Ciara Miller & Tefi Pessoa On Humanizing Islanders On ‘Love Island USA Aftersun’ & Pitch To Host Reunion

Ciara Miller and Tefi Pessoa, the two new bombshells who entered the Love Island USA villa to revamp Aftersun.

The weekly talk show features Miller and Pessoa giving a debrief of the Peacock dating reality series, as well as exclusive never-before-seen footage and interviews with dumped Islanders. The change has paid off for the streamer, as the companion series saw a 144% increase in audience from its Season 7 debut, with viewers curious to see the new format.

Miller and Pessoa are a perfect match, have great chemistry on camera, and bounce off of each other with such ease. The co-hosts knew each other beforehand and met while supporting Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign.

“I think once you meet someone who has similar core values and music taste,” Pessoa told Deadline in an interview while proceeding to sing alongside Miller to Kandi Burruss’s “Don’t Think I’m Not.” “We just have a lot of things in common.”

Miller added, “She’s a Cancer, I’m a Capricorn, so we’re not exactly the same. So it’s just the same level of weird. We love to LARP [live action role play], we love a bit … it kind of just works.”

The Summer House star notes that they also work so well because they bring two different perspectives: Miller brings the reality TV side, while Pessoa is “an encyclopedia for pop culture,” adding, “I think it’s a good mix of knowledge.”

Pessoa and Miller’s conversation about Love Island USA is good vibes, and they’re not about tearing each other apart over their different takes.

“When we have a different opinion, we don’t discount it,” Pessoa says. “We’re here to gab, and we’re here to giggle, and not enough people are giggling on TV anymore.”

Although the duo does make viewers giggle, the passionate fanbase is not always giggling with them, as they have recently experienced. Both hosts pushed back on criticism from viewers when they found themselves on the other side of the debate in the KC and Aniya recoupling drama following Casa Amor.

“It’s scary, and sometimes it’s not a safe environment, especially on Threads,” Miller says. “But you know what, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. We’re throwing different ideas out. I’m offering the perspective of being on reality TV, knowing being subject to editing. I know there’s so many different things at play.”

Miller added that her “opinions aren’t concrete” and “they are going to change the further we get into the series. You know things are happening, and things change every day with Love Island. I’m never giving an opinion with a standpoint [that] it’s going to stay there forever because that’s just not realistic.”

Pessoa offered the perspective that when some viewers see someone on TV, “they feel like that person isn’t a real person” and there’s a “lack of seeing someone’s humanity,” adding, “If you’re going to disagree with me, at least disagree with me for my honest and real opinion and maybe their opinion of me will evolve as Love Island evolves.”

One thing for sure is that Miller is not afraid of sharing her opinion as “this is what we’re here to do,” adding, “We are in the business of humanizing people on reality TV. It is a pressure cooker in there. I wouldn’t have signed up for this job if I didn’t want to see the perspective of everything, even though I might not agree with everyone — especially the boys, but I have to try and see it.”

Miller also pitched returning to the villa alongside Pessoa to host another game and said, “We’re also down to host the reunion as well.”

Pessoa jumped in, adding, “Yeah, we’d love to host a reunion.”

“We’re putting out our bids,” Miller said, with Pessoa jokingly saying, “Andy, go home!”

Miller added that they both come “a lot cheaper than Andy Cohen” to host the reunion. But ultimately, she said, “As long as they put us in the audience, we will be happy.”

“I’m happy to sit in the audience too,” Pessoa seconded.

Love Island USA Aftersun streams Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. PT on Peacock.