I’m A Celebrity … don’t put me in there!
Stars are getting cold feet over ITV’s creepy-crawly challenge now it no longer bags them a trip Down Under.
Show bookers are struggling to find talent who want to spend three weeks in the wet and windy Welsh countryside rather than the sunny outback of Queensland.
One celebrity agent tells Talk TV: “Moving the show is a huge mistake – and they’ll need to put up more pounds to secure decent names in the future.
“The show doesn’t have the same appeal; they’d be better off scrapping it this year and returning once they’re able to film again in Australia.”
Time is running out – the programme gets under way in November. Celebs rumoured to be taking part this year include soap favourites Beverley Callard, 63, and Tamzin Outhwaite, 49, former Strictly Come Dancing pro AJ Pritchard, 25, presenter Vernon Kay, 46, and ex-footballer Paul Merson, 52.
This week, explorer Bear Grylls, 46, warned Wales in winter will be “brutal”.
In previous years, the show’s campmates have been put up in swanky digs at the spectacular Palazzo Versace hotel on the Gold Coast.
They and their families get to enjoy the subtropical climate in the resort’s opulent surroundings and posh accommodation, all paid for by ITV.
Sampling the glamorous Versace lifestyle in suites costing hundreds of pounds helps make up for time spent feasting on bugs in the jungle camp.
But this year’s show is set to be filmed at 200-year-old Gwrych Castle, set in 300 acres near Abergele, on the north coast of Wales – with the crew put up in a nearby caravan park.
A source said they have been looking at hotels that may entice celeb guests into signing up. They include Bodysgallen Hall, a four-star spa resort near Llandudno that has a “country house experience” for £125 for dinner and B&B.
But my source says ITV is also looking at Tre-Ysgawen Hall, another four-star retreat with a thermal suite that boasts “the most comprehensive spa experience in Wales”.
Not too shabby… but still not quite the sun-kissed Gold Coast.
