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I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here Now!

Matt Willis and Emma Griffiths
  • Posted at 11:21am
  • 14 November 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT
  • 5 comments

Of all those programmes where a load of people are stuck in a place they'd rather not be and paid money to stay there for as long as the viewing public put up with them, I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! is by far my favourite. So much so that I'd occasionally even watch the thing. Imagine that.

But it was never the bushtucker trials that piqued my interest, nor the creation of nutritionally dubious evening meals from disappointing ingredients, nor indeed the reliably chirpy presenting team of Dec and Ant (as I believe we should start calling them, because it sounds a bit like "decadent", which of course they're not, but hey).

No, what I enjoyed was the grindingly repetitive live footage that was shown overnight, which featured celebs wandering aimlessly about, or sitting down and gazing into space, or engaging in rambling discussions with their fellow celebrities about the most mundane and trivial of subjects – mainly because any of the interesting stuff was silenced by the on-duty lawyer with an over-cautious finger on the mute button.

But they've stopped doing that. I'm guessing it's because showing "Make Your Play" instead and getting people to call a premium-rate number to take part in a mind-numbingly simple wordsearch game pulls in more cash than watching celebrities disappear to the toilet.

So the only side order to the main serving of the ITV1 show is "I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here Now!" on ITV2, presented by Mark Durden-Smith in London, while in Australia we have Matt Willis (last year's winner, apparently) and his fiancée Emma Griffiths.

The programme presupposes that you've actually watched the main ITV1 show earlier that evening. I hadn't. So I hadn't got a clue who this year's celebs were. As the programme went on I eventually managed to pick up this information - but I still haven't got a clue who this year's celebs are. Some of them looked vaguely familiar, but I'd be hard pushed to put a name to any of them, which really puts them on a par with the staff at my local supermarket.

The one person that ITV were banking on to bring some pizzazz to proceedings was Malcolm McLaren, and he walked off the show before he'd even arrived in the jungle – thus beating his nemesis John Lydon who, in series three, put himself through a week of stultifying boredom before leaving. So what hope for this ITV2 package of supposed highlights?

None. Willis and Griffiths are excruciating to watch. They, and indeed the producer, seem to believe that cute smiles and self-conscious giggling can somehow offset wide-eyed confusion and pitiful banter, which mainly consists of repeating what the other person has said and then laughing. I, as well as the lawyer, had my finger constantly feeling for the mute button.

Durden-Smith, by comparison, is a consummate screen professional, but he's stuck in a studio with a mindless audience and faceless guests – at one point, they actually play a game called "Guess the Guest" in which you have to surmise which one of three people is the special guest. Incredible.

So, not much happened. Dec and Ant wandered in, then wandered out. We were shown a preview of a forthcoming challenge in which a Land Rover slides into a lagoon, which looked about as dangerous as a log flume. We were promised "high jinks too racy for ITV1", but all we got was vapid rambling, followed by Emma Griffiths saying, "What's that all about?" I have to admit that it's a pertinent question.

I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! is on every night on ITV1. I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here Now! follows on ITV2.

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Comments

  • Posted on 11 November 2009
  • at 12:45pm
  • by Mel

I have always looked forward to watching "Im a celebratity" but myself and many others will not be watching this years programme if they decide to have Katy Price to compete again. I always thought that they were volunteers who entered and the proceeds would go to charity but I have heard that they will be paying Katie Price, if that is the case why don't they give all the money to charity instead.

  • Posted on 29 November 2007
  • at 7:12pm
  • by viewer999
What a load of old twaddle.Ive watched max 3/4 minutes ....by mistake.A load of selfcentered, boring, ''im a seleb, look at me.. people.How can people sit and watch, and how can anyone think it can be classed as ''entertainment'', or of interest to anyone. Dead, bored people, sitting, watching other more deadly boring people playing at existing. Pretending to be in a jungle. And now i read of people who stopped watching??? WOOOOOOOOw!!viewer999
  • Posted on 15 November 2007
  • at 8:45am
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT

The worst "support" show by a long chalk was the one they did for Raymond Blanc's "The Restaurant". Unwatchable - again, mainly due to the ludicrous choice of presenter, whose name escapes me. George something?

  • Posted on 14 November 2007
  • at 2:24pm
  • by Janner

I hate these "support" shows - BBBM being the only exception - they're poor excuses for programmes and are made purely to get more mileage out of big TV properties.

  • Posted on 14 November 2007
  • at 12:55pm
  • by rosiepop

Bring back the glory days of Mark Durden Smith and Tara Palmer Tomkimson. My other half hated Celebrity Jungle but would always watch the spin-off when those two presented it. Bonkers, charming and funny.

It was must-see telly and up there with BBBM (with Russell Brand) and It Takes Two with the fragrant Claudia Winkleman.

I stopped watching last year when the best they could muster was Jeff Brazier and Kelly Osbourne. ITV had something really good and they've ruined it. Boo to ITV.

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