I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!

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I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!

Format Reality
Run time 30 to 90 minutes
(usually 60 minutes)
Starring Many different celebrities
Channel ITV1,
ITV2,
ITV Play
Production company ITV Productions
Air dates August 25, 2002 –
No. of series 6

I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here! is a UK reality television show in which celebrities live in jungle conditions with few creature comforts. A sixth series of the show, which is filmed in Australia, finished on December 1st on ITV1 in the United Kingdom. Matt Willis is the most recent celebrity to be crowned "King of the Jungle". It is sponsored by UK supermarket chain Iceland, which sees Kerry Katona (series 3 winner) advertising it.

ABC aired one season of an American version in February and March 2003. Two series have also been aired in Germany - entitled Ich bin ein Star - Holt mich hier raus. There are also French and Dutch versions of the show called respectively Je suis une célébrité, sortez-moi de là! and Bobo's in de bush.

The UK show is hosted by Ant & Dec. In the US John Lehr presented proceedings, the German hosts are Dirk Bach and Sonja Zietlow.

Contents

[edit] Format

On location in the 'Jungle' Dungay in northern NSW
Enlarge
On location in the 'Jungle' Dungay in northern NSW

In return for their appearance on the show the celebrities are asked to nominate a charity to which the producers, Granada Television, make donations. The celebrities themselves are also paid a fee (reported to be £25,000 for UK competitors) to compensate them for possible loss of earnings while they are in the jungle. The producers of the show keep the precise details of the celebrities' contracts very private, prompting much speculation from the tabloid media. The money is raised by allowing viewers to vote by phone, text message or the "red button" (a colloquialism popular in the UK for the major satellite TV platform's interactive service) for the celebrity they would like to complete a "Bushtucker Trial"—a physical task usually involving snakes, spiders or other creepy-crawlies found in the jungle—and, later in each series, to vote for the celebrity they would like to see win the show. The last remaining celebrity after all others have been evicted is the winner of the show.

Winners of the show include Tony Blackburn, Phil Tufnell, Kerry Katona, Joe Pasquale, Carol Thatcher, Matt Willis (UK), Cris Judd (US), Costa Cordalis and Désirée Nick (Germany), Richard Virenque (France), Walter Nudo, Sergio Muñiz and Lory Del Santo (Italy).

[edit] Popularity and criticism

The show is undoubtedly popular, at least within Europe. The finales of the second and third UK series were seen by 12.5 and 15.3 million people respectively—well over half of all people watching television in the country at the time of day in both cases. The show also helped singer Peter Andre resurrect his music career in 2004. However, it has come under fire from some critics on two counts:

  • The first complaint is that the show is trashy TV, consisting of has-been or never-were celebrities trying to revive their careers. The UK's Secretary of State for Culture at the time, Tessa Jowell, was the most high-profile person to criticise the show. In an interview with the Financial Times during the second British series, she said, "If they weren't mostly—save their blushes—has-been celebrities, there might be more interest [...] I think that if we saw many more programming hours taken over by reality TV, I hope you'd begin to see a viewers' revolt."
  • The second criticism of the show is that it pretends to be more wild than it actually is. Audiences are left with the impression that the celebrities are in the Australian Outback far from any major settlement, whereas they are actually close to a luxury hotel and about 30min drive to the Gold Coast, Queensland. Further, the camp site in which the celebrities stay appears to be open to the elements but is largely covered by sheets above the view of the cameras. In an episode of the British show, a celebrity had to swim in a swamp apparently infested with crocodiles. Marksmen were shown ready to shoot the animals if they attacked.
  • A third criticism is that in series six people seemingly did not vote enough for the favourites to win. Jason Donovan and David Gest were initially favourites to win and the bookies bet that Jason would win the whole series but Jason along with David didnt even get into the final 2. Though Myleene Klass became a strong favourite and narrowly finished second. Also in the sixth series, although the format was not new, many claimed that there was some confusion regarding the first person to be voted off. Many voters seemed to misunderstand that they were voting for the person they wanted to save, not the person to be voted off.

CBS, broadcaster of the popular American reality show Survivor, unsuccessfully sued ABC and Granada TV over the programme, alleging similarities[1]. Given the poor ratings of the show in America, leading to only a single U.S. series being produced, the failure of the lawsuit proved moot.

[edit] UK participants and series notes

[edit] Series 1

8 contestants, August 25, 2002 - September 8, 2002:

Series one was a hit, quickly winning national press coverage. There were several arguments, including ones between Rhona Cameron and Nigel Benn, mostly concerning religion; and memorably between Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Darren Day, who had had a past relationship.

[edit] Series 2

10 contestants, April 29, 2003 - May 12, 2003:

Series two was quickly put into production following the huge success of the first series. After the rather volatile first series, this one was more friendly and good-humoured. The contestants united and threatend to walk out over the lack of and quality of the food.

[edit] Series 3

10 contestants, January 26, 2004 - February 9, 2004:

The producers struck gold in series three when romance blossomed between Peter André and Katie Price, aka Jordan. John Lydon lived up to his image, by saying the "c" word live on television, a couple of days before walking out. There was also a disagreement between Charles Brocket on Jennie Bond, to whom he took a great dislike.

[edit] Series 4

11 contestants, November 21, 2004 - December 6, 2004:

After series three in the Spring, the series returned in the Autumn, making it the only year (to date) that has had two series produced. Series four added the idea of having a contestant being introduced late, in this case Vic Reeves, husband of Nancy Sorrell.

[edit] Series 5

12 contestants, November 20, 2005 - December 5, 2005:

[edit] Series 6

12 contestants, November 13, 2006 - December 1, 2006:

In the sixth UK series only, the camp was split into two: Base Camp (men) and Snake Rock (women). Though this was only a temporary measure and the camp eventually became one again. This series saw David Gest appear as a humerous man which totally changed his press image, he often told farcical stories.

[edit] International participants

[edit] US series 1

10 contestants, February 19, 2003 - March 5, 2003:

[edit] German series 1

10 contestants:

[edit] German series 2

10 contestants:

[edit] French series 1

Je suis une célébrité, sortez-moi de là! is the French version. It featured French celebrities living in jungle conditions with few creature comforts. The first series of the show was broadcast live in prime time from Teresópolis Brazil, and aired on TF1, starting on April 14, 2006.

The French show was hosted by Jean-Pierre Foucault and Christophe Dechavanne.

12 contestants, April 14, 2006 - April 28, 2006:

  • Richard Virenque (winner)
  • Filip Nikolic (runner up)
  • Loana (third)
  • Marielle Goitschel
  • Prince Charles-Philippe d'Orléans
  • Benjamin Bove
  • Indra
  • Omar Harfouch
  • Satya Oblet
  • Delphine de Turckheim
  • Agnès Soral
  • Sonia Dubois

[edit] Bushtucker trials

  • Every day one of the celebrities is chosen to do a bushtucker trial. The bushtucker trials give the celebrities a chance to win food for the camp by collecting stars in various challenges. In most cases, each star is worth one meal for the camp. These challenges have included: Eating Aboriginal delicacies (such as tomatoey grubs), eating kangaroo genitalia, getting covered in various bugs and Paragliding whilst trying to catch stars. One of the most famous events on the UK version is when Paul Burrel put his hand thorough the many different holes in his bush tucker trial catching bugs and stars in the 2005 edition. Many people who do badly on the trials feel bad for their group, ashamed that the group is hungry. However, series 6 contestant Scott was defiant, apparently not caring at his abysmal trials, although his group went hungry. Occasionally, e.g. on Thursdays in UK Series 6, there were two Bushtucker Trials on the same day. The last 3 celebrities to remain in the jungle, all have to do a Bushtucker Trial on their last day.

[edit] External links

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