'Love Island USA' S7 Premiere Experiences Huge Delay, Fans Fume at Peacock

Tick-tock, the clock was ticking down for "Love Island USA" Season 7’s premiere -- except Peacock hit pause, leaving fans staring at their screens for a while ... and let's just say, they were NOT thrilled about it!

The dating series' latest season was supposed to kick off at 6 PM PT Tuesday, but just one minute after the hour, Peacock hit fans with an X post: "WE GOT A TEXT! 👀 Tonight’s episode will be slightly delayed. But it’s worth the wait ❤️‍🔥🏝 Stay tuned!" And boy, did they stay tuned waiting -- for over 40 minutes.

Fans were losing it, waiting for the new season to finally drop. Some were blowing up the comments, asking, "How much longer?!" ... while others roasted Peacock, saying Netflix would never pull this mess. A few even canceled their subscriptions on the spot. The theatrics.

No one knows what went down behind the scenes, but even show host Ariana Madix hopped on IG, telling fans they had crashed the app.

By 6:43, Peacock finally posted an update ... things were moving -- and bam, Ariana made her glam villa entrance, followed by the first batch of singletons.

But there was little relief -- 'cause fans weren’t exactly cheering for contestant Yulissa Escobar, who's being dragged online for casually using the N-word on two separate podcasts.