As the weather is heating up and the school year comes to a close, students of all kinds are preparing to travel and take full advantage of the summer season. 

Aside from traveling to beautiful beaches or moving to a new city for an internship, most of us are constantly consuming content that transports us. 

Netflix’s “Temptation Island” is one show that brings its viewers to a tropical island and allows them to follow the journey of couples as they discover their dreams for themselves and their romantic relationships. 

The show is a fun watch for the challenges couples might face or the drama that will ensue. But this season an Aggie Alum will join the mix. 

Michael Bivens is a recent graduate of N.C. A&T and a current cohort member of the Warner Music Group. He has been a host with R&B Only LIVE since as early as 2024, and travels across the country to bring popular Hip Hop and R&B tunes to eager crowds.

Students like Kristiana Forrest, a sophomore business management student and Sameh Buggan, a sophomore psychology student, both said they would be more likely to watch this new season since it features an A&T alum.

Buggan told the Register, “I feel like that’s a big and fun thing to be on a television show, and why not show support as a fellow Aggie myself.”

Outside of this Netflix reboot, “Love is Blind”, “Love Island USA”, “Love Island Games” and “Perfect Match” are popular summer watches.

She later shared, “I’m actually not a frequent watcher of Temptation Island, I actually just recently heard of it– the name itself is giving Love Island dupe.”

“Temptation Island” first aired in the United States from 2001-2003, but was brought back for a new generation of reality television fanatics on Netflix in 2025. 

The reality show has captivated the globe, with the Spanish version of the series, “La isla de las tentaciones” coming to the silver screen in 2020 and going eight seasons strong. 

“Over the summer I was a part of the whole Love Island era. [It] was funny and interesting to just see everyone’s opinion on dating in our generation today. It really shows you the mindset people have going into relationships,” Buggan says.

Before his transition to post-grad life, Bivens worked hard at the university to build connections, bring events to campus that students would be sure to love and use any free time possible to hone his passions for public speaking and event creation.

During his time in Aggieland, he tried just about everything. 

Bivens served as an Aggie Success Leader (ASL) for several years, advocated for the student body as SGA’s Vice President of External Affairs (VPEA) and was most popularly known as a party host and frequently worked as the emcee for campus events like talent shows, pageants and GHOE festivities. 

He is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha and is not the first contestant on the show to be a part of the Divine Nine community. (Brion Whitley, who was on the most recent season of the series, is also an Alpha.)

Typically, couples come to the island because they already are struggling or reaching a breaking point in their current relationship, and feel that being on the show is their last resort. 

Of course, a common question with dating shows is always, “Will the couples last after the show is over?” and every relationship is different, but there are at least a few who stick it out. 

After the last season of “Temptation Island” ended, Alexa Santamaria and her partner, Pasqualino ‘Lino’ Massimo Troisi, got engaged. 

This gave a happy ending to a couple who faced a multitude of ups and downs throughout the process of the show. (A majority of the other couples who came to the island separated from their original partners.)

This season, four couples will travel to a tantalizing tropical location, learn how to strengthen their relationships and be tempted by eligible, attractive singles (brought in as ‘bombshells’ to distract the couples from deepening their connection with their current partner.) 

Bivens is entering the villa with his girlfriend, Sydney Morgan, who is an aesthetician. 

Bivens and Morgan have been together since their college days, give or take, but have a few central issues they wanted to address on the show.

Will you be tuning in this season? Episodes are available exclusively on Netflix starting on April 10, 2026.