Fan favourite Rachel Hunter was the first campmate to be eliminated from I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and it’s fair to say the backlash has been swift.
With the show now pre-recorded (and public voting scrapped), the decision of who is up for elimination falls to campmates rather than the public. Rachel was ultimately chosen to battle Matt Zukowski for her spot in The Jungle and lost.
Rachel told WHO she felt “slated” by her campmates singling her out, but it’s actually something she anticipated – with the show’s new format sparking major tension in the camp and impacting relationships.
The 56-year-old model even pulled two of her campmates aside and warned them to ‘play the game’ if they wanted to survive.
“I remember sitting down with Cyrell and Rebecca, and I was like, ‘Guys, if this goes this way, you had to be careful and align with who you need to align with’,” she told WHO. “This is going to turn real pear-shaped fast.”
Days later, she was axed.
I’m A Celeb’s new format is impacting relationships on the show
Rather than simply being together and trying their best during bush tucker trials, Rachel explained campmates now have to focus on “alliances” to survive, since the public aren’t in the driving seat with eliminations.
“I tended to float between the groups,” she said. “I wasn’t someone who was attaching to any certain group, so I thought, if there is someone going to go first, it’s me.”
Rachel admitted she felt “hurt” by her campmates’ decision to put her up for elimination.
“It’s only human nature that we feel either hurt or those old kind of feelings, especially if you go through it at school,” she said. “Then you realize, hang on a second, I’m in a game here. I can’t take this personally.”
Fans ‘frustrated’ by new I’m A Celeb format
Another fallout from the new format is that fan favourites are being booted – for example… Rachel.
Online, fans said there was “no way” she would have been in the bottom three if the public got a chance to vote, with another on X saying it was “bloody frustrating”.
The model responded to all the support fans had shown towards her, calling it “sweet”.
“I didn’t expect it,” she told WHO.
Julia Morris hinted change would bring chaos to camp
Co-host Julia Morris hinted to WHO before I’m A Celeb aired that the format change would impact camp dynamics, and now we’re seeing it all unfold.
“It’s interesting because where they are trying to be conciliatory with each other and they’re trying to be cohesive and working as a team, there’s also a deep down ‘I can’t believe you didn’t choose me for that’. And, whether they say it or not, we as an audience know it [is a problem],” Julia told WHO last month.
Who has been eliminated so far?
Rachel was the first campmate to be eliminated from the show, however, Deni Hines was the first to leave after uttering the famous phrase and hanging up her camouflage bandana by choice.
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