don’t try to box (other) people in, because I find that really stifling in a lot of ways.”

Amid her various projects, Madix won’t rule out a return to Bravo. But there’s a catch.

“It’s hard to say what that would be,” she says of a show that could get her back on the network. “I think for me to be in that type of position where I am putting myself out there, I would want to be in charge. I would definitely want to be executive producer. So I would probably fight for that in any capacity to be back in that space.”