David Farnor | On 08, Aug 2020

In a sign of just how much the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the industry, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! will relocate from Australia to the UK for its 2020 run.

The reality TV contest will be broadcast live every night from a ruined castle in the countryside, with Ant and Dec once again hosting. As on the regular series, viewers will see the celebrities undertake gruelling trials and challenges to win food and treats in the lead up to one of them being crowned, for the first time ever, King or Queen of the Castle.

Kevin Lygo, ITV’s Director of Television said: “We announced last week that we were doing all we could to make the series and I’m thrilled that we can bring the show to viewers albeit not in the jungle. We have a great team both on and off screen and I know they will produce a hugely entertaining series.”

Richard Cowles, Director of Entertainment at ITV Studios said: “We pulled out all the stops to try and make the series happen in Australia. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and despite us looking at many different contingencies, it became apparent that it just wasn’t possible for us to travel and make the show there.”

The decision also marks the determination of the TV industry to get things up and running again even with the coronavirus still at large. Indeed, I’m a Celebrity is one of ITV’s staple shows and one of the giants of the reality genre, and its nightly viewing format is designed to encourage linear TV watching in an age where on-demand streaming is on the rise.

Recent figures from Ofcom show that an estimated 12 million UK adults signed up to a new video streaming service during lockdown, of whom around 3 million had never subscribed to one before. The overwhelming majority of online adults signed up to Netflix (96 per cent), Amazon Prime Video (91 per cent) and Disney+ (84 per cent) said they plan to keep their subscriptions in the months ahead. Similarly, more than half of UK adults (55 per cent) say that they will continue to spend the same amount of time watching streamed content in future as they did during lockdown.

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