The 2023 edition of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here left an unpleasant taste in the mouth – and not only for the stars who’d signed up to eat kangaroo testicles on national television. ITV’s biggest hire last year was Reform politician Nigel Farage, and watching the former Ukip leader attempt to burnish his “man of the people” credentials on prime time made for stomach-churning viewing; somehow, it felt even more dystopian than Matt Hancock’s haunting stint the previous year.
This season, though, it seems like the broadcaster is trying a different tack. There are no glaringly obvious provocateurs – and the class of 2024 feels more evenly matched in terms of star power compared to recent cohorts, when it seemed all too obvious that the producers had blown the budget on one top-tier recruit and had to cobble the rest together with leftover cash.
