Ant & Dec have revealed all on what happened behind the scenes when I’m A Celebrity went off air.
The ITV series was forced to cancel its latest three episodes after extreme weather caused damage to the show’s production base.
I’m A Celebrity is set to return to TV tonight (Tuesday 30 November) with Ant & Dec speaking to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning earlier today.
The pair explained what went on behind the scenes, with Dec recalling: “We got a call on Friday afternoon saying to come to the site as soon as possible, as a storm was on the way and we were gonna have to prerecord the show to be safe – just in case the satellite went down.
“We prerecorded the show and did a trial with them. Friday’s show went out and we came back to our cottages. We knew it was pretty rough.”
He continued: “We got a call on Saturday morning to say the wind had pretty much destroyed the tech base. The marquees had come down, trees fell, boulders had moved so the site was unsafe. Nobody was allowed back onto the site until they had been on and done a survey.
“We had no choice but to just pull the show over the weekend, which we were just gutted about.
“In the end the celebrities had to come out. It’s been a huge upheaval of a week, but the production team have been magnificent with getting the site up and running and making it safe.”
The pair praised the show’s team for working around the clock to get the production back on screen.
But Ant admitted fears that more bad weather had the potential to cause further problems.
“I think there’s more bad weather coming next week, but I think it is just temperatures dropping, maybe a bit of snow, a bit of frost, I think we can cope with that,” he said.
Dec added: “Let’s not speak too soon, but let’s hope we are back and on until the end.”
I’m A Celebrity returns to ITV tonight, live with Ant and Dec.
Celebrities currently on the 2021 I’m A Celebrity line up include Emmerdale’s Danny Miller, BBC Breakfast host Louise Minchin, football legend David Ginola, former Strictly judge Arlene Phillips, musician Naughty Boy and radio and TV presenter Snoochie Shy.
They’re joined by singer & TV personality Frankie Bridge, Corrie star Simon Gregson, sports star Kadeena Cox, soap star Adam Woodyatt and Olympian Matty Lee.
The series is currently due to run until 12 December.
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