'CELEBRITY TRAITORS' EXTRAORDINARY BRILLIANCE RAISED THE BAR. CAN I’M A CELEB HOPE TO COMPETE?'
With the extraordinary brilliance of The Celebrity Traitors still fresh in the mind, there are a couple of ways of dealing with the imminent arrival of the 25th series of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
The more tempting of the options is to go down the "after the Lord Mayor’s Show" route and say there is absolutely no way Ant & Dec and their latest band of famous and not-so-famous anus eaters will ever match — never mind outdo — the must-watch spectacle that Claudia Winkleman, Alan Carr and the rest served up.
Impact-wise, it would be hard to argue with that theory — particularly if you were to consider the colossal viewing figures pulled in by Celebrity Traitors. The first episode has now reached nearly 15 million in the official ratings, and subsequent episodes will undoubtedly exceed that.
Read more: Meet the cast of I'm a Celebrity 2025
Plus, in terms of competing with the BBC show's line-up, ITV’s continuing budget restrictions meant we were never going to see the kind of starry names that were lured to Claudia’s Scottish castle earlier this year.
Of course, that doesn’t necessarily spell inevitable doom and gloom for Ant & Dec, although in the long term, after recently losing their 500-year winning streak at the National TV Awards, a question mark remains over whether they can reclaim their crown.
There are two main reasons for optimism ahead of Sunday night's launch show. Firstly, it could be argued that Celebrity Traitors may well have done I’m a Celebrity a favour.
Slideshow: Who's who in I'm a Celebrity 2025?
It ignited in some — and reignited in others — a thirst for celebrity-based whole family viewing that you could talk about for days afterwards. If Ant & Dec can hit the ground running, I could easily see them capitalising on that desire for some water cooler buzz.
While I wouldn’t normally condone copycat behaviour from TV producers, perhaps if ITV introduced some kind of skullduggery and intrigue in Week 1 of the jungle? Maybe a murder mystery surrounding the sudden and sinister disappearance of a campmate in the dead of night? Come on, there's no way the thought of Traitoring up the jungle has not crossed a few minds at ITV.
My second reason for optimism is simple. I’ve checked out this year’s line-up. Although on paper it may not be the best jungle cast ever assembled, it’s a hell of a long way from being the worst. For a start, out of the twelve names on the list, there are just two who had not really troubled my radar in the past — and that is a pretty good strike rate for a celebrity reality show these days.
Unsurprisingly, one of those relative unknowns is from a celebrity subsection that will never secure my validation: online influencers. I do, however, understand that they are a necessary evil in these multi-platform times, so I suppose I’ll have to tolerate their presence for now.
To be honest, I’m just a little annoyed at them, as when I was first told "Angryginge" would be in the jungle, I thought ITV had managed to book Prince Harry. (Yes, I have been going through Ant & Dec’s writing room bins again.)
Away from a YouTube star and a rapper (Aitch), ITV has sensibly decided to flood the camp with older celebrities. That’s a wise move. Throughout I’m A Celebrity’s long history, the more seasoned of the campmates have tended to provide the best entertainment.
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! 2025 cast
Ruby Wax OBE: Presenter, Author & Comedy Legend
Martin Kemp: Actor & Pop Legend
Kelly Brook: Heart Radio DJ & Model
Aitch: Brit Award-Winning Rapper
Alex Scott MBE: Sports Broadcaster & Former Lioness
Angry Ginge: Content Creator
Shona McCarty: EastEnders Star
Eddie Kadi: Comedian
Lisa Riley: Emmerdale Star
Jack Osbourne: TV Personality
I’m fully expecting the likes of Ruby Wax, Martin Kemp and Lisa Riley to continue that fine tradition. With Wax and Riley, I’m also hoping ITV will get what it paid for in terms of stirring things up in the camp.
Another thing I like about the line-up is that, as with last year, there is no obvious headline-chasing, controversial booking. Hopefully, that confirms that ITV has fully learned its lesson after booking the likes of Matt Hancock and Nigel Farage in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
The only, albeit faint, whiff of potential controversy that I am sensing at this stage is the inclusion of Jack Osbourne so soon after his father’s death. If his time in the jungle turns into a long and joyful celebration of Ozzy, then all is well and good.
However, if it all proves too much for Jack, then ITV may have some uncomfortable safeguarding questions to answer.
I’d imagine we’d all prefer to see the former scenario play out. Who knows, a national wave of affection for Ozzy could even sweep Jack all the way to the jungle throne.
Of course, only a fool would make any firm predictions this early in proceedings. Which brings me to my favourite thing about this year’s line-up. Unlike 2024 (Sam Thompson) and 2025 (Danny Jones), there doesn’t appear to be a clear and obvious winner from the start.
Nevertheless, given the nature of the people who can actually be bothered to vote these days, the bookmakers have prudently installed Angryginge and Aitch as the early favourites. They could well be proved right, but I’d still be tempted to look a little further down the list.
The two names that leap out at me are Martin Kemp and Kelly Brook. Kemp will easily hoover up the Silver Fox vote, and if his son Roman mobilises his own troops, he could get a further Nepo Daddy boost.
As for Brook, the previously hidden sense of humour that she revealed on last year’s Celebrity Race Across the World, coupled with her roll-your-sleeves-up, no-nonsense attitude, could prove to be a winning combination — particular if she can also reawaken what you might loosely term "the latent Dad Vote."
That said, some of the other campmates also look to have a fair shot at the crown. The very presence of a strong female contingent, which also includes the likes of football host Alex Scott, model and washpowder salesperson Vogue Williams, and EastEnders star Shona McGarty tells me that ITV wouldn’t be averse to ending up with a Queen of the Jungle this time around, if only to stop the fellas going 15-10 ahead in the all time winners list.
That’s all to be decided over the next three weeks or so, of course. For now, we need to deal with more pressing matters.
Namely, how long will it be before Ruby Wax mentions that she interviewed Donald Trump back in the day?
If she makes it beyond her opening VT, I’ll be bigly astounded.
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! starts on ITV1 at 9pm, Sunday, 16 November.
This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/im-a-celeb-itv-celebrity-traitors-bbc-194639110.html 2025-11-10T20:02:27Z