Ladbrokes closes the book on Celebrity Love Island bonk

by Staff, Brand Republic 17-May-05, 13:50

LONDON - Bookmaker Ladbrokes has closed the book on a 'Celebrity Love Island' bonk, believing it is inevitable that Abi Titmuss will sleep with someone on the ITV1 celebrity show, which pulled in an average audience of 5.3m last night.

Abi Titmuss was previously odds-on favourite to bonk at 1/2 in what is being dubbed the "Abi National".

Former 'Hollyoaks' actor Paul Danan, who is in the Love Shack with Lady Isabella Hervey, and Lee Sharpe are 5/2 joint favourites to win out of the boys, while Lady Isabella Hervey, Jayne Middlemiss, who spent the first episode last crying her eyes out, Abi Titmuss are co-favourites to triumph out of the girls.

Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush said: "We've called a halt to bets on sex on the island. We regret offering them in the first place now, as a bonk on the island paradise looks a racing certainty. The only question is whether the first link-up is going to be heterosexual as Abi and Rebecca may get there first."

He added that so far there have been no surprises with the early money, with Paul and Lady Isabella being all the rage and favourites to win after heading on down to the Love Shack.

"There has been plenty of support for Jayne and Lee. Punters think the ex-footballer can settle the homesick Geordie TV presenter," Lush said.

ITV was more than happy with the performance of the show, which performed well among its target audience of 16-34s, delivering a 35% share.

The additional coverage on digital channel ITV2, 'Celebrity Love Island... Aftersun' pulled in a peak audience of 588,000 and 5.2% audience share, with an average of 487,000 viewers and a 4.6% share in multichannel homes.

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