I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!

In the sad genre that is "reality" television, this show at least had a modicum of humanity to it. While several of the celebrities were the prima donnas you might expect, others seemed like genuinely good people. The three finalists, John Melendez, Melissa Rivers, and winner Chris Judd were not only liked by the voting public but also by their castaway peers. What set this show apart was that the program fostered cooperation among the participants and not guile. The living conditions did appear to be difficult because of the constant rain. The "Bushtucker" challenges were somewhat creative and not too far over the top. Further, if a celebrity was a jerk, the viewers could reward those who behaved with class and indirectly get rid of the whiner.

One issue I did have with the program was the depiction of smoking. Apparently to be a celebrity you also have to be a smoker. (Or perhaps the stress of celebrity-hood drives people to smoke?) However, if this was indeed what the celebrities did in their "down" time, I guess it was a part of the verite. One wonders if the tobacco companies had any placement rights. It's just odd to see smoking on US TV anymore.

Nonetheless, it was a harmless, escapist show with a number of charities receiving nice-sized checks in behalf of the celebrities. I would probably watch a second season.

Come on guys, lets give a hand to the celebrities that appeared on this show. I mean, they did it for charity and no matter how lame it may have seemed, it was for a good cause. The other reality shows are for people who want the $$$. It was unselfish of these celebs to give of their time (publicity aside) for charity. Keep up the good work, and Melissa - stay nice - you are a good girl.

This is probably one of the worst TV shows of all times. Bring some of the most annoying "celebrities" in the world together, and let them camp out. They compete in a Survivor-like show. It is my greatest hopes that some are still out there waiting to be rescued.

I did watch it when it aired. But I watched it hoping for somebody to die. Sadly it didn't happen. I was willing to give it a 10 if somebody actually did. At least that would be interesting. This is just annoying. There was a second season when they apparently ran out of things to put on the air. It was just as bad if not worst. I don't know why they even tried a second time.

This show suffered from four fatal flaws:

1) The list of celebrities. I realize that C-List celebs are perfect for these types of shows, but when they are at the bottom of that list, do they even qualify for 'celebrity' status anymore? I was only able to associate 4 or 5 of them to the event that made them 'famous'. It is a good decision that they had their names on their clothing or I would never of known who was who.

2) Telephone vote-outs. When the contestants are not involved in the process of who leaves, it makes for a very bland show (see Big Brother 1). No scheming, no alliances, nothing. Just a bunch of people sitting around, acting chummy-chummy waiting for the days to pass.

3) Airing in real time. This CAN work when done properly (Big Brother 2), but it takes quite a bit of skill and a lot of time. This show lasted 14 days, hardly enough time to really get to know any of these people or for any storylines to emerge on their own.

4) Celebrities being given practically everything they asked for. They had lip balm, plenty of food, shelter when it rained etc. It seemed to me that these people were living better on the show than in their real lives!

"I'm a Celeb.." was a boring, poorly done survivor-clone and I doubt we will ever see another one.