'I'm a Celebrity's first eviction is a close call between three stars'
Opinion: The first I'm a Celebrity star will leave the jungle soon as the evictions begin mid-way through the ITV series.
I'm a Celebrity's first eviction is looming and I think there is going to be fierce competition between three celebrity campmates.
The evictions always begin mid-way through the ITV series, just when you're getting to know the real people behind the celebrity facade.
While there's always a lot of talk over the first eviction and who it might be, it doesn't take super sleuth Wagatha Christie to work it out.
This year, my money is on: Dean McCullough, Jane Moore or Melvin Odoom. I could see all three of them walking over the rope bridge first.
Dean McCullough in the firing line
I don't think either Ant or Dec would protest to McCullough leaving the camp in the early stages after doing six trials.
Ant already made a public plea for viewers to choose someone else to do the trials. Like Ant and Dec, I too felt the overwhelming disappointment over the radio star giving up too early in the trials by calling out 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here', not once, but twice.
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Not because of insanely enormous spiders by the way. Or heights. Or any jungle nasties. To me it looked like McCullough gave up the first time because of sand raining down on him, and then because of smelly fish guts second time around.
He may have wormed his way out of doing the next two trials but now the essential water duty in camp has proved to be too much work for him. Like the other campmates, it got on my nerves when McCullough whinged: "I hate doing it. It's an awful job. I don't want to do it anymore. Guys I can't. It's not for me."
Melvin Odoom's own disappearing act
Odoom put a clever spin on it as he shut his complaints down with humour saying: "Listen, your new name is Hou-Dean-i because you like to disappear!" McCullough's jaw was on the floor.
Oti Mabuse quipped "shots fired" — and she's right, the row in camp put McCullough back on track to be in the firing line for the first eviction.
Ironically I think Odoom's problem is lack of airtime. It is a great shame because I think his cheeky humour — even in the face of an argument — is just what the camp needs. When Odoom has been on-screen, he has been great fun — including talking openly about his crush on Carol Vorderman.
After the row, maybe TV bosses will give Odoom a chance to shine ahead of the vote. Only time will tell.
Jane Moore could be going home
The other campmate I think at risk of being voted out is Loose Women's Moore.
She turned on fan favourites Barry McGuigan and Danny Jones over choosing her to do the washing up duty. Frustrated, she branded the new camp leaders "sexist" and "ageist". Yet the reality is McGuigan and Jones had to choose someone for the job — regardless of gender.
Then when it was her turn to step up and do the trial, Fright at the End of the Tunnel, she missed out all of the stars that were underwater. Immediately this halved the number of stars they could win for camp. What made it worse was she didn't seem to take ownership for this at the end of the trial.
I think it'll be a close call.