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

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I'm a Celebrity,
Get Me out of Here!
Genre Reality
Starring Many different minor celebrities
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of series 6
Production
Producer(s) ITV Productions (LWT)
Running time 30 to 90 minutes
(usually 60 minutes)
Broadcast
Original channel ITV1,
ITV2
Original run August 25, 2002 –

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 main UK show is hosted by Ant & Dec, with a subsidiary behind-the-scenes show hosted by Mark Durden-Smith. 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 north eastern NSW
On location in the 'Jungle' Dungay in north eastern 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.


Controversy over voting arose during the sixth series of the show when Toby Anstis was eliminated. It was revealed that both he and Eastenders actor a Dean Gaffney had polled the bottom two amount of votes and that viewers had to vote again to save their favourite of the two. However many fans argue that this was not made clear. In the following days The Sun ran an article that revealed Toby's eviction had been the result of a mix-up which happened on the interactive "red button" vote - people normally use this to keep their favourites in the show, but it asked which one they wanted to vote out instead of in. When ITV bosses realised their mistake, they shut the service down, but Toby's eviction has already sparked fury amongst fans.


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:

Memorable for:

  • Arguments involving Nigel Benn, Darren Day, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Chritsine Hamilton and Rhona Cameron.
  • Cameron's 'Sometimes' speech.
  • Tony Blackburn's obsession with logs.
  • Tara and Darren's relationship.
  • Uri Geller's fondness of the ladies.

[edit] Series 2

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

Memorable for:

  • Eight contestants brought up to ten.
  • Camp threatening to walkout of the actual show over lack of food.
  • John Fashanu's numerous Bushtucker Trials.
  • Wayne Sleep falling through his bed and hurting his ankle.
  • Drunken antics amongst certain celebrities at night.

[edit] Series 3

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

Memorable for:

  • Jordan and Peter's relationship beginning.
  • John Lydon's living up to his image, saying the "c" word live on national television, a couple of days before walking out.
  • Lord Brocket's fondness of the ladies: when he washed down Alex Best after her trial.
  • Conflicts between Lord Brocket and Jennie Bond.
  • Peter Andre's insania song.

[edit] Series 4

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

Memorable for:

  • Natalie Appleton's fear of trials and jungle life. Known for fearfully crying "I touched a tree".
  • Joe Pasquale's relationship with the camp emus.
  • Janet Street Porter's relationship with the former Butler Paul Burrel.
  • Paul Burrel's Bushtucker Trials.
  • The first time a celebrity has been added a few days into the running of the show (Vic Reeve's entered camp on the fourth day).

[edit] Series 5

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

Memorable for:

  • Carol Thatcher urinating in camp during the night and not admitting to the act.
  • Sheree Murphy's persistent embarrassment of husband Harry Kewell.
  • Elain Lordan's and Kimberley Davies' removal from camp due to medical problems.
  • Late arrival of Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball.
  • Jimmy Osmond's teddy-bear stuffed with contraband.

[edit] Series 6

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

Memorable for:

  • Camp being split into two separate camps by gender and then competing against each other in the Bushtucker Trials.
  • The camp's frustration over Jan Leeming's complaints.
  • Jan Leeming being constantly voted to do the trials.
  • Scott Henshall's and Phina Oruche's fight over the 'Celebrity Chest'.
  • David Gest's tall stories and sense of humour, proving surprisingly popular with the public.
  • Dean Gaffney's late arrival and his live Bushtucker Trial, which caused him to continually scream and almost vomit several times. (Some critics complained that sending him in to this, with no warning or preparation, was cruel).
  • Matt Willis' final trial, where he ate a Kangaroo anus and a Crocodile penis, as well as 3 other jungle delicacies. This trial was largely considered to be what swung the final vote in his favour, having entered the final as the outsider with bookmakers.

[edit] Series 7

Ant and Dec have expressed interest in returning to the jungle for the seventh series of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in late 2007.

[edit] International participants

[edit] US series 1

10 contestants, aired nightly February 19, 2003 - March 5, 2003 on ABC. John Lehr was host.

[edit] German series 1

Ich bin ein Star, holt mich hier raus!

The first series aired in 2004 on RTL. Sonja Zietlow and Dirk Bach hosted. There were 10 contestants:

[edit] German series 2

The second series aired in 2005 on RTL. Sonja Zietlow and Dirk Bach hosted. There were 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 2004 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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