Love Desert

**Love Desert** is a reality competition dating show, held in the video game The Sims 4. As of Season 8, the show has run for 8 regular seasons and 2 "All-Stars" spin-off seasons. The first three regular seasons were not recorded, and among them is the cancelled Season 2.

The save file used for the competition is known as the Love Desert World. Over 100 unique sims have competed on the show over the following seasons, including spin-off series Love Desert All-Stars in which past contestants have a second chance:

The objective of the show is to find the subjectively best couple among a wide selection of sims. Each episode, the sims make their own autonomous decisions to flirt, chat or fight amongst one another as the judges watch. The sims decide whom they will couple up with, the judges decide which couples/sims are eliminated each episode, until a grand finale where the final decision is made and the number one couple is crowned.

For a full list of the contestants with articles so far, see Category: Contestants.

## Series Overview

\*Episode count includes the pre-premiere casting special on regular seasons 5-8.

\*\*Actual premiere date is in brackets, casting special date is above (seasons 5-8).

### Breaks Between Seasons

(SEASON)
(DAYS)

## Format

A typical Love Desert episode flows as follows:

* The contestants go on dates and/or chill in the villa for an extended period of time. (Season 1 - present)
* The contestants serve fashionable outfits on the runway, most often with a specific category. (All-Stars 1 - present)
* The contestants' romantic/platonic relationships are revealed at the recoupling, calculating which sims couple up together, and on some episodes, which sim is left alone. (Season 1 - present)
	+ If a sim is left alone at the recoupling, they are eliminated (Seasons 3, 5, 6, 7, 8), or they participate in the voting round as if the individual sim is one couple (All-Stars 1, Season 4, All-Stars 2), or the individual is automatically in the bottom, but not necessarily eliminated (All-Stars 3, some of All-Stars 2).
* The judges of the episode rank the couples from best to worst, in their opinion. The scores based on these rankings are then totalled by the host and revealed, from first to last place. (Season 1 - present)
* Either the couple with the least votes is simply eliminated (Seasons 2, 3, 5, 6), or the couple/couples voted lowest go through an elimination round, where elimination conditions vary (Seasons 1, 4, 7, 8, All-Stars 1-3).
* The couple(s)/individual(s) deemed the worst by the criteria of the elimination round are eliminated (Season 1 - present).

## Spin-Offs

There are a couple of productions connected to the mainline Love Desert series:

### Love Desert All-Stars

After Season 3, there was a long break, then the Love Desert series returned with All-Stars 1, a twist season where 10 legendary contestants were brought back to compete against one another to find the best All-Star couple! This was the first ever recorded season of Love Desert.

The first All-Stars season met success and provided entertainment, leading to the renewal and rebranding of the main Love Desert series with Love Desert Season 4.

The second All-Stars season was met with mild reception for its many twists and turns, but made history with the first gay male couple to ever win the show.

It's expected, as a Love Desert tradition, that an All-Stars season will occur after every two regular seasons. This means around 30-40 new sims are eligible to be cast for a second chance every two seasons. All-Stars 3 will break this pattern as it will not take place until after Season **8**, rather than **7**.

### Cancelled/Dormant Spin-Offs

* Love Desert All-Girls, a third-party produced Love Desert season that maybe partially occurred between Love Desert Season 3 and All-Stars 1. Effectively nothing is known of this spin-off beyond the cast.
* Celebrity Love Desert, a celebrity sim spin-off recorded during All-Stars 1's runtime. Cancelled after its first episode.
* Cierra Sinclair's Countdowns, a currently dormant show with a Season 3 fashionista that reviewed looks from All-Stars 1 to Season 4.

## Key Changes Between Seasons

Love Desert, as a reality competition show, has significantly evolved and grown between each season. With each season comes significant improvements, and so each season marks a new era. The following format changes and improvements happened on each season:

### Season 1

* Mini-Challenges
* Voting couples from best to worst, announcing them as such
* Individual voting during an elimination round, to send specific contestants home
* Heavy bias against male characters
* The rise of Hannah-made sims
* Judge-favourite award
* The first joke character

### Season 2/3

* Joke characters popularised
* New creator Euan
* Recoupling elimination (if alone)
* Eliminating the worst couple(s) rather than voting on individuals
* Returning contestants
* The rise of Ruoxi-made sims
* The fall of Hannah-made sims

### All-Stars 1

* Recorded seasons
* Runway looks
* Runway videos
* Gen. 1 Houses (Mushroom, Hoele, Vogue, Money)
* In-studio finale
* Finale performances
* Colour-themed runway every season

### Season 4

* Kaitlynn-made sims
* The rise of male sims
* The rise of Jude-made sims
* Ruoxi and Holly retire as creators
* Cierra's Countdowns
* Howl's streak begins
* A villain storyline
* Gen. 2 Houses (Puss, Good)

### Season 5

* Cleaner, edited runway photos
* The new age of Hannah-made sims
* Throuples
* Aliens
* Guest sims each episode
* Cierra's Countdowns cancelled
* Casting special
* Fiksinya Wardrobes + Jerry P. Surge
* The end of bombshells
* Gen. 3 Houses (Ass, Leibniz, Cee, Bish)

### All-Stars 2

* The rise of Holly-made sims
* Throuples become an officially recognised recoupling concept
* Dramatic cosmetic alterations
* Stricter category for the promo theme
* Howl's streak ends
* The final season of Ruoxi-made sims

### Season 6

* Holly officially returns as a creator
* Runway photos shot consistently to give a better look
* Spell-casters competing
* Creators other than Jude putting quality over quantity
* The dying breath of regular names, overabundance of joke names
* Cece replacing Fiksinya + Jerry
* The rise of straight couples
* The renaissance of bombshells
* Returning contestants occur less commonly
* Gen. 4 Houses (Spells, Faubya)

### Season 7

* Cece's permanent in-villa residency
* Sim-made sims become a notable creator category (Margattoni, Faulina)
* The immediate fall of straight couples lmao
* The anti-renaissance of men
* Gen. 5 Houses (Snatchedma)

### Season 8

* Jealousy and consequences for cheating become a reality
* First bombshell winners, bombshells considered a serious threat to day-one sims
* Non-binary sims officially recognised by the game, allowing a surge in gender non-conforming representation
* Old-fashioned creator diversity, with everyone bringing several sims to the show
* The girls: Final-Girls, Phiqueens, Weedgirls, Cowgoorls, Reegals
* Rise of fantasy/not-so-human characters (fairies and the undead)