I'm A Celebrity 2023 kicked off last night (Sunday, November 19) as ten celebrities made their jungle debut in an entrance show like no other.
And This Morning host Josie Gibson couldn't help but mock GB News host and ex-politician Nigel Farage over Brexit within minutes of meeting him in the Australian outback.
Actress & singer Jamie Lynn Spears, TV personality and Radio DJ Sam Thompson, This Morning host Josie Gibson, TV presenter Fred Sirieix, YouTuber Nella Rose, GB News host and ex-politician Nigel Farage, food critic Grace Dent, pop star and TV presenter Marvin Humes, EastEnders star Danielle Harold and Hollyoaks icon Nick Pickard were all thrown into the deep end as they competed to win stars for camp in grim challenges.
Here is what happened in I'm A Celebrity episode 1 last night...
Never-done-before challenge
In an I’m A Celebrity first, three unsuspecting celebrities were dropped into the scorching Australian Outback for a brand new set of challenges.
Josie Gibson was the first celebrity abandoned in the heat, who was shortly joined by Nigel Farage and she immediately brought up Brexit as they greeted each other.
Josie admitted: “I thought this was a good idea until they dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. I’ve never been so petrified.”
Nigel replied: “It’s something different in life, it’s an adventure! It’s a challenge, it’s not going to be easy, but why not?”
Josie quipped: “It can’t be worse than Brexit!”
Nigel laughed: “Oh… didn’t take long did it? Didn’t take long. I had a feeling we’d get a bit of that!”
The pair were then met by Nella Rose before they noticed there was a button to call for assistance, which dialled through to hosts Ant and Dec.
Ant and Dec explained that the trio had to take on challenges to win time for their campmates on the Gold Coast, who were competing in another task to win stars for camp.
The more tokens they won, the more time their fellow contestants had to win food for camp.
Nigel opted to drive and the trio sped off in a jeep to their first challenge.
If you ever wanted proof that we are living in a simulation here’s Josie Gibson explaining to Jamie Lynn Spears who Nigel Farage is #ImACeleb pic.twitter.com/bAr8RjRY41November 19, 2023
Hell Holes
In the sprawling outback, Josie, Nigel and Nella found their first challenge, which required two people to put their heads in "hell holes" and one person to dunk their head into barrels filled with gunk to find tokens.
Josie opted to do the barrels, meanwhile Nigel and Nella pushed their heads inside the "hell holes" and used their tongues to move tokens along a metal wire.
However, when Nella put her head in and discovered that there was a snake inside, she couldn't stop screaming.
Despite her best efforts, Nella couldn’t get any of the tokens off of the metal wire, but Nigel and Josie managed to get all three of theirs, earning six tokens for the campmates taking on Pole Position on the Gold Coast.
Pole Position
Meanwhile on the Gold Coast, celebrities Sam Thompson, Danielle Harold, Grace Dent and Fred Sirieix were flown by helicopter to the top of a building 100m off of the ground.
Hosts Ant and Dec flew in to greet them and the group were daunted by the huge apparatus hanging over the edge of the building.
The duo explained that three other campmates had been facing challenges in the Australian Outback to win them time in this challenge.
Danielle, Fred, Sam and Grace learned their campmates had earned them six minutes, three minutes per pair, to complete their Pole Position challenge.
Ant went on to explain the jaw-dropping heights challenge: “In pairs, you’ve got to make your way over the edge of the building, down the ladders, along the narrow ledge, until you come to your pole. In order to win stars, you’ve got to lie face down on the pole and shimmy yourself and your star all the way to the end of the pole. When the star is in the yellow zone, you’ve won that star.”
Four stars were up for grabs, which counted towards that night’s meal for camp.
Fred and Danielle were the first pair to take on the challenge, with Fred the first one to get his star into the yellow zone.
In a nail-biting finale, Danielle completed the challenge with just two seconds to spare, earning them two stars.
Grace and Sam were next as the wind picked up and the pair both managed to win their stars, bagging a full house.
Terrifying skydive
After meeting for the first time, Marvin Humes, Jamie Lynn Spears and Nick Pickard learned that they would have to skydive before heading off to do the very first Bushtucker Trial of the series.
Earlier on, Marvin admitted that he was terrified of heights and backed out of a skydive that he and his JLS bandmates were going to do.
Jamie Lynn was the first to jump, followed by Nick and then Marvin.
But despite their nerves, there was jubilation once they had reunited with each other on the ground and they made their way to the Trial.
The Outback stars take on another challenge
While Marvin, Nick and Jamie Lynn made their way to the Trial, Nigel, Nella and Josie faced another challenge to earn them time.
After following the map to another burnt-out truck, two of them had to sit in thick gunk in the bed of the truck while searching for tokens tied up on bits of rope.
Meanwhile, the remaining person had to search for tokens hidden under the bonnet and in the glove box, which had snakes in too.
Nella opted to go for the gunk in the back with Nigel and she managed to find all three tokens.
Both Nigel and Josie earned two tokens, which earned their fellow campmates a total of seven minutes for The Temple of Doom.
The Temple of Doom
Nick, Marvin and Jamie Lynn met Ant and Dec for the debut Bushtucker Trial of the series.
Ant revealed that the other celebrities had won them seven minutes out of a possible nine.
The challenge saw two of the celebrities strapped into perspex boxes either side of the Temple as they took it in turns to find jungle related words on rotating discs beside them.
When they had guessed the word, they would shout it out and if it was correct, a star would lower down onto the third celebrity who was strapped to a stone table in the centre.
To win the star, the third celebrity had to use only their mouth and drop it on the table beside them.
Marvin and Jamie Lynn chose to be in the boxes and of course, they weren't alone as green ants were dropped on top of them.
Meanwhile, Nick struggled to release the stars with his mouth while covered in spiders and other critters.
However, the trio won the remaining six stars so had a 10/10 dinner to share with the camp.
The campmates met in camp
Fresh from their Trial and challenges, all of the campmates made their way into camp.
As everyone got to know each other, Fred made a jungle paella from the kangaroo hind they had won for dinner.
The next day, Ant and Dec announced that Nigel and Nella would be taking on the next Bushtucker Trial, the Jungle Pizzeria.
I’m A Celebrity 2023 continues tonight at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
