Construction work has begun on the Australian jungle set for ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! three weeks before its November 16 return.
Aerial photographs of the sprawling rainforest site show workers assembling towering steel structures, elevated platforms, and walkways ahead of the reality competition's 26th series. Familiar camp structures and waterways are also visible among the dense trees as crews prepare the location for a new cast of famous campmates.
Long-serving presenters Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, known to viewers as Ant and Dec, will return to host the three-week run. The broadcaster aired its first television teaser for the upcoming series last week, prompting speculation among viewers over which celebrities will fly Down Under to take part.
McPartlin and Donnelly have fronted the programme together since its inaugural series in 2002, apart from the 2018 run when Holly Willoughby temporarily stood in alongside Donnelly. The Newcastle-born duo first rose to fame as child actors on the British children's drama series Byker Grove before becoming two of ITV's main prime-time presenters on shows including Britain's Got Talent and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.
Australian jungle set construction and trial pools
Photographs taken from above the Australian rainforest show large metal frameworks going up across the site as the annual transformation takes shape. Alongside the elevated walkways and steel rigging, workers have begun filling the set's pool in preparation for water-based Bushtucker Trials.
The vast complex also includes a main building where much of the production crew will be based throughout the three-week series. First launched by London Weekend Television on the ITV network in August 2002, the survival format places celebrities in basic outdoor quarters where they must complete physical and mental challenges to earn food rations before public votes crown a winner.
Apart from two series filmed at Gwrych Castle in North Wales during coronavirus travel restrictions in 2020 and 2021, the British programme has been staged in the Australian rainforest near Murwillumbah in New South Wales throughout its history.
ITV viewing figures and broadcast platforms
The upcoming 26th run follows a high-rating series for the commercial broadcaster last year. That series launched with an audience of 11.3 million viewers for its opening episode.
Across all television and streaming platforms, last year's competition reached 23.4 million people, which represents 38 per cent of the television population.
When the programme returns on November 16, episodes will air across the United Kingdom on ITV and its on-demand streaming service ITVX. Viewers in central and northern Scotland will also be able to watch the series on STV and the STV Player platform.
PETA Halloween costumes targeting Ant and Dec
Preparations for the new series come after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the international animal rights organisation known as PETA, criticised McPartlin and Donnelly over what it called the programme's "relentless reign of animal exploitation". The campaign group has called on both presenters to step down from the show.
Timed for the Halloween season, PETA has created new Ant and Dec costumes that depict the presenting duo as perpetrators at a grisly crime scene. The group said the outfits call out a "tacky and cruel spectacle" and highlight what it describes as long-running cruelty toward frogs, crocodiles, spiders, rats, insects, and other animals killed, eaten, and subjected to stressful stunts for eating trials.
Retailing at £95, the costume is available to order on the PETA website, with all proceeds benefiting the organisation's work to end animal exploitation. Founded in 1980, the nonprofit group regularly uses public campaigns and satirical merchandise to protest against the use of live animals in entertainment, clothing, and research.
Elisa Allen, Vice President of Programmes at PETA, said the campaign aimed to put pressure on both the hosts and the broadcaster over the programme's format.
"Unlike the celebrities who volunteer to enter the jungle, animals never sign up to be confined, terrified, or killed for a cheap laugh," Allen said. "PETA's Halloween costumes put Ant and Dec's complicity in the spotlight and call on ITV to cut cruelty from the script and get the animals out of there."
Bushtucker trial complaints and 2009 prosecution
The show's Bushtucker Trials, which see celebrities locked in enclosed spaces with live animals and forced to eat creatures such as spiders, mealworms, and cockroaches, have sparked fierce controversy over the years. PETA has long campaigned against the programme, stating that "animal abuse is not entertainment".
According to PETA, a history of real-life horrors sits behind the Halloween spoof. The group noted that the ITV show has confined frogs and other animals in inescapable chambers with screaming, flailing contestants during trials, and served animals' genitals, organs, and other body parts as food.
The programme's treatment of animals has prompted thousands of complaints to Ofcom, the United Kingdom's government-approved broadcasting and telecommunications regulator. Ofcom oversees television standards in Britain and investigates audience complaints regarding harm, offence, and animal welfare in broadcasting.
The production has also faced legal action in Australia over incidents on set. In 2009, ITV faced prosecution in Australia after contestant Gino D'Acampo, the Italian-born television chef who went on to win that year's series, killed a rat and cooked the animal for a meal during filming.
The following year, the programme pleaded guilty to two charges of cruelty to animals and paid a fine. Despite the renewed protests from animal rights campaigners, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! will return for its new series on November 16.
