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I wasn’t sure I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! had much of a future – and then came Coleen Rooney.
It’s been 22 years since Ant and Dec first dragged eight celebrities to the Australian rainforest, force-fed them bugs and crowned Tony Blackburn the first ever King of The Jungle.
Somewhat miraculously, it’s been one of the biggest television shows every single year without ITV really touching the format at all with the exception of the 2021 series filmed in Gwrych Castle, Wales, during lockdown.
And then in 2023, ITV threw a real curveball which quite rightly left fans furious. The now leader of Reform Nigel Farage was given the undeserved opportunity to deceive the public into believing that aside from his troubling views on immigration, his various questionable values and integral role in the disastrous Brexit, he was just an ordinary guy.
A year on he’s more powerful than ever. He has a seat in Parliament and is leader of the party which may only have five MPs but was a huge disruption for both Labour and Conservatives at the last UK general election.
Aside from being hugely irresponsible, Farage’s addition to the I’m A Celebrity 2023 line-up stank of desperation. The show was becoming increasingly irrelevant, ratings were dropping and ITV likely knew its expiry date was looming.
I was doubtful I’m A Celebrity could ever return to its heyday when being crowned King or Queen of the Jungle was completely career-changing. When everyone in the office was talking about last night’s Bushtucker trial or a clash between two stars whose careers might be in the gutter but their egos are still thriving.
Well, if ever there was one woman who could revive my interest in I’m A Celebrity it’s Coleen Rooney, who is reported to have been paid £5,000,000 to finally enter the jungle after years of attempts to sign her by ITV, making her the highest paid camp mate of all-time.
And she’s worth every single penny.
Her name is one of the most recognisable in the country since she became a household star as the young girlfriend of Wayne Rooney, one of the most exciting footballers of the noughties.
At the time, the United Kingdom had WAG-fever, our fascination with the women behind the men on the pitch was astronomical.
But what do we really know about Coleen Rooney?
She’s a devoted mother, she’s business savvy (estimated to have a net-worth of £14million outside of her marriage) and if you cross her she’ll humiliate you in the court of public opinion – and then the court of law. Rebekah Vardy learned that the hard way…
Behind the money-making smile which helped in making George at Asda one of the most popular clothing brands in the UK and paved the way for supermarkets to follow suit with their own successful clothing lines, Coleen is a force to be reckoned with.
Yes, she’s played the celebrity game. She did the magazine spreads, sold books, appeared on various TV shows and reportedly made £2.5 million selling her wedding photos but over the last decade or more Coleen has been relatively private and in total control of her narrative, sharing enough on social media to keep her followers invested but not enough that anyone knows the real her.
She’s not just a big name, who is bound to make headlines whether she does anything particularly news-worthy in the jungle or not, Coleen is genuinely a fascinating celebrity who has masterfully retained a level of mystique while never leaving the public consciousness.
Even when she inspired the term Wagatha Christie, coined after she exposed Vardy for selling stories about her by planting fake news stories on Instagram, throughout their incredibly public feud, Coleen played a blinder by maintaining her silence while Vardy was rarely far from an interview with a tabloid or an appearance on television.
We might think we know Coleen, so familiar with her life since she was a teenager, but really we know nothing about her going into this I’m A Celebrity. I am almost certain though, we’re about to find she’s much more intelligent, warm and sharper than she’s perhaps been given credit for.
Wagatha Christie wasn’t just any regular celebrity feud, it was a total stroke of genius which captured the zeitgeist of pop culture from the moment ‘…. it was Rebekah Vardy’ was first posted on Instagram back in 2020 right until their ludicrously expensive trial concluded in 2023, Coleen emerging victorious.
The woman who spearheaded this extraordinary moment, which even caught the interest of snobs who turn their noses up at ‘celebrity gossip’, is a dynamite booking.
I was ready to boycott I’m A Celebrity, as so many others were too. Instead I haven’t been this excited for a launch of any celebrity-lead reality TV series – for years.
Coleen might be the biggest draw, but she’s not the only one by any means.
Former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos will also be the most exposed she’s been since she was dropped from the ITV series following a cruel sting operation in which she was alleged to have helped facilitate £800 worth of cocaine to undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood who was posing as a Bollywood producer keen to cast her in a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.
The N Dubz singer became somewhat of an unlikely national treasure while on The X Factor, with her forthright opinions and impressive confidence for a 22-year-old locking horns with grown men like Gary Barlow making vile jokes about her ‘fag breath’.
She’s a fascinating character who’s had a fascinating brush with fame and is another sensational signing by ITV.
And then if rumours are to be believed, Love Island’s Maura Higgins – widely thought of as the best Love Island contestant of all time and with good reason – will be entering the jungle as a late entry.
If anyone will bring drama which has been missed on I’m A Celebrity for years, it is Maura Higgins. She takes no prisoners and was a beautiful chaos in the Love Island villa making for unmissable television.
I’m A Celebrity has read the room, spent the necessary budget to salvage its biggest series with some huge names and I have no doubt it’s going to work.
I was more than ready to dismiss I’m A Celebrity as a mediocre reality TV juggernaut of the past. Suddenly I am very excited about its future.
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