So it’s here, 2023 brings us another series of I’m a celebrity.
The lineup:
Nick Pickard - Hollyoaks Icon
Jamie Lynn Spears -Actress & Singer
Sam Thompson - TV personality and Radio DJ
Josie Gibson - This Morning host
Fred Sirieix - TV presenter
Nella Rose - YouTuber
Nigel Farage - GB News host and ex politician -
Grace Dent - Food Critic
Marvin Humes - Pop star and TV presenter
EastEnders star - Danielle Harold
Curious how long Farage will last, will it be a repeat of last year with Hancock, being voted continually, or do you have someone else in the list worthy of the torture?
The app doesn’t work. You can’t watch anything at all on Apple TV if you have paired HomePods. Been like this for most of the month now. Cancelled my subscription because of it.
Been working fine here on Samsung tv app and Google tv app.
I know I get an issue with adverts displaying black but a tap of the > button brings it back on screen. Usually have to do it twice for it to stay, but programs itself work fine.
Coming back to this again, putting the two potential extras for a moment (because we know the real shake ups get left for that pair), I’m not sure Farage will be a direct repeat of Hancock.
Hancock was universally hated because of COVID. Farage isn’t on that same level, I don’t think. There are going to be plenty of folks who don’t like him, but I suspect those would be more likely to boycott the show over his inclusion than vote to give him what for.
He’s also more charismatic than Hancock so he’d probably win the public over faster. Take the politics away and he seems to come across as a pretty decent person from bits I’ve seen on talk shows over the years. He comes off well in casual settings.
I reckon the British public are gonna wanna pick on Spears. Because that’s more what we’re like. I think she’ll probably be more entertaining in the trials too.
I think you’re right, and as I’ve already mentioned in the general TV topic (I think), that is exactly what I’ll be doing. I think what will also drive the boycotting rather than the hate-watching is how disappointing the hate-watching turned out to be last year, because Hancock wasn’t phased by anything and ultimately it was the viewer who was being punished by his being kept him.
Also likely to add to the disappointment of hate-watching this year would be the number of times Ant and Dec say “Nigel is exempt from this challenge for health reasons” (lasting effects of his plane crash).
He said himself at the start of the show ‘a hero to some, hated by millions.’. It’s black or white with these people. Frankly, I don’t care if he seems like a decent guy - he’s not. He’s a hateful, divisive toff.
With the benefit of hindsight, the boycott approach is exactly the way to go.
All the reaction to Hancock did for ITV was demonstrate the effectiveness of having someone like that in there and hence Farage this year.
If folks had boycotted as a means to punish him through shunning, rather than keep voting it probably would have been very different.
If no one votes he never does any trials, and he’s the first to leave. And that sends ITV a totally different message that viewers aren’t here for that.
Hancock went in for PR, to try and show a different side to him, which I think he actually did, still a scumbag but it worked for some. He took the criticism aimed at him from the other camp mates, especially Charlene.
Farage is going to play up to his persona, he wants the attention. He’ll happily argue, he won’t admit he’s wrong and he’s going to purposely be stand out, the same way he’s been his whole political career.
I never made that connection with Hancock personally, and don’t understand how people did. I remained indifferent towards him throughout. My opinions and pre conceived conceptions I had about him were unchanged by the end.
He took criticism in so much that he was people pleasing. There was a moment when he cried, yet I wasn’t able to make that empathetic connection I usually can when people seem genuinely upset.
He played the game like your typical slimy politician and he seemed to revel in the very same thing you say Farage has gone in there for, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s why he’s doing it.
Those ‘some’ it worked for were more his camp mates than the viewing public, I think. People like Seann Walsh getting surprisingly chummy with him. The viewing public were less fooled, wanted to see him suffer, and very disappointed when he appeared to enjoy the trials. So they gave up on him at that point, I think. And haven’t forgotten, which is why the Farage boycott has been surprisingly effective - I didn’t expect the drop in figures to be that bad.
I know Hancock also pissed off a number of people because in interviews pre-show, he was all like “I’m going in to raise awareness of dyslexia!”, and then made next to no mention of it in the show at all. That was another aspect of his participation that rang false to viewers.
You could throw my mom into that group. Despised him going in, was rooting for him to win by the end. I think the fact he was elected camp leader later into the show, and chosen less and less for the trials demonstrates it was working on a good chunk of the public too.
I don’t know about the dyslexia thing. The producers on I’m a celeb are notorious for planting seeds of talking points to influence the conversations and cutting things out that aren’t juicy enough for viewers. So it’s possible he talked about it more and we just never saw it. I think Boy George from last year called them out on this stuff.
Add almost everyone I know who watched it too. Even the most hardcore left voters at the very least said he “wasn’t as bad” as they thought.
I’m not sure on any metrics but from my limited understanding Hancock came out well from the viewing public. If you can’t see that then maybe it’s your politics in the way of the actual reality.
(You as in “one”)
That being said it can highly depend on who else is there. Find someone super annoying and suddenly everyone else seems better. This young YouTuber, Nella, is absolutely blowing my brains out in annoyance to the point of wanting to shout at the TV so suddenly Farage fades into the background and almost becomes quite peaceful to watch and listen to.
