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I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

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I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
File:ITVCelebrity.jpg
StarringMany different minor celebrities
No. of series6
Production
ProducerITV Productions
Running time30 to 90 minutes
(usually 60 minutes)
Original release
NetworkITV1,
ITV2,
ITV Play
ReleaseAugust 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 UK show is hosted by Ant & Dec. In the US John Lehr presented proceedings, the German hosts are Dirk Bach and Sonja Zietlow.

Format

File:Imacelebritygetmeottahere004.JPG
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).

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.

UK participants and series notes

Series 1

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

Series one was a surprise hit, quickly winning national press coverage. There were several spats, 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. The winner was Tony Blackburn, who endeared himself to the nation with his obsession of collecting logs for the camp fire.

Series 2

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

Series two was quickly rushed into production following the huge success of the first series. This series saw the number of contestants raised to 10. 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. The series was won by Phil Tufnell. Some press coverage speculated just how close his relationship with Linda Barker was.

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 war by Charles Brocket on Jennie Bond, to whom he took a great dislike.

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. The series was won by Joe Pasquale, who formed a bond with the emus that the camp were given the task of looking after. But for many the real revelation of the series was Paul Burrell, who, after being slated by the press, proved his worth in the eyes of many.

Series 5

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

Series five was in many ways a rather average series. Double act Cannon and Ball were added a few days into the run.

Series 6

12 contestants, November 13 2006 - December 1 2006:

Series six saw the male and female halves of the camp split into two, with the females going to a breakaway camp called 'Snake Rock' for a few days. Jan Leeming got many people's backs up with her constant complaining, and the surprise of the series was David Gest, who had been slated in the media and was at first the bookies favourite to be voted first off, but became an unexpected hit with his strange sense of humour and far fetched tales. Jason Donovan was favourite to win, and there was genuine surprise when he came in third, and even more surprise when Matt Willis won.

International participants

US series 1

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

German series 1

10 contestants:

German series 2

10 contestants:

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:

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.
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