- On “Temptation Island,” couples separate and date other people to see if they’re tempted to stray.
- Host Mark Walberg shows cast members clips of their partner’s exploits at the infamous bonfires.
- Walberg doesn’t recommend going on the show but says people usually leave the island “in a better place.”
When a clip from “Temptation Island Spain” showed a man running down a beach in agony after watching footage of his girlfriend cheating on him went viral in February, the internet turned “La Isla de las Tentaciones” host Sandra Barneda’s pleas of “Montoya, por favor!” into a rallying cry.
While many could empathize with contestant José Carlos Montoya’s predicament, “Temptation Island” host Mark L. Walberg was one of the few who understood Barneda’s position.
As the host of the American version of “Temptation Island,” it’s Walberg’s job to coach four couples through the highs and lows of a very unnatural, made-for-TV predicament: separating from your long-term partner to date a slew of sexy singles. It happens while knowing your other half will see out-of-context footage of your exploits — and you theirs — during the show’s infamous bonfires.
So what would Walberg have done if one of his cast members began wailing and made a break for the beach during a bonfire?
“I probably would’ve followed him out on the beach. I probably would’ve tried to catch him and console him and get him in a good place,” Walberg said.
It’s been over two decades since “Temptation Island” premiered on Fox in 2001. Walberg has been a mainstay on the show, staying with it when it was rebooted on USA Network in 2019 and when it moved to Netflix in 2025.
He’s become a veteran in coaxing emotions out of contestants in pursuit of dramatic and entertaining results. Yet he talks about wanting to console Montoya like he truly empathizes. With his big blue eyes piercing through the Zoom screen at me and his eyebrows slightly upturned in his signature look of friendly concern, it appears he really does.
Unlike the talking heads who come in to mechanically deliver somber news to lovelorn contestants on other reality shows, Walberg considers his genuine care for the cast the key to his hosting approach.
“When I first did this show a million years ago, you could have had somebody who was rubbing their hands going, ‘Let’s make it dirty,’ or you could have somebody judging. And that’s not my style as a person,” Walberg said. “I know it’s a TV show, but I think authenticity is also watchable.”
Below, Walberg breaks down his empathetic approach to hosting and gets real about why anybody would agree to bring their relationship to “Temptation Island.”
On why filming the bonfires keeps him up at night
The bonfires are the centerpiece of “Temptation Island,” and the conversations you have with contestants after they watch clips of their partners often get emotional. How do you prepare for them, and what do you know about the clips beforehand?
All these shows have a hot sheet, like a producer writes a hot sheet and I read it. And let me just be clear that I’ve got an earpiece, and if I get off track, producers are there and help me. But to answer your question, I am — I hate to say this — but the kids call it an empath.
I’ve been on TV a long time…So I don’t really need to prep. I usually meditate a little bit; get quiet. I’m trying to slow my heart rate, focus my intention, get my intention off of me, and get it onto these kids.
And then it’s really, meet them where they are, listen deeply to what they say, have compassion for what they’ve just seen, and then ask what seems to be the natural question. And then don’t be so married to a point of view that when you get an answer to the question that’s not specifically what you want, you don’t go where they’re going.
I kind of feel a little gross that I’m like, “Oh, I’m this heady guru guy.” It’s just, look: I’m a dad, and I’m a husband, and I care. I really do care. And I don’t know how to turn that off. It’s pretty exhausting because after bonfire, I’m like, “Yeah, cool. Let’s get a beer or whatever.” And then I go back to the room and my wife’s asleep. I’m up until two in the morning going, “What did I say? Did I do damage today?”
A lot of times, these bonfires feel like group therapy, where each person eventually has a moment of clarity about their relationship. Is your hosting style on “Temptation Island” informed by therapy?
I’ve been married a long time — 37 years — and we’ve been in a conversation of emotional intelligence our whole relationship. So, no, I don’t pretend to be a therapist, but I’ve been in therapy, so the conversation’s familiar to me.
For me, what’s natural is when you say something, I’m listening to you, but I’m not listening to what you said as much as I’m listening to why you chose those words. Because what I’ve learned over the years is that most of the time people tell you a story that they believe almost to hide what they don’t want to believe.
And that’s a delicate thing. You don’t want to jump in there and crunch people up. But that’s the window that I try to open a little bit because then you can see the lights go off.
And it warms my heart when you see somebody go, “Wait a minute, oh my God, it all makes a little sense right now.” So I wouldn’t say there’s any training, but there is some compassion and just deep listening, a little bit of life experience, and then a little bit of guessing.
What’s unique about this show is that the reboot gave you the chance to revisit a job you first had almost 20 years ago. How has your approach to hosting “Temptation Island” changed in that time?
When I first did the show, we were flying by the seat of our pants. Nobody knew anything. Reality wasn’t even a thing. So when we would do the bonfires, the producers were way down the beach. There was no direction, and I was just kind of fishing.
On what he wanted to say during Brion and Shanté’s final bonfire and why he thinks “Temptation Island” has endured
It must be hard as a host to handle someone like Brion, who, for most of this season, was not taking responsibility for his actions. How do you give that tough love? When Shanté ultimately takes Brion back at the final bonfire, if I were a host, I wouldn’t be able to hide the judgment on my face.
What I wanted to say was, “That’s not what you want to do. Stay true to the decision you made. You guys may get back together at some point. Stand with yourself.”
But I have respect for Shanté. She’s not an idiot. She came to whatever decision she came. Maybe it was a failure on my part, but it’s a very delicate line of where to intervene and where to stay away.
I wanted to say, “I’m not comfortable with you guys leaving,” but I felt like, after so much time, it took forever. The show ends, but life doesn’t. I have every bit of belief that she could take care of herself.
And you said no judgment. So even with Brion, when I was talking to him, the way I approach that is, I’m not judging your behavior. I’m holding his space for how unaware you are.
Wow, that is so charitable.
It might be spin, I don’t know. When you talk to him, he’s not remorseful for his behavior. And I had to ask him about that. I’m like, “It’s weird to me that you can act out or do whatever you do, and it’s compartmentalized. It just has nothing to do with your love.” And so that’s an unawareness.
I was trying to say to him, it’s not that you love [Shanté] so much that you’ll have willpower [to be faithful]. That’s bullshit. You want to have a love so complete that that’s not on the table. The thought of what it would do to hurt somebody else, you would never do because you love them.
But I think, for the most part, 90% of the people who go on the show don’t really understand what being in love is at all. So that’s a hard thing.
Why do people go on this show? And regardless of why they go on, do you think the experience ultimately helps them grow?
I’m very real about it. I think a little bit of it is clout — being on TV and all that comes with that. But the only way to get the clout and to get clarity is to get real and to stay real.
And this show, I don’t advise anybody to come on, but it does get real. So yeah, it is not something I’d advise, but for those who come on, I do know that they usually leave the island in a better place, knowing more about themselves than they did.
I joke about the show. I’m playing golf with these guys, and they’re like, “What do you do?” And I try to put that off. I say [I host] a dating reality show. “Oh, what’s it about?” And the best way I can say it is, “A dating/relationship show. It looks like porn and feels like ‘Oprah.'”
I do it for a joke, but the point is it really appears to be this messy, crazy thing, but there’s a little bit of heart and reality behind it. That, I think, is why it’s still kicking.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
“Temptation Island” season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
Read the full article here
