I’m A Celebrity ‘Thrown Into Chaos’ Just Hours Before Launch

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With not long left to go until the official launch starts of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, you can imagine it’s all go over at the camp.

Well, it appears that the ITV team are ‘scrambling’ even more than usual tonight, as severe storms have hit the celebrity camp.

The entire camp where the celebs are set to be sleeping for the next few weeks has apparently been completely flooded, leaving producers with the task of cleaning up with just hours to go.

All ten contestants have now taken part in a various tasks and are heading into the jungle near the small town of Murwillumbah, which is on the border of New South Wales and Queensland.

The Australian government’s Bureau of Meteorology released a warning on Saturday afternoon(5am UK time) predicting severe thunderstorms for South East Queensland in the coming hours.

The warning stated: “Damaging winds and large hailstones are likely.”

And a telly insider said: “There’s a huge storm coming – the campmates are going to be thrown in the deep end with the Aussie weather. They haven’t seen anything yet.”

Additionally, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services advised that people should move cars “under cover or away from trees” and “seek shelter, preferably indoors and never under trees”.

The danger area shown by the Bureau of Meteorology is around 30km away from camp, but a more localised weather forecast for Murwillumbah also shows a 90% chance of rain this evening and a strong chance of severe thunderstorms.

The show is no stranger to treacherous weather conditions, in 2015 ITV had to evacuate the I’m a Celebrity camp as thunder, lightning and heavy rain led the camp becoming a washout.

An ITV spokesman told the Mirror: “We monitor the weather on an hour by hour basis and we have contingency plans in place for all eventualities.”

Tropical storms are likely in the region, but most of the time the campmates are told to stay in Snake Rock as they’re protected from normal downpours thanks to the canopy erected in the trees.

Bookmakers have already been picking their favourites to be crowned King or Queen of the jungle.

John Barrowman is being tipped to win the show by William Hill, with Malique Thompson-Dwyer and Rita Simons the bookmaker’s outsiders.

Here’s the latest odds as supplied by William Hill…

John Barrowman 3/1

James McVey 4/1

Emily Atack 6/1

Anne Hegerty 13/2

Harry Redknapp 8/1

Noel Edmonds 10/1

Sair Khan 9/1

Nick Knowles 9/1

Fleur East 12/1

Rita Simons 12/1

Malique Thompson-Dwyer 12/1

However Betfair has McVey as their favourite and poor ol’ Thompson-Dwyer sits last on their list too.

James McVey 7/2

John Barrowman 4/1

Emily Atack 6/1

Nick Knowles 7/1

Anne Hegerty 8/1

Noel Edmonds 10/1

Harry Redknapp 10/1

Sair Khan 11/1

Rita Simons 12/1

Fleur East 14/1

Malique Thompson Dwyer 16/1