'I’m A Celebrity' to head back to Australia if possible, says ITV boss

I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! will return to Australia this year, travel restrictions permitting, according to the chief of ITV. The 2020 edition of the reality show was filmed in Wales due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Hosted by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said the show really belongs Down Under.

Although the castle format, won by host of Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, Giovanna Fletcher had been a “tremendous success” according to McCall, “if we can go back to Australia — and this show is meant to be in Australia — then that’s what we’ll do.”

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Speaking as ITV published its group annual results, she added: “We have a very good plan if not not, as we have already done it once (in the castle).”

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The show was filmed at Gwrych Castle near Abergele in North Wales last year as producers abandoned plans to head to Australia in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Viewers watched as the Kiosk Kev's outback shack was given the Welsh treatment and replaced by Kiosk Cledwyn's Ye Olde Shoppe. However, thankfully producers managed to scale down the Celebrity Cyclone Challenge and keep it virtually the same as the one we know and love.

Ant recently said he would be “very happy” for I’m A Celebrity to return to Wales.

He and co-host Dec were “welcomed” there, he said, telling Digital Spy: “There were cardboard cutouts of me and Dec in the butcher’s, and the local school did a tribute. We’d happily go back there. We’d miss the sunshine, mind.”

Dame Carolyn also said Love Island will be returning in the summer, although the location of the show, usually filmed in a villa in Majorca, is still to be confirmed. The summer series was cancelled last year because of the global pandemic.

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The programme, now hosted by Laura Whitmore, has been a huge hit for ITV2. Although, it is unknown whether she will be back to host her second series of the show, after she revealed in December last year, that her and husband Iain Stirling, who is best known for doing the voiceovers on Love Island, are expecting their first baby together, this year.

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