I’ve watched every series of I’m A Celeb and it’s already obvious who’ll win this year
I’m old enough to remember I’m A Celeb’s first series, back when Ant and Dec looked like children and millions watched Tara Palmer Tomkinson trying to bed Darren Day, and Uri Geller asking about Tony Blackburn’s erection. Yes, it really was a very different time back then. That was in 2002 - plenty of the show’s current viewers weren’t even born.
Those early series with their incredibly easy trials - ooh, get covered in slime, touch a snake - were not easy to predict. Who would have foreseen Margaret Thatcher’s daughter Carol beating some of the biggest soap stars of the day to Queen of the Jungle? But having seen 23 series - plus that ‘all-star’ special which we shall not speak of - winners are a little easier to predict.
This series could be the best line-up since the 2003 zenith of Katona, Price, Andre, Rotten and the charming 2018 cast of Redknapp, Atack, Knowles and East. There’s mega-WAG Coleen Rooney, Love Island firecracker Maura Higgins, Tyrone from Corrie and Tulisa, who I suspect will win many hearts. But despite their obvious star power, I can’t see any of that lot winning.
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I’m A Celeb viewers - particularly the ones who deliver triumphs by voting - have a notable weak spot for what you might call ‘nice young lads’, with previous winners including Sam Thompson, Danny Miller and Joe Swash. And more than that, they are particularly devoted to ‘nice young lads in boybands’, crowning Matt Willis, Dougie Poynter and Kian Egan.
For me, that puts Danny Jones in absolute prime position to win. But that’s not the only reason he’s at the front of the queue. The McFly star knows more than most of this year’s bunch about how TV is made. He’s a coach on The Voice UK and starred on The Masked Singer (which, incidentally, he won).
The 38-year-old star also has a team of reality TV experts to hand. His bandmate Dougie knows I’m A Celeb inside out having won it (in fact he let slip one of the tips in the opening moments of the show), and his other bandmates Tom Fletcher and Harry Judd were on Strictly - the latter of whom won.
Even Danny's video announcing he was doing the show, where he performed all the cheesy poses that appear in its opening credits, was endearing. "Campmates! Campmates!"
Sure, Coleen has star power and the mega pay packet to match, but so did Noel Edmonds and he barely had time to unpack before viewers booted him out. If there is a threat to Danny’s path to king of the jungle it’s likely to be from a lesser-known star.
Viewers have a habit of keeping people from the ‘never heard of them but I like them’ bracket on the show for longer stints than you’d imagine. Jill Scott and Jordan North both emerged from the jungle vastly more famous than when they went in. There are a couple of these this year.
On Friday the top search phrase for Dean McCullough was ‘Who is Dean McCullough?’ and we are about to find out. Maura, as anyone who saw her on Love Island knows, is likely to be so entertaining that viewers won’t vote her out.
I'm writing this three weeks before the final so of course there is all to play for and on I'm A Celeb anything can derail a star's path to victory. But for me, this is Danny’s competition to lose.
