More than half the country watches lovehate

Over 80% of its viewers want another series of Love/Hate, a new survey by independent market research firm iReach Insights has revealed.

Season five of the hit RTE drama created and written by Navan man Stuart Carolan ended in a bloodbath on Sunday night, with most of the principal characters seemingly killed off. But that won’t stop the 81% of us who want to see Love/Hate return to our screens for a sixth season.

iReach Insights MD Oisin Byrne, MD said: “This just goes to show the phenomenal popularity of Love/Hate. Even though it looks like the main stars of the show are dead, with Nidge and Siobhan gunned down and Fran seemingly tortured to death in the season finale, we still want a sixth season.

“Maybe we just don’t believe King Nidge can really be gone.”

More men than women want to see Nidge and the boys back, with 93% of men asked saying they want to see the series return, compared to 76% of women. But women turn the tables when it comes to fancying Love/Hate characters, with one in five Irish women admitting to a secret crush on a Love/Hate star, while none of men surveyed owned up to a crush.

Top secret crushes on Love/Hate were:

Tommy (50%)

Darren (30%)

Elmo (10%)

Mick (10%)

King Nidge is still the show’s standout character, whether you love him or hate him. The survey of 1,000 adults found he was both the character people like most, with 26% of Irish people saying he was their favourite character, and the character people love to hate, with 25% of those surveyed saying they love to hate Nidge.

He was the most popular character amongst men (28%) with 25% of women choosing Nidge as their favourite.

The Top Three characters viewers liked most on Love/Hate are:

Nidge (30%)

Fran (20%)

Siobhan (18%)

While 20% of men and 28% of women said Nidge was someone from the show who they loved to hate.

The Top Five characters on Love/Hate that Irish people love to hate are:

Nidge (25%)

Fran (18%)

John Boy (11%)

Siobhan (8%)

Elmo (6%)

More than half the country watched Love/Hate, with 52% of Irish adults revealing they watch the show, while 80% of those watched all five seasons. Seasons Three and Five were the biggest hits with viewers, with 77% of people surveyed rating Seasons Three and Five as excellent. Seasons One was the least popular season amongst viewers.

In order of an Excellent rating, the five seasons were rated:

Season 3 (77%)

Season 5 (77%)

Season 2 (66%)

Season 4 (59%)

Season 1 (57%)

Two hastages have been trending on twitter, #teamNidge and #teamFran, but it looks like we’re evenly split between the two. When asked which team they were on 30% of Irish people chose Team Fran and 30% picked Team Nidge, with 40% claiming they were on neither team.

It wasn’t all good news for the RTE drama. More than a third of people asked believe Love/Hate glamorises criminal behaviour. Thirty five per cent of Irish people think the show glamorises the criminal lifestyle, with more men (41%) than women (31%) agreeing.