★★★★★ 0/5

Renewed: I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here

Even before TEN had confirmed she was heading back to Africa, Julia Morris had her bags packed.

25
Leave a comment

2015-02-18_0149

TEN has renewed I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! for a second season.

Hosts Julia Morris and Dr. Chris Brown are headed back to Africa for more shenanigans with more willing participants.

Morris recently told TV Tonight she was getting ready even before getting the call from TEN.

“I’ve even started packing, which (husband) Dan thinks is a bit inappropriate in front of the family. Just putting some things aside!” she said.

“It was an experience that took us all quite by surprise and by storm.”

The ITV helped kick off a stronger 2015 for the network and attracted some of their best buzz in years. But Celebrity is also an expensive production with hundreds of personnel in Africa, for the network that has been restructuring around its costs.

“It’s a very expensive show,” Morris agrees. “I said ‘Move it to Gosford, darl!’”

“But I don’t think anyone’s scared of a huntsman. So I think that’s why it’s offshore.”

Celebrity was a winner for brand Morris who surprised everyone by appearing on two networks. She has just finished completing House Husbands fourth season for Nine.

“It was awesome and I loved that everybody was so cool about it,” she says.

“I didn’t leave one network to go to another, so I assume that made a big difference. Michael Healy was incredibly generous in not even feeling tricky about it. I think everybody is embracing a new style of the market. Television is taking many different directions at once.

“Some of the directions we are harnessing and others are writing their own rules.

“It seems to me the years of a network contract are coming to an end and the years of being contracted show by show are rising. I’m the primary earner in my home.

“So I need to work for the other half of the year.”

Meanwhile, House Husbands returns to Nine soon and Morris is about to embark on a solo comedy tour around the country.

25 Responses

  5. I love this show found it very entertaining something different on our screens. Julia and Chris work really well together I take it she won’t be hosting AGT anymore?

  7. Great news.
    Enjoyed Season 1 but agree with comments here about trimming it back and giving the contestants more to do in between food challenges.
    Will be interesting to see what “celebrities” they persuade to sign up this time around.
    Wonder if there’s any truth to the rumour that Deanne from the Block will be one of them??
    She would certainly cause some tension amongst the group.

  9. I hope they learnt some lessons from this years experiment. Dragging out minimal content of people doing nothing to form overly long episodes in a weak attempt to compete with shows far more popular than yours is hardly a winning strategy. This would make a fantastic short, sharp 30 minute show at 7pm, with far less competition.

    1. That doesn’t sound like the smartest way to amortise an incredibly expensive show…

      They might have gone a bit overkill with volume, but the ratings held up considering.

  10. I’m glad they’ve given this show a second season. However, if they broadcast during DLST months I hope they use the resources of all channels at their disposal. I’d hate to see a 40-year-old episode of a show that’s not recent, just so they can broadcast during a certain time (7.30pm), and call it “Live”. It is possible to do “Live across the country”.

    You could even have the episode repeated an hour later on the main channel if you wished. Wouldn’t that help coding?

  11. Now that it’s got a season under its belt and performed fairly well, it might attract a better level of “Celebrity” for the next round as well.

  12. “But I don’t think anyone’s scared of a huntsman. So I think that’s why it’s offshore.”
    That is an excellent point she makes. They have to be out of their comfort zone for the show to work, both for contestants and viewers.

    1. I think the isolation of being away from loved ones when you’re 18+ plus hours away also comes into play.

      Your family can’t just jump on a 90 minute Jetstar flight to the Gold Coast when you’re on the verge of a breakdown…

  13. You could cut costs simply by moving from Africa to Vietnam/ Thai jungles! We really loved the show this year. The multiple nights were a little stretched and agree with you OZtvHeritage, the finale needs a big build up and celebration. Love them both as hosts so glad that Julia’s confirmed already. Wish list: Denise Drysdale, Tommy Little, KAK and I’ll get back to ya with the rest.

  14. Good news. I really enjoyed the first season but agree that some changes to the format are needed .

    It’s a nice change to the woeful My Kitchen Rules and The Block that was up against it earlier this year.

    Should be interesting to see which ‘celebrities’ they convince to join – a lot of ex reality tv contestants no doubt.

  16. A no brainer really – makes much more sense to try and grow this from a moderate hit into something more than to launch yet another new franchise or take back a show that’s been axed twice.

  17. I’ve said it before – the format wasn’t compelling enough to sustain 5 nights a week and I gave up after a week. I would like to see more camp dynamics Big Brother style, or cut the format to 1-2 nights a week if they just want it to be about challenges. And surely they would have to cut production costs given the ratings were underwhelming.

    1. Underwhelming? They were quite good as it really put a dent into MKR and The Block and lifted Ten’s primetime share same time last year quite dramatically

      2. Ten’s decision to simulcast and beef up the numbers for advertisers confirms that they had higher ratings expectations from it. I concur with David on the simulcast issue.

        1. Maybe, but that sounds like a comment from someone at another network that’s worried that continuously producing copy cat formats expose expertise at their own network..

Leave a Reply