Why I’m A Celeb has avoided the TV axe

Now heading into its eighth season, the popular reality show that throws celebrities together in a jungle – quite literally by throwing them out of a helicopter – has become a summer fixture on our screens, this is why.

They come from far and wide, trading canapés, champagne and comfy beds in five-star hotels for creepy-crawlies and camping stretchers under the stars. Jungle life is certainly no picnic.

And yet hosts Julia Morris and Dr Chris Brown insist none of the personalities who have signed up for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! over its seven seasons have said they regretted the experience.

All, that is, except one. Brown says tennis player Bernard Tomic, who famously quit the series after just three days, has been agitating to return.

“He wasn’t there for a long time but he’s provided us with plenty of talking points since then,” Brown tells The Binge Guide. “I believe he wants to have another go to prove he can do it. And what an amazing comeback it would be if he did.”

While some, such as Tomic, head to the jungle looking for redemption, others seek career revival or new challenges. While Brown admits he’d gladly join the celebrity campers, and has even sampled some of their vile dishes just to get a taste of what they endure, Morris couldn’t – and wouldn’t – do it.

“I think more than any other reality show, it shows the real person,” (Photography: Network 10)

“I’d love sitting and having fascinating conversations with people that I’d end up being completely and totally in social love with,” she tells The Binge Guide with a laugh. “But with challenges – the heights stuff – I would try to push myself but I’m not great with mind over matter. And the eating [disgusting] things would bring me undone.”

Guessing who is going into the jungle isa summer TV tradition. And while past seasons have included some instantly recognisable stars, such as Shane Warne, Maureen McCormick (aka Marcia Brady) and The Bold And The Beautiful star Katherine Kelly Lang, others are a little further down the fame totem pole and are met with blank-faces from co-stars – not to mention viewers – upon reveal.

“Every single year we have young people saying ‘I don’t know who those older people are’ and older people who don’t really know who the young people are,” Morris says.

“And then all together we start to get to know who’s in the jungle… It’s about what they’re like when they’re in there. Then they can tell stories of their former lives or when they were naughty once or when they were amazing once. But, you know, part of the comedy and charm is seeing what they’re like when they’re asked to do all this tricky stuff.”

Jungle life has created some long-lasting bonds between stars who would otherwise never have met. “Julia and I laugh that in seven seasons we’ve not once been invited to one of their reunions,” Brown says.

“They all have WhatsApp groups to keep in touch and chat. They’re constantly catching up.”

Despite the show now heading into its eighth season, Brown is surprised by how many stars pull a “Matt Doran” and fail to research what they’re in for.

“Tom Arnold was convinced they would go to a hotel at the weekend,” he says with a laugh. “Then there are people who think that when we stopped filming in the evening that the pizzas, burgers and snacks would come in.”

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However, inaugural king of the jungle Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff understood how to play the game. “He was crafty,” Brown tells The Binge Guide.

“He’d seen the UK series so many times and knew that if he listed something he was afraid of, we’d probably give it to him [in a challenge]. So, he told us he was afraid of frogs and fluffy pillows.

“While we didn’t give him a pillow, he kept getting trials that involved frogs. Only he wasn’t scared of them at all. He loved frogs, and he only told us after the series.”

Yes, it’s a show that involves torturing celebrities with terrible food and terrifying challenges but, schadenfreude aside, the co-hosts agree that at its core, the series is about building people up, not tearing them down.

“I think more than any other reality show, it shows the real person,” Brown says. “It really gives people the capacity and an outlet to show what they’re made of.”

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! premieres 7.30pm Monday on Network 10.