[Gary Baldy]

I’m not trying to blame civilians for it, or even trying to throw blame anywhere. I was simply remarking that (whether down to the general economic state of the country) civilian episodes have become so draped in sob stories and desperation to win, they’re losing their charm and fun… for *me*.

I think it’s different when celeb editions air now because they all know each other from social media or the podcast circuit etc, so you don’t really get a lot of “unusual” dynamics anymore- none of those “where else would you see this person and that person together” scenarios? Must make it much more difficult to cast for shows like I’m A Celeb too- hence them throwing in random Yanks and politicians now.

Back in the day, the entertainers all knew each other, the comedians all knew each other, the sports stars all knew each other, the soap stars all knew each other etc, but there was very little overlap, so a sports star appearing on a Gameshow hosted by an entertainer was outside of their “natural habitat” so to speak. You’d never see a Question of Sport captain and a Coronation Street actor on the same show for example. Whereas now we’re all used to it.

The UK culture has become a very closed-off clique nowadays compared to 20-30 years ago. Even compared to 10 years ago- a prime example of this is on the panel shows. 10 years ago, “reality star” types popped up on these panel shows and the comics treated them as the butt of the joke, poked fun at the fact that they were in their own little reality bubble. Fast forward 10 years, and those comics have gone from poking fun at that reality star bubble to embracing it and even being a part of that same bubble themselves now- it’s odd how that situation has changed over the years. The Channel 4 version of 8 Out of 10 Cats used to poke fun at the ridiculousness of Made in Chelsea or TOWIE; whereas when it moved to E4 a few years later, those shows were suddenly the same things since sliced bread. The types of comics they had on the show themselves hadn’t changed (other than the captains), but the way their views on that whole reality celebrity culture changed so rapidly within that short space of time is fascinating.