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TEN gambles on the stars

TEN's Beverley McGarvey says the launch of I'm a Celebrity Get Me out of Here! is an entertainment alternative to the Australian Open.

2015-01-27_1813TEN’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! premieres on Sunday with some of the biggest buzz of the 2015 season.

But there’s a lot riding on the first week, against My Kitchen Rules and The Block. Even with no Aussies competing in Australian Open men’s final TEN will need to pull a big crowd.

TEN programmer Beverley McGarvey tells TV Tonight there are no easy options, but remains confident it is a viable alternative.

“We’ve launched our schedule on that night for years and we don’t take that decision lightly. But do you go up against the tennis or do you go up against Kitchen Rules? Not an ideal option!” she concedes.

“But what we’re offering is an entertainment schedule, so against an established sports schedule at least it’s different.

“If you had your chance would you go up when Seven and Nine are doing nothing? Of course. But Seven and Nine never do nothing. You have to play the way the game is played.”

TEN has watched on with (mostly) bemusement as audiences and media speculate over the stars that will be thrust into the African jungle, with rumoured names to include everyone from Pamela Anderson to Joel Creasey.

All will be revealed on Sunday, with celebrities emerging from lockdown to learn whom their co-stars are. More celebs will appear across the series, meaning some of the speculated names may not necessarily be core cast -even if they are correct.

“We haven’t revealed exactly how that’s going to work but there is a core cast of 10 people and that much we have revealed. Like any series throughout the season there will be things that happen that are a surprise to the cast. So we don’t want to talk about them until the cast are in lockdown.

“But there will be other people entering, like the British series. It’s a format point of the show.”

Almost everything is ready for the big night. With close to 400 people involved, Celebrity is not a show that comes cheap but TEN knows it has to take risks in order to reap big rewards.

“The set looks amazing. It’s rainy season over there now so it looks really lush and beautiful. We’re finishing the challenges and testing them and everybody is kind of there now, in terms of our people,” she explains.

“Any of the big franchises have hundreds of people working on them.

“You have a lot of people on Production, a lot of Runners, a lot of people looking after the Talent.

“It’s actually more efficient than other genres because you get to amortise the cost of the show and the set etc. across a large number of hours.”

The series has been a long-running hit in the UK but it’s taken some time for ITV to secure an Australian broadcaster, with the format having been shopped to other networks prior to TEN’s announcement.

Aside from new hosts in Julia Morris and Chris Brown and the African jungle backdrop, how will the show differentiate itself for Australian viewers?

“It is Live, it is a Comedy and I think Julia and Chris will really help put that spin on it,” said McGarvey.

“In terms of what will make it Australian, you’ll certainly see some of the ‘yukky’ challenges from the British version but there will be more physical action, because Australians are quite ‘outdoorsy’ and brave. They’re not so afraid of spiders so we need to up the ante a little bit.

“In order for the celebrities to be a fish out of water they can’t be in an Australian landscape. It’s just not challenging enough for them.”

I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! premieres Live 6:30pm AEDT on Sunday.

33 Responses

  1. I’m looking forward to this. I’ve never seen the British version so it’s new to me.

    And for the first time, I’m not watching The Block because Nine has killed it with overexposure. Two seasons a year is overkill.

  2. i agree with Boundary, i too don’t understand why they couldn’t do it in the outback or something, what not enough exotic animals in our own country?? we have crocs, dingos, wild pigs, loads of poisonous snakes & spiders, more than enough dangerous critters to scare the living crap outta the celebs lol.

    And agree the curiosity factor & thats its an option for non sports fans will help its ratings, but time will tell about consistent success.

  3. @mistaken Agreed but it still remains to be seen if the public cares. Is the publicity and marketing enough to make anyone watch the show? Does the public know what the show is actually about? I don’t.

    Will tuning in to see who is on it prove to be a disappointment? Will the general public just say who? I think it will do well in the first season and then tank like celebrity apprentice. If they get the casting right. It will be interesting as I think it has a real potential to tank.

  4. Ten have done an exceptional job keeping the identity of the celebrities under wraps. It has been amusing watching entertainment reporters get their tails in a spin for the lack of information revealed by Ten. It has built interest and the curiosity factor will be integral to a successful launch. I hope Ten have a hit on their hands. Ten has at least tried to come up with new programs,some successful, some not. Whereas Seven and Nine just keep pumping out 2 series of The Block and MKR per year. A lot of the fan favourites being knocked out of the Aus Open is a bonus for Ten.

  5. @ryaneco – thanks for your concern. I wasn’t suggesting that this should be shown live into WA. I was simply passing comment on Ms Garvey saying that it was “live” without any qualifier.

    When I used to watch commercial TV, I can recall all too often that the announcer would state that a show was “live right around Australia” or similar. More recently, on ABC, they’ll have someone available on some site to chat/answer Q’s but, of course, they will not be there when the program is shown in WA despite the annoucer urging us to “jump online”.

    Seriously, we should just take our iron ore, bauxite, gold, nickel, wheat, etc and secede.

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