★★★★★ 0/5

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia, I’m a Celebrity.

Where else but on I'm a Celebrity would you see Marcia Brady snuggling up to Merv Hughes?

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iac1Where else but on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! would you see Marcia Brady snuggling up to Merv Hughes?

An odder pairing on television we are unlikely to see this year.

Welcome to the jungle. TEN finally revealed its inaugural celebrities last night:
Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick,
Test cricketer Merv Hughes,
Olympian Leisel Jones,
AFL champ Barry Hall,
Comedian Joel Creasey,
Gold Logie nominee Chrissie Swan,
Ex Hi-5 performer Lauren Brant,
Media personality Andrew Daddo,
Former Miss Australia and TV presenter Laura Dundovic,
Model-blogger Tyson Mayr.

It was a mix of owls and pussycats amongst bigger cats off-screen, vanity, the grotesque and car-crash telly.

Many of the celeb tips were on the money -I’m not sure anybody predicted a Daddo but TEN gave us a bum steer us by referring to him as “television royalty.” Please explain?

The Live episode comprised largely of Live links by charismatic hosts Julia Morris and Chris Brown introducing packages. I thought the chopper arrival of the stars was suitably grand, but it whipped through the reveal far too quickly. Watching some of the reactions, was worth more storytelling airtime -first impressions tell us so much. Chrissie Swan’s OMG reaction to Maureen McCormick was priceless.

The show’s format has always included C-List stars and the cast has more than its share. Tyson who…?

More stars will guest star across the season.

Given there was much set-up I won’t begrudge the limited scenes of character interaction at base camp. We will need to see more group dynamic at play, Big Brother style, which I’m sure is coming.

Watching Maureen McCormick having her meltdown in rain-soaked conditions delivered on the first night.

Chrissie Swan was also a champion to endure 10,000 ants, 4,000 earthworms, 3,500 cockroaches, 7000 maggots and 4000 mealworms all for a few bags of rice. It was squeamish stuff. Looking forward to them facing off against big wild animals. Joel is up next for creepy, crawly time but that Live announcement by Morris and Brown lacked drama. Next time just send in the that African crew member who accidentally wandered on set with the result, please.

The viewer voting for the next challenge was also just 40 minutes long (apologies to those outside AEDT?) but is much longer for the next vote. I can’t remember what it’s actually for.

As a first episode it was a little rough technically (those 3 people laughing at the host gags sound like they need some mates), and I admit to wanting more star power. But this is a change from the usual TV fare, and we rarely get Reality with a comedic touch. If some real relationships emerge between the cast Celebrity will be worth more attention. Please keep episodes short and sharp to leave us wanting more.

42 Responses

  1. While some have said they thought they the introduction of the celebs would be built up more, I liked how they went straight into it for a change as the build up was in the promotion of the show over the last couple of months.

    Good on Ten for giving us something a bit different. Agree Chrissy’s reaction to Maureen was great. I think Julia and Dr Chris have great chemistry and add to the whole viewing experience and think it is great hearing the crew enjoying the jokes.

    I thought the pace was ok but don’t have the UK version to compare to, perhaps from tonights ep will be a bit quicker as they have now established the premise and introductions.

    If it goes into a second season would like to see the money for the winners charity raised a bit.

  2. I loved the show overall. Great mix of celebs and unknowns. Chrissie carries the show so well, and Joel is a great find.

    The crew laughing actually adds to the show. The bits with Julia and Dr Chris were quite funny, so it worked well having that. I hope they keep it.

  3. I’m watching this on tenplay now. The hosts are good and I like the camera crew laughing, it adds to the live feel of the show and gives it more energy. Agree with others though that its slow paced. One hour in and they still haven’t gotten to the camp yet

  4. So BB is back on 10 – Wow. This is exactly how I expected a predominately Gen X BB to play out. The cast is fine but would love to see Julia in the jungle!! I agree that this may be better suited to a 30 min format nightly, just not sure where you can put it – 6.30 after FF and then The Project at 7.00 perhaps??

  5. I tuned in thinking the two hosts would be horrible – but they weren’t and I gladly watched the rest of the program. Somehow they just gel. But the show was perfect from start to finish, they couldn’t have done a better job if they tried. Good on TEN for giving us something fresh. Will tune in for the rest of the season. 🙂

  6. I’m a huge fan of the UK version. Last night went too slow. They should have had a trial and base camp chats much sooner. They could have showed us around camp towards the end. It was unfortunate that the 40 min voting was over before it went to air in WA and the constant mentions of Live was not factually correct as was delayed in some stAres. I could hear the producer count down “2” every time a live link started and a couple of freeze frames showed how unslick it was. They also mentioned how to vote for the next tucker trial at least 5 times before they even explained what a tucker trial was. The UK version also has 3 people laughing as it’s just the camera crew . Julia Morris was hilarious but Bondi Vet added nothing. 6 weeks is also twice as long as UK version. I predict chrissie swan will be a size 6 if she lasts 6 weeks on rice and beans

  7. Great work in casting. Perfect mix of known names with wannabes. The obligatory celeb who’s said yes without actually checking out the program first and is now in crisis (Maureen).

    I like that they’re copying the successful UK model exactly, down to the intro and the crew laughing at the lame gags. Except they didn’t split the celebs into 2 camps to start with, which is good.

  8. I like the fact that I’m a celebrity is only going to air for 6 weeks but I think 1 hr a night is plenty. I think the celebs are ok. I like the fact that there are a few tv unknowns. Do we really need to see the same people on tv all the time? Maureen was a good choice. Good on ten for trying something different. I’m tired of reality and don’t want to watch much of it these days but due to the length of this series and a good opening episode I will dip in and out of this one.

  10. I thought it was ok. Like BB they spend most of their time sitting aroaund doing nothing which is hard to make interesting television out of.
    I hadn’t heard of Tyson, Lauren or Laura before but Merv and Chrissie are household names and great ‘gets’.
    This would make a great punchy 30 min show at 7pm but I assume 10 will drag it out against mkr and cannibalise the ratings in the process like they always do.

  11. When your biggest draw card is one of the nine actors from a 40 year old sitcom, you know you’re not really dealing with celebrities. Surely, Ten could have tried harder to get more recognisable faces. A couple more international stars and one or two more high profile locals.
    Half of them was less a who’s who, than “Who? Who?”
    I thought it was little strange that The Project brought in Joel Creasey the last few weeks out of nowhere to start doing pieces. Obviously they needed to up his profile before he went on.
    Also, $100,000 prize money for a charity seems like chump change.

  12. The hosts were excellent. Really good chemistry between Julia and the vet. I missed the start, so will have to find a re-run to see Chrissies reaction to Marcia. But these reality shows blanketing the schedule for 90 mins, six nights a week, is really not for me. Wish they had more succint episodes.

  14. I thought it was ok. Like BB they spend most of their time sitting around doing nothing which is hard to make interesting television out of.
    I hadn’t heard of Tyson, Lauren or Laura before but Merv and Chrissie are household names and great ‘gets’.
    This would make a great punchy 30 min show at 7pm but I assume 10 will drag it out against mkr and cannibalise the ratings in the process like they always do.

  15. I watched it and agree with almost everything you’ve written David.

    I thought they would stretch the introduction of the ‘celebs’ for about 45 minutes – but it was all over with in about 5 minutes.

    The reaction by Chrissy to Maureen was priceless.

    Maureen comes across super nice but also likely to be the first to go.

    Agree with you re the ‘laughter’ by the crew. I thought is there a studio audience or something until I realised it was just 2 or 3 people giggling.

    The production values weren’t as flashy as I was expecting but that I think plays in the shows favour.

    The standout for me is Joel. He is super cute and super bitchy – but in a nice way.

    Agree that Andrew Daddo is indeed not TV royalty but of the ten ‘celebs’ I think at least 5 of them are well known to audiences.

    Daddo, Swann, Hall, Hughes, McCormack are well known.

    It did well up…

  17. I am a huge fan of the UK version of the show but this seemed to go at a snail’s pace. The casting is good even though they are not a-graders. Will see how it progresses but its not the first thing i’ll be watching every night as i’ll be watching MKR.

  19. I didn’t mind the show, probably going to watch it over The Block and MKR.

    Also I agree about the live voting. It is a nice eliment to the show but with half of the country watching the show on tape delay, it just didn’t work.

  21. It’s certainly not the “Who’s Who” of celebrity, more like the “Who the hell are you” of nobodies. I only know half of them, and have no interest in them. The other half I’ve never heard of and have no interest in getting to know them.
    Is it too late to rename it to “I Want to be a Celebrity, Get me in Here?”
    I think the only ratings it will get is from the family audience, where the parents have it on because the kids want to see it, not caring if the contestants are famous or not. Lastly, I feel sorry for everyone having too look at Merv’s hairy shoulders, and Maureen for not knowing anyone.

  22. The length is going to be the thing that decides whether I’ll make this a now-and-again show or watch it all. I’m an MKR fan, and I feel I can only do so much reality TV. I liked it as a change from what we see, and also for its Big Brother-esque potential (Channel 10 did well with that show, so why not?), but I can’t justify giving up an hour or more each day on it.

  23. Definitely enjoyed it – I assumed I’d watch the first ep just to see the car crash then never again, but i’ll definitely be recording it (I watch MKR live). Joel Creasy is absolutely hilarious!!

  24. With the exception of Joel, Laura, Lauren and Tyson I knew who they all were straight away. But I have heard of Laura.

    I hope for the casts sake, this Joel person is a funny comedian, not like Josh Thomas who is about as funny as a tree.

  25. I thought that this was good. The inter action between the hosts was spot on. The C list celebs is what this show is all about and eye candy was duly delivered. I found several laugh out loud moments and the couple of technical glitches made it feel genuinely real as opposed to over produced. We have become too comfortable with over production and fake tension. This was better than that, but will take a little time for audiences to adjust……a good solid start……but will it rate?

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