I'm A Celebrity star reveals casting secrets as 2024 line-up begins to leak

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here star Scarlette Douglas has told Yahoo about the secret casting process as the 2024 line-up has begun to leak online.

The A Place In The Sun star was flown Down Under for the jungle series in 2022, the same year featuring Matt Hancock, but she only had days to prepare for the once-in-a-lifetime TV experience due to the secretive, last minute nature of the casting process.

Douglas told Yahoo: "It was getting into September but by the time I found out I definitely I had it, I had three days to change my entire diary, get my hair done, get my nails done, get my wax, get everything ready. So the next thing you know, I'm on this flight.

"Initially I was going to be going in second, that's when Matt Hancock and Seann Walsh went in. I had about six days or seven days but then they decided they wanted me to go in early. So all of a sudden I was told it was 'three days you're flying to Australia'.

"That was carnage. It was all very last minute, but I was super excited. I got on the plane and thought, 'Oh my God I'm going to be in the jungle'. It was the first time it was back in the jungle since Covid as well so that was huge."

I'm A Celebrity casting process

While Douglas was only given the green light just days before taking the long-haul flight to Oz, the hiring process started out with a casual Zoom conversation to talk through show ideas in early 2022. "It was just more of a general chit chat and just they knew who I was," she said.

It was in August of 2022 that Douglas got the call about TV bosses needing one more star for I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. And despite being popular with viewers from A Place In The Sun, the presenter couldn't believe that TV bosses had chosen her for the ITV jungle show.

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"I never once thought it was going to be me," she said. "Obviously I told my immediate family, 'Guys, I'm up for it.' But I still did not think it's me. There's no way they're gonna pick me!"

In the I'm A Celeb meeting, Douglas was given a good grilling to find out what she was like in real life and how she would cope in certain situations. "They want to gauge your personality and see how you would be with others," she said.

Why did she want to do the show? was top of their list of questions and that was easy for the telly star to answer. "Always in anything I do I like to challenge myself and come out of my comfort zone," she said. "I like to do things where my nieces can look at me and be like, 'Oh, my goodness, my aunt is so brave and strong. I can do that.' And other little girls as well. So for me, I was just like it's always been a show that's a no-brainer."

It is no surprise that TV bosses also wanted to know: is there anything the presenter was scared of? Douglas thought she could wriggle her way out of that one. However, she said, they told her: "Well, Scarlette, we do this casting every year. We know when people are being honest and we know when they’re lying so you might as well be honest." Douglas then confided in them that she was petrified of spiders.

The I'm a Celebrity bosses gave her a warning too, telling her: "There are venomous snakes in the jungle, would you be OK with this? We have anti-venom, don't worry. There are a lots of people around to keep an eye out, but these are things you need to be mindful of."

Then Douglas faced a waiting time until early September when the TV bosses whittled it down from eight potential celebrities, to four, then to two and finally she was told she had the gig — just days before flying out to Australia.

"They were just keeping my agent in the loop," she said. "So other than my first meeting that I had with them about the show, I didn't have any other meetings until they told me it was me."

She added: "I'm not sure if they met with others. I'm not sure if they were working out who would sit where and who would be better with the others. I'm really not sure. All I know is I had my first meeting with them, and then that was it. I was in [the jungle] a couple of weeks later."

The I'm a Celebrity line-up

So how do the ITV bosses choose the celebrities? Every year, the show has stars from all walks of showbiz from soaps to presenters, and sometimes even Hollywood.

Douglas shared the camp with stars including singer Boy George, Love Island's Olivia Attwood (although she was only in it for such a short time), actor Owen Warner, former rugby player Mike Tindall, actor Sue Cleaver, radio star Chris Moyles, Loose Women panellist Charlene White, comedian Babatunde Aleshe, and footballer Jill Scott MBE.

Douglas said: "It's definitely a social experiment. Outside of the social experiment which is living in a jungle, doing all these crazy trials and challenges, actually the social challenge of it of all these different personalities in such a small space for such a long time.

"The camp, you think it's huge, but actually it's not really that big. Yes, OK, you can wander off and go to other places, but realistically you're in around the camp, you find them. So how are all these personalities going to work out?"

Top secret

Interestingly, those selected for the show are kept in the dark about who they are going to be starring alongside. Douglas said: "You never know for definite who is going to be in the line-up." However, just like the rest of us, of course the I'm a Celeb stars are reading the news.

"You've seen all these names come out," she said. "You're assuming they're pretty to the point because obviously my name got leaked. Sometimes you think, who is really leaking these names? It's got to be the production company to get everyone talking about it. Every year the names get leaked and every year they're pretty much on point."

The presenter added: "They try to keep everything as top secret as possible but obviously things start to get leaked out."

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here returns to ITV1 on Sunday, 17 November.