\n<\/p>\n
Neither Leah nor Rob had crucial pieces of information. The first was that Leah, with her beguiling Valley monotone and passion for a man who cuddled with insects, was becoming the star of season 6. The second was that they had just put Love<\/em> Island USA<\/em> on a path that would quadruple its viewers over the next three weeks.<\/p>\n This crashout reached an ecstatic climax of what the show would be at its most transcendent: absurd, with genuine feeling. \u201cIf I write it in a script, you won\u2019t believe it,\u201d says Thomas, who executive produced the first six seasons of Love Island USA<\/em> of the divinely unscripted moment his team had, if not manufactured, at least created the conditions for. \u201cBut if I show you Rob pencil-diving into the pool, it is cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n When he could no longer take the temperature, Rob got out of the pool and went with a producer to chain-smoke and sob more. He\u2019d only been on season 5 for a few days; he hadn\u2019t realized what it would be like to be in the Villa full time, or that he\u2019d never be alone to process his feelings about the decisions he had to make to stay on Love Island<\/em>. \u201cIt was terrible,\u201d Rob says of his breakdown. \u201cI hope that never happens again. I actually now have anxiety, and I think it\u2019s because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Leah didn\u2019t know any of that when she went off about him to the girls the next evening in the changing room. \u201cEveryone should be scared because I\u2019ve been behaving myself so fucking well, and look what it got me,\u201d Leah yelled while the women agreed that Rob was terrible and Dyson Airwrapped their hair into beach waves. \u201cYou can cradle him while he cries in the corner,\u201d she said in the direction of Andrea, who was with Rob, out of earshot. \u201cAfter I saw him crying like a bitch on the floor yesterday, I literally got the ick.\u201d<\/p>\n Rob would go from divisive to unpopular with many fans, who voted him out on day thirty. The pool moment was broadly interpreted as manipulative\u2014viewers thought Rob was trying to get out of a difficult conversation with Leah and that he had only pretended to have the collapse he was actually experiencing to engender sympathy.<\/p>\n When Rob left the Villa, producers told him two things: Love Island USA<\/em> was the number one show in America, and Donald Trump had been shot. Then they gave him his phone back. \u201cI had a bunch of hate,\u201d Rob says of the fan reaction. \u201cAnd then I had a bunch of . . . it wasn\u2019t love, because it was like, \u2018Yeah, no, he is actually a terrible person, but he\u2019s so hot.\u2019 At least there\u2019s that.\u201d (Other viewers found Rob refreshingly weird and amusing\u2014and also hot.) His DMs were full of offers for sponsorship; the height of these opportunities was an offer to star in a Super Bowl commercial for Poppi soda.<\/p>\n