“Love Island USA” features ready-to-mingle singles called “Islanders” who lounge in a luxurious villa in the South Pacific while competing for love and a $100,000 cash prize. The “Islanders” participate in challenges and are at the whim of public opinion as viewers vote for the couples they want to see on the show.
The uniform for contestants? Swimsuits, mostly, as they chill by a pool or fire pit.
The show, which airs on Peacock Thursday through Tuesday for about five weeks, has racked up billions of minutes streamed, according to Luminate, an entertainment data and analytics company.
The show has also taken over social media, inspiring Instagram memes and TikTok videos. While the social media frenzy is nothing new for both the British and US versions of the show, data reveal that clips from this season have been viewed more than 632 million times, a staggering 232 percent increase from season 6, according to NBCUniversal.
Arenales, who goes by “Brizz,” arrived June 23, on Episode 19, when 11 new contestants, known as “bombshells,” joined the villa, and some, like Arenales, were sent to a separate nearby location called “Casa Amor.”
During his first six episodes, Arenales remained largely “coupled up” and away from the emotional tumult that grips so many cast members. But he shouldn’t be too comfortable: His current date may be drifting toward another man.
Here are eight things to know about Brizz:
He went to a 4-day Harvard Business School summer program
Arenales graduated in 2015 from Everett High School, where he played on the basketball team, according Kevin Casimir, a friend since high school. Arenales grew up with a brother, who now lives in Australia, and his parents, Casimir said.
Arenales went to Salem State University, graduating as a finance major in 2019.
In 2018, Arenales made a brief detour to Harvard, completing a four-day Harvard Business School Summer Venture in Management program, according to his Instagram. The program is “designed to increase opportunity in business education for high-potential college students,” according to the school’s website.
“That definitely helped him to gain some experience, and helped him get his foot in the door” of the finance industry,” Casimir said.
He wants to put Everett ‘on the map’
Casimir described Arenales as a “go-getter,” which he attributes to the city where he was raised.
“He was raised in Everett, you know, ” Casimir said. “He just wanted to also put Everett on the map.”
Casimir described his friend as “charismatic” and “compassionate.”
“He’s one of the few friends that when I’m going through things personally, he’d be the one I talked to,” Casimir said. “He’s very mentally strong. He doesn’t let a lot of things faze him.”
Arenales said on “Love Island USA” that he works in financial accounting, real estate, and as a nightclub bartender.
Casimir said his friend’s finance job is with a company in Seaport and he mainly bartends at Venu Boston, a club in the Theater District. He splits his time between Everett and Miami.
“I do a little bit of everything,” Arenales said in his “Love Island” introduction while“24K Magic” by Bruno Mars played in the background.
His Instagram views exploded overnight
Arenales’ Instagram profile, @brizzzworks, has gotten millions of views since he joined the show.
Hermann Diehl, who manages Arenales’s Instagram account, said Arenales hired him to help with fitness videos.
“We had no idea he was going on ‘Love Island,’” Diehl said.
Diehl said Arenales was a “little shocked” when he learned he’d been chosen for the show.
After getting a text about it, Arenales did some research to confirm the offer wasn’t a “prank,” Diehl said.
At that point, Diehl said, Arenales had about 1,600 followers, a number that shot up to almost 7,000 after a week on the show.
More impressive to Diehl were the profile views on Arenales’s account. Before his first episode, Arenales had about 36,000 profile views in the past month.
After his first night, the number soared to 1.7 million views. After Day 2, it was at 3.7 million, and by Friday, the number had climbed to 4.7 million.
“It’s been insane,” Diehl said.
He’s a distance runner training for the Chicago Marathon
In November, Arenales ran the 2024 Boston Half marathon in 1 hour and 42 minutes, according to the race results page.
He’s also a member of the PIONEERS Run Crew, a Wednesday night run club, he said on his Instagram.
“Since I met him … he’s been running,” Diehl said. “He loves to run.”
Arenales ran a marathon in Miami, Casimir said, and completed a HYROX, a high-intensity running and workout race, in New York.
Now, he says he’s training for the Chicago Marathon and “definitely” wants to run the Boston Marathon at some point, Casimir said.
He was ‘built’ for reality TV
“He definitely has a personality to be on TV,” Casimir said. “He was built for it.”
Casimir said that Arenales did several interviews for the show and discovered he was selected 36 hours before heading to Fiji.
“He went to go shopping like crazy,” Casimir said. “He had 36 hours until the flight, and that was a lot.”
Arenales has tattoos across his arms, chest, torso, shoulders, and legs.
He has a tattoo of his mother’s face and a tattoo on his arm of his dad’s hands holding a rosary, according to his Instagram.
He also has the phrase “The World is Yours” tattooed on his chest and an image of Al Pacino from “Scarface” on the right side of his abdomen.
His time on the show has been dedicated to one woman…so far
At the start of his tenure on “Love Island,” Arenales was selected for multiple kisses by other contestants who named him “best kisser.” But he has made clear he has eyes for only one woman: Andreina, 24, of New Jersey.
The pair have been canoodling and largely drama-free (Andreina was not coupled up before Arenales arrived).
“We all knew who he would want, the girl Andreina,” Casimir said, also noting that Huda, 24, of North Carolina, was another “Islander” he could see his friend with. “That’s his type.”
Diehl said that Arenales is a “very calm guy” who avoids drama. But he worries about what the show could do to his current coupling with Andreina.
“I know ‘Love Island’’s gonna bring some drama,” Diehl said.
No doubt about that. The real question is: how long can a Bostonian last on “Love Island”?
Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_berger_.