[Jon]

First impressions are that it looks great, but Ant and Dec's links 'feel' pre-recorded. There's none of the atmosphere in the studio from the normal series. I'd hoped they might go for more of an as-live feel.

And the 'South Africa' DOG in the studio is beyond redundant!

I think they did a good job of trying to maintain the regular feel of the show. It’s never going to be quite the same because they know they’re not live.

I also assume it’s a South African crew and not the Aussies who’ve been working with Ant & Dec so they may take a bit of getting use to their sense of humour. 

I think the South Africa DOG is just another attempt as making it close to the look the of the main show as possible. A bit like how they had the clock and location graphic in Wales.

I’d be interested to know which celebs the previous poster thinks were scripted as I didn’t really get that impression.

[fanoftv]

I enjoyed it. The challenges were exciting, it seems like it could be a good group of camp mates and the camp seems like an upgrade to the Australian one.

I think Ant & Dec’s recorded as live links work well, they could have just done it like other reality shows for this recorded series. The only thing that felt off to me was the missing bumpers after the footage of the camp mates going back to Ant & Dec.

Also, bravo to Ant & Dec’s social media presence who recorded posts and have put them out as the programme airs.

[Gary Baldy]

I don’t know what it is but this all-star thing isn’t working for me.

[XIII]

Weirdly, this is the not the first IAC to be prerecorded, the Australian IAC precorded their version in 2022.

[gottago]

Everyone's faces in the Bush Telegraph look ever so slightly out of focus. Unless my eyes are playing up.

There were some quite low-res fixed cameras in the camp when Ant and Dec walked in last night. Presumably they're using the same kit the Australian team use.

---

Weirdly, this is the not the first IAC to be prerecorded, the Australian IAC precorded their version in 2022.

There have been a few others, the recentish French version was both prerecorded and a weekly show. It was a very different format. I think it was filmed on this South African set. The Russian version was pre-recorded too.

[iloveTV1]

How do they pick the celebs who do the trials?

[Andrew]

We had the return of the ‘Celebrity Chest’ tonight for the first time in many years

[Ash101]

It all just feels a bit flat to me.

Ant & Dec’s links don’t have the same atmosphere, the trial was a bit naff when Janice refused to do half of it.. despite signing up for a show she’s done before, so knows how it works… plus the low res cameras really aren’t great.

[JAS84]

Didn't one of the other contestants refuse some trials the first time around?

[Jon]

It’s perfectly valid for a celeb to refuse to do a challenge, if it was a formality it would mean it wasn’t much a challenge in the first place. It’s a format point. And celebs generally aren’t doing it because they want a genuine jungle experience, they’re doing it for the fee and publicity. There is a trade off which is they don’t get as much of a main meal. To be fair Janice did give it a go initially and she was pretty entertaining which is all you can ask.