Ariana Madix Is More Involved in 'Love Island USA' Than Viewers May Realize

Ariana Madix takes hosting Love Island USA very seriously. (Vanderpump Rules fans, you get the reference.) Fans of the dating series might only watch Madix for a brief time during each episode—explaining competitions, chatting with the Islanders, and showing off her looks with those showstopping slow-motion walks—but she’s involved in the show far more than anyone gets to see.

“People, sometimes they watch the show and they think, ‘What does she even do? She's only in there for this long’ or ‘She's not in every episode.’ They don't necessarily know what all goes into it, and they don't necessarily know how immersed I am when I'm there,” Madix says on the latest episode of Marie Claire’s “Nice Talk” podcast. “And of course they don't, because they're seeing the really great 10 minutes where we come in and we make an impact ... We don't need to spend any more time on what I'm doing than what we already are.”

And it’s not just about her camera time being edited down. Madix notes that she puts in work behind the scenes.

“I'm working when I'm not in the villa, as well. I'm also always talking to the producers or the social team to try to make sure I know what's going on with them, so I don't walk into the villa with an impression of what's going on based on the previous episode. We're always shooting ideas back and forth. We're planning what's coming next, all of that stuff.”

Before hosting Love Island USA, Madix was best known as a cast member on Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules (a show on which she expressed her love of Love Island, by the way), but aside from having some hands-on reality TV knowledge, her education prepared her for hosting the show, too. In addition to studying theater in college, she studied broadcast journalism.

"I was over here thinking, if I'm not acting, I could also do the news,” the 41-year-old says.

There are certain aspects of Love Island USA that she says she never could’ve prepared for, though. For instance, using an earpiece when she has to explain challenge rules.

“Memorizing challenge rules is not important to the gig,” she says. “What's important is that everyone understands what I'm saying. And because it's a lot of legal stuff, it has to be said word for word. So I'm getting it in my ear, and I have to just not think. Because if you start thinking about it, you'll stumble … So that's a separate skill I had to learn. But honestly, I was such a fan of Love Island, and I had watched so much that I had an idea in my head of how I wanted to host and how I wanted to bring myself to it, while also being true to the tone of the show.”

For Madix, that means, “I'm gonna come in really sexy and confident in an amazing badass look. We're gonna get that in the slow-mo. But once we're beyond the slow-mo, I might be like, ‘Hey guys, you know, like, it’s still me.’”

She adds, “It’s a characterized version of me, but it's still me. And the tone of the show is obviously somewhat dangerous at times, somewhat sexy. Sometimes it's silly and fun. For me, I wanted to still be myself and bring that while also hitting those notes, too.”

It’s clearly working. When Madix began hosting for season 6, the show saw an uptick in viewership that has been attributed, in part, to the interest in her from Bravo fans. This year she is nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program.

“My team called me in the middle of the night in Fiji on my hotel landline phone,” the first-time nominee recalls. “So they told me in the middle of the night, and I was in such a daze. I went back to sleep, and then when I woke up in the morning, Fiji time, I saw my phone. I was like, ‘Okay, so that really did happen.’”

For more from Madix—including channeling Beyoncé in her slo-mo walks and her return to Broadway—check out this week's installment of "Nice Talk." The episode is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.