[tellyblues]

"Celebrity" versions of things used to be rarer than hen's teeth, and usually only often occurred for a show's Christmas Special. They wouldn't go anywhere near it at any other time of the year.

These days? Well as we saw when civilian episodes of something doesn't rate they make more celebrity specials which do rate. the Crystal Maze revival did this...

Look how that turned out...

I think launching a show with a celebrity special undermines the format as if it isn't good enough on its own and it gives audiences a reason not to watch civilian episodes because they can prefer the show with celebs.

As for WoF, if it does well, ITV can air a celeb special to prove its "cred", and if it doesn't, they can cut their losses with the specials they already have and pave the way for celeb-only editions in future. Reverting to these won't be too much of a problem when they're also filming the Australian show on the set.