By TANIA PHILLIPS
I’m a Celebrity Get Me Outta Here,
Channel 10, 7.30pm weeknights
ARE we ready to see a new group of celebrities (and I use the word loosely) dive headlong into a vat of elephant poo?
Maybe, maybe not. But if you watch Channel 10 with any regularity then you have very little chance of not seeing them (even before they went into the jungle when the show was promoted endlessly during the viewer magnet that is Big Bash Cricket).
By the end of the cricket it was more like “I’m a Celebrity, Just Get On With It.”
This year’s celebrities are a mixed bag – a mixed bag of people who are or have been household names and people we’ve hardly heard of.
The 12 celebrities “competing” for the coveted title of King or Queen of The Jungle and a fair whack of money for their chosen charity are Havana Brown, Anthony Callea, Brendan Fevola, Laurina Fleure, Dean Geyer, Courtney Hancock, Paul Harragon, Bonnie Lythgoe, Val Lehman, Akmal Saleh, Jo Beth Taylor and Shane Warne.
The success of the first season for Channel 10 came from the eclectic list of strong-willed and charismatic characters in the jungle. Everyone wanted to see “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” tough it out – completely out of her element – with Big Merv, Chrissie Swan, Andrew Daddo and of course eventual winner Freddie Flintoff.
Can lightning strike twice?
It’s all down to casting – already two are standing out in the form of former Prisoner actress Val Lehaman who seems to have taken “scared of his own shadow” singer Anthony Callea under her wing and the very funny Akmal Saleh. But there is no Maureen McCormack this season. No-one who’s idea of roughing it is wearing flats instead of heels.
Well, I suppose there is Shane Warne. Warney was the big “shock”, the last one into the jungle. But how much of a surprise was he? We knew we were getting an international cricketer, a big name. And his name was mentioned a number of times during the Big Bash – did the commentators know? Or was it just a lucky guess?
In any case the reveal of Warne was a ho-hum moment and it remains to be seen if Warney has the charisma, personality or star power to carry a show that relies on making its “celebrities” eat and do things you wouldn’t make your worst enemy do.
– Tania Phillips
