I’m a Celebrity’s 2024 stars have been punished after breaking the rules this week.
Dean McCullough boasted about smuggling in teabags and Melvin Odoom secretly brought in a packet of salt to flavour the bland rice and beans.
Smug Ant and Dec warned the viewers at home that contraband equals consequences. After the dingo dollar challenge, five cupcakes were confiscated meaning the celebrities had less treats. The chucking Geordie hosts enjoyed their sweet, sweet revenge.
I’m a Celebrity rules and banned items
To up the stakes in the jungle, every year there are banned items which the celebrities are not allowed to bring with them to camp. Often one or two stars will try their luck to sneak something in — but Ant and Dec are quick to show camp that it is never worth the effort.
Read more
Secret signals
The celebrities are banned from contacting the outside world. But some of the stars can’t resist trying to communicate with their family and friends while appearing on the show by giving them secret signs. This year, I’m a Celebrity viewers are convinced GK Barry is sending secret signals to her girlfriend Ella Rutherford as she has a “E” painted on her fingernail.
It’s not as strict as it seems though.
Behind the scenes, TV bosses do keep the celebrities informed of anything important in their personal lives that has happened in the outside world. Former campmate Scarlette Douglas told Yahoo UK about how they kept her up to date about her mum’s eye operation via the Bush Telegraph.
Stars get to appoint a member of family or close friend who stays in touch with the TV bosses throughout the entire series, Douglas said.
She said: “I’m very close with my family, and I speak to my mum and dad probably three or four times a day. What they do is if there’s an important message from here, they pass it on, or every day they will say we checked in with your selected person. So that was one of my brothers.
“They tell you, ‘We’ve checked in with your person. Everything’s fine back home. Is there anything you want to pass back home?’ So at least you’ve always got one little bit of connection a day.”
No watches or clocks
One of the more bizarre rules includes stars being banned from knowing what the time is in the jungle. Everyone may have been talking about Myleene Klass’ white bikini shower scenes but she thought the best thing she did in her 2006 jungle stint was build a sundial.
“You don’t know when lunch is, you don’t know when dinner is, you become so discombobulated,” Klass told Yahoo UK last year.
Klass managed to work out her sundial by using two things. Firstly, by knowing what the time was in the UK when she heard Ant and Dec say “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here”, leaving her to work it out backwards. Secondly, she spied a researcher’s watch which read 2.06.
She added: “I had two definitive times and then the rest I kept figuring out as the show went on. I was like, oh my God. I think I’m a genius. And I came out, and everyone was just like, oh we really loved the white bikini!”
Salt and pepper or snacks or treats
Of course additional food — or flavouring like salt and pepper — defeat the point of the infamous rice and beans diet which is bland and often leaves stars hungry. The celebrities have rice and beans when they are unsuccessful at the challenges.
This encourages them to try to perform better in the Bushtucker trials but also causes tension when some celebrities aren’t trying hard enough or are failing to bring back the stars. The rule about additional snacks or flavours also extends to beverages for the same reason.
More than three pairs of pants
Previously, former campmate Rita Simons claimed stars are only allowed to take in three pairs of pants.
She told Good Morning Britain in 2019: “I smuggled in extra knickers. You’re allowed three pairs of knickers… Three pairs. I smuggled more.”
