In a kind of veteran season, RTL is sending ex-jungle campers back to their green celebrity limbo. This time they don’t have to fear the audience – but their fellow campers. That should be enough pain.
It is the summer of major events. Football fans got the European Championship, and shortly afterwards all sports enthusiasts got the Olympic Games in Paris. Honorable competitions with noble sportswomen and men. This is something that reality TV fans would not hesitate to classify at the next major event on German television. RTL is showing a special season of its jungle camp from Friday (August 16, the day before on the streaming service RTL+). With many competition-tested participants, but probably not always quite so honorable behavior.
Because unlike in regular seasons, no celebrity group moves into the camp, which is largely a blank spot even for genre fans. Instead, it’s people who have already lived in the camp before – and have earned a certain reputation there with their behavior. So you can guess what you’re going to see, and the whole experimental setup promises to be a tinder box to say the least – and not just around the campfire. That’s why the show is called “I’m a Celebrity – Showdown of the Jungle Legends” and not the usual “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!”.
It all started 20 years ago
According to the broadcaster, the reason for the “Legends Jungle”, as RTL calls it, is the anniversary that the format is celebrating this year. In 2004, 20 years ago, the first season flickered across the screens and caused a moderate outcry because such maltreatment of celebrities was not yet part of the viewing habits. Today, that has long since changed. The jungle is considered a television classic.
That’s why there’s now a special season, and in the summer at that. Jungle fans are actually conditioned to the beginning of the year. The celebrities are also not fighting for food and their dignity in Australia, but in South Africa. That’s also rather exotic, although a season was already produced there in 2022, back then because of the corona pandemic.
The biggest difference, however, is that the jungle is not live this time; the format has already been recorded. This brings with it a few changes. Normally, viewers call in to decide which celebrity has to take part in the test, who should leave the camp and who will win the so-called jungle crown at the end. This will of the people from faraway Germany is now no longer part of the dramaturgy.
This is the very first time that this has been done, as RTL entertainment boss Markus Küttner confirmed. The rules have been “virtually thrown out the window,” he told the German Press Agency. Who will then decide on the fortunes of the celebrities?
Who decides the fate of the celebrities if not the viewers?
“Sometimes we decide, sometimes we leave the decisions to the stars, and in the second week there are even tests to decide who can stay in the camp and who has to go home,” explains Küttner. “This creates a completely new dynamic, because the supposed favorite for the crown can now be voted out directly by his fellow campers.” That sounds like a conflict. At the same time, the RTL entertainment boss promises “the good old jungle feeling.”
This is also likely to be ensured by the staff, who have largely already shown that they can arouse emotions – in any direction. Candidate Daniela Büchner, reality expert (“Goodbye Germany! The Emigrants”) and widow of former camper “Malle” Jens Büchner, was notorious in 2020 for spreading a pretty bad mood in the camp. At the time, the presenter duo even asked the audience to spare them Büchner in the jungle tests.
Pleading on his knees, with swollen veins
Sarah Knappik, who became known as a model, was begged on her knees by actor Mathieu Carrière in the wake of major upheavals in her 2011 season to voluntarily leave (“Sarah, please leave us!”). Former footballer Thorsten Legat, on the other hand, regularly talked himself into a rage in his 2016 season and announced “Kasalla!” (Rhineland dialect for riot) with swollen veins. RTL writes in its introduction of Giulia Siegel (2009 season): “She became known for her arguments with other candidates and her cigarette consumption in the camp.” In short: Things are likely to get serious.
Also back are the presenter duo Sonja Zietlow and Jan Köppen as well as jungle doctor Dr. Bob. “I was so excited to see them all again, especially Giulia, because it was so long ago, more than 14 years,” he says. “But of course Thorsten too.”
The jungle doctor, who is actually a trained paramedic, also says that he remembers all the participants in the “Legends Jungle” well. You have to believe him, he has been there since 2004. “Every celebrity who comes on the show brings their own, very individual personality,” he says. “Often a quirky style, loud, quiet, cheeky, shy, worried and cocky.”
There is nothing to add. Let the games begin.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
