‘Freddie’ Flintoff crowned King of TEN’s Jungle
Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff defeats Barry Hall for the inaugural title of TEN's reality series.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVoGpPI8djQ&feature=youtu.be
Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff’ has won the inaugural title of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!
The UK cricketer defeated AFL champ Barry Hall and media personality Chrissie Swan, who took second and third place, respectively.
Flintoff, who entered the series as an intruder in the third week, secured $100,000 for his chosen charity, The McGrath Foundation. His lively personality and cheeky banter made him a favourite amongst the resident cast members.
Amongst the challenges he faced were dangling high above a dam wall, hanging from a helicopter, slimed in elephant dung and eating a rat’s tail, scorpion and hissing cockroach. There was also the curious ‘bromance’ that emerged with co-host Dr. Chris Brown.
“You’re just like me but better,” he told the doctor.
Last night Chrissie Swan was the first of three finalists to be eliminated, ending any suggestion that a social media controversy back home would lead to enough sympathy votes to win the series. Ex-AFL star Barry Hall, competing for The Shane Warne Foundation, had to settle for second place.
TEN’s series, designed to spearhead its 2015 ratings season, attracted excellent pre-publicity ahead of the launch. There’s little doubt it lifted the network’s Year on Year performance, however regular simulcasting on two, or even three, channels makes it impossible to ascertain direct comparisons. It also scored well on social media.
But it was not without some behind the scenes drama with renowned producer Peter Abbott being mysteriously asked to return to Australia, in what is rumoured to have seen “too many cooks” overseeing production.
But the series has arguably been a winner for those who participated, elevating the star of lesser-known personalities including Tyson Mayr, Joel Creasy and Anna Heinrich while former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick has won a new legion of fans and has paved the way for further opportunities in Australia.
Hosts Julia Moris and Dr. Chris Brown were also widely-praised for their on-screen chemistry and for bringing a little comedy to early evening timeslots.
TEN is yet to confirm if the show will be renewed for a second season.
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- Tagged with I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, The Brady Bunch
26 Responses
Really enjoyed this series and well done to Chris and Julia who were an absolute scream! Loved watching them. Easily could have watched them and Chrissie, Joel and Maureen for 6 weeks!
Completely enjoyed the show. Didn’t think I would, but got hooked.
Agree with the sentiments re: losing the exec prod & the strange way the show finished.
Hope they get it right again for Season 2.
I enjoyed the series but think Ten will probably not do a 2nd series.
When a finale just scrapes over 1m with little or no competition they’d seriously be looking at the cost vs benefit analysis.
I’d like to see a second series – so much better than the Woolies and Mitre 10 ads on the other stations.
typical not even a australian celebrity won , what a waste of a show, really hope it doesn’t get renewed
That’s quite a selfish attitude.
Given that the money went to an Australian charity it’s sort of irrelevant that an Englishman won it. It was a very poor finale however. Embarrassingly so.
Congratulations to Freddie. Nice to see the English winning something. And well done to Barry and Chrissie for getting to the finale. I really hope there is a season 2 of IACGMOOH. It is a fantastic show.
I agree with a number of the comments already posted, a really terrible final. Boring and slow. The production company should be sacked, they have done a substandard job on the entire series. Last night it was really obvious that there was no experienced producer overseeing it all. Why would you sack your most experienced person with only one week to go. Bizarre. I feel sorry for TEN, they were delivered a very badly produced program that actually had a lot of potential. TEN should renew it but get another production company with the production expertise to produce it properly for them.
Good on you Freddy !
So glad to see the best contestant ended up winning.Freddie has been wonderful and thoroughly deserved the crown – such a lovely, humble man and very funny.
Bazza has been a real champ as well and also deserved to be there in the final two.
Seems like a really decent, honest and modest man who has given it his everything.
He appeared quite troubled at times in the beginning but really think the experience has calmed him down and been really beneficial for him.
Have really enjoyed watching but agree with others here that the ending was very abrupt and a real fizzer.
Yes, some of the singers from the beautiful African choir could definitely have been used to accompany Freddie out.
Pity we don’t have many great sit-com writers here. I could imagine a traditional sit-com featuring Julia, Dr Chris, Freddie, Maureen and even Joel.
What an anti-climax that ending was, the rst of the night was alright though. I’d sit through a second series but with better editing.
If Maureen doesn’t get her own show out of this I’ll be bitterly disappointed, for me she made the show entertaining.
I loved the finale and loved Freddie. Great to finally have a really good belly laugh while watching a reality show. Julia and Dr Chris were great too. Really hope they have a second one
This show was an embarrassment. More of the same re-hashed garbage from Ten. It is a sad day for a network when an average of 500-600,000 is considered a successful show and worth renewing. Good Riddance- Thank God that assault on my viewing senses is over and hopefully never to be repeated.
So why read an article about it if you really disliked the show. I know quite a few people who enjoyed it, better than that mitre 10 and coles commercial on 9 and 7. I hope for your sake it’s renewed next year…LOL
An assault on your viewing senses ? So you watched it then ?
So pleased freddie won. Please channel 10, confirm another series…maybe Jan or Peter Brady next time!….or bring back Marcia for a second go, she was great…worth every cent you paid for her. I thought Julia and Chris were the highlights of the show..so funny. Just a nice easy show to watch, perfect viewing after a hard days work. Thanks channel 10 .
Bit of a long drawn out ending with an anti climax ending……..basic TV done badly. Start of the show and the first few weeks excellent seemed to fall into a hole over the last couple of weeks…….maybe co-inciding with the departure of the producer…but the producer is only part of the crew….where was the director?
Highlight for me was Leo coming in and saying hi to his mum. Touching.
It’s hard to make something dramatic when its live. No luxury of post production.
Well, viewers saw the result of Peter Abbott’s early departure – very very poor ending!! What on earth were the people in charge doing over the last week? Those in charge should never be allowed to manage such an important production ever again. The ending was a complete fizzle. Do South African’s celebrate the crowing of a new King like that?!!! The production management could have got a couple of those great lady singers in the background to manage the ending and we would have been in for a real treat. What took place was a disgrace, but more importantly, it let down all the good work that had been put into the production to make it such a good show up until the last hour. What a big pity. Executives at the top who allowed Peter Abbott to depart so early should be sacked.
I’m a liitle sad the show has ended as our family really enjoyed it. Congrats to Freddie I was hoping he’d win! Hopefully there will be another season.
Good on Freddy, he was entertaining and funny. I would have been happy to see just about any of the celebs win, they all seemed thoroughly nice people.
agreed, i was surprised he won, i thought it would be between Maureen, Chrissie or Joel & was a little dissapointed it wasn’t one of them. But after getting to know all of the people, i ended up liking most of them enough i thought they all deserved to win. And Freddie did very well at the challenges & didn’t say no to anything, so on that basis alone he deserved to win. Well done to the production team for a highly enjoyable show.
An English cricketer winning something in Australia. They did check the results right?
I enjoyed the show but that was one of the most drawn out finales with the most underwhelming ending. It deserved a better finish than that.
That clips plays bad. No music. No drama. No tension. No climax. And when they announce “Freddie” just the sound of a few crew clapping.
Where is the production values? The music. The tension. The explosion of toto or the theme song when they announce the winner – a big winner graphic on screen . Split screen shots back to the celebs family or home town.
Basic stuff. This feels like bad awkward TV