FBOY Island host Nikki Glaser answers our burning questions after the season 1 finale

Photo: Julie Corsetti/HBO Max

This post discusses the ending of FBOY Island season one.

FBOY Island, HBO Max’s foray into reality dating this summer, has been a wild ride to say the least. The show features three beautiful young women—Nakia Renee, Sarah Emig, and CJ Franco—looking for love out of a pack of 24 men at a glamorous resort in the Cayman Islands. But of those 24, 12 are self-described “nice guys” and 12 are “fboys,” and no one, at first at least, knows who is who.

Not even the host. Comedian Nikki Glaser is like the anti-Chris Harrison on this series, extremely funny as she gossips with the girls, pokes fun at the guys, and actually attempts to get the fboys to see the error of their ways. The final episodes dropped yesterday—we’re still scraping our collective jaws off the floor, and were somewhat heartened to learn that Glaser was as shocked as we were by some of the surprising developments in the finale. We spoke to the host about what really went on in Limbro, where that mysterious fboy attraction comes from, and what she’d like to see in a (hopeful) second season.

What happened in “Limbro”? Did the fboys really only eat coconuts?

Nikki Glaser: I can’t lie. They weren’t sleeping there. I will say those guys in the nice guy castle were really living in the lap of luxury. The fboys were staying elsewhere, but it was not a nice hotel by any means. They weren’t getting the perks. But in the end, you know, I feel like what we did shoot in that in Limbro was to make them accountable, which was the whole purpose of it. And it really was a beautiful device that [co-creator and Bachelor vet] Elan Gale came up with to keep these guys around. Some of these guys got voted off too soon and they’re just so entertaining and so funny. So we kept everyone together so that we could do a reunion-type episode before the finale. Usually you save that until after the finale, but we were able to do it before because everyone was still around.

How did you come up with the idea of “therapy sessions” with the fboys?

NG: That was us all just trying something that we didn’t know what it would be. Because it was a departure from the host that I was before these guys were eliminated. It’s a chance for me to be way more comedic, lean into a character that was a little bit more flirtatious. I got to lean into that and be funny with it in those moments. The first day with the circle therapy that we did, we were like, “Let’s just do a couple of scenes, and yeah, it could be funny.” And I obviously love talking about dysfunction that leads to bad behavior, so I kept seeing this trend of these guys admitting that they’ve been hurt before and trying to explore what makes them an fboy and why they’re doing this. Why would you admit you’re an fboy on TV, like what’s wrong with you?

So it was the perfect mix for me, comedy and actually real conversations about sex addiction, about external validation, about lying. And I really feel like some of these guys felt comfortable enough to talk about things that they wouldn’t normally. We got done with that first day and I said to my producer, that was the best thing I’ve ever done. It was everything I ever wanted to do, which is combining comedy with therapy and really honest discussions with these guys. I hope to do a lot more if we do season two.

Why do you think so many fboys made it until the end?

NG: Yeah, that was a part of the show, the reveal of them so early. I go, “Why are we revealing? Why are we giving this away?” And then it was so interesting because once the reveal happened, the girls couldn’t help the way they felt. Like if someone’s saying they’re an fboy, clearly you couldn’t trust them. But there is always this sense that they can change, that you’re going to be the one that makes them forgo their fboy instincts and be honest and committed and all the things that you want. There’s a delusion there.

I was surprised by the whole thing, to be honest with you. I couldn’t believe that we had guys lying to producers or telling producers the truth about themselves and then lying to these women to their face even when they were confronted with being an fboy. They are going to go about their lives after the show airs, knowing that whoever meets them, will know that they’re capable of lying. I keep screaming at Garrett, like “Garrett, do you want a future with a woman?” And I also found it really interesting that I would have kept the fboys around, too, even knowing that they’re fboys. Because the thing is, you don’t need to know if a guy is an fboy because he tells you. You know. We all know. The red flags are there from the very beginning and we can be in denial of it. There are little things we notice at the beginning about these guys—lying or you catch them disrespecting you or disrespecting others—that we let go and then they really do something egregious to us. And at that point, we’re so locked in that we just want to believe we can change them.

I do think that the only thing fboys can’t manipulate is a woman with self-esteem. Truly, if a woman loves herself enough, they have no in; they can’t manipulate that. That’s not to say that these women don’t have self-esteem. I’m saying that it is almost impossible to live in our society the way women feel about themselves and are lied to and told that you should love yourself and it’s the inside that matters. But also, try this new facial serum! Do this new juice cleanse! It’s impossible to have perfect self esteem and to not feel like you should be lied and manipulated and that’s what love is, because that’s what we’re brainwashed to think. I was involved with a boy this year and did it and knew going into it that he was an fboy, that he had done things to other women in the past were so awful, not nice, like lying to me, and me still believing that he will change. People keep asking me, did you know who was who [on the show], and I’m like, yeah, because if I was attracted to one of these guys, then he was an fboy.

Were you surprised by what happened at the finale?

NG: Yeah, I was pissed. I just couldn’t believe that someone [Garrett] would make themselves out to be such a villain on TV and then have to have that as a record of their character for the rest of their life. There’s some integrity in just being like, “No, I like the money, I like the money more than Sarah,” so I guess he’s just being authentic and I just want people to be honest. And that’s what makes an fboy boy is someone who just lies. But I couldn’t believe that someone would hurt a girl like that. And on national television, to have that as a reference, for the rest of your life. But the truth is we live in an age of the bullies being president. No one’s scared of being a villain anymore. I would be petrified for my character, if I behaved like that, I would want to hide it from the world. And there’s something refreshing about these people being like, no, I’m just a piece of shit.

Are any of the couples actually still together?

NG: I honestly don’t know, because I haven’t asked, because I’m scared to know. I still want to know as much as I should know as a fan of the show, because I’m hoping that there is a reunion episode. Even though I’m an executive producer on the show, I made sure that title meant that I only had a hand in coming up with ideas for Limbro and challenges and scripts and the way I conducted myself. I wanted to not only have the same perspective as the girls, but also as the audience. So I purposely kept myself in the dark about it. I text with the girls and the guys and I’m kind of aware of what they’re up to and stuff. Because I was not able to hang out with any of these people on the set—because the vibe they set out was like, “You can’t talk to them.” I just have so much more love for some of these people—and also hatred! So I’m excited for what we could do in terms of a reunion.

So I don’t know if they’re still together. Fingers crossed. These people are all too young to decide for forever at this point. I wish there were older people on these shows. I do think all the women are fairly mature for their age, but I don’t love watching twentysomethings decide on the love of their life. That’s why I know that it’s not going to be forever and am not acting like it will be.