Celebrity Survivor stars eat rations in two hours

Celebrity Survivor stars today made life hard for themselves on the first day of their wilderness adventure by polishing off almost their entire allowance of food in just two hours.

Led by battleaxe Christine Hamilton, the eight contestants of the TV survival show set themselves up for trouble by greedily devouring three days’ worth of rations, and leaving themselves at the mercy of viewers.

The only way to obtain more food was for one of them, chosen by a phone poll, to endure a shower of cockroaches, maggots and scorpions without flinching the first challenge of the ITV series.

Failure meant the whole team going hungry.

Hamilton, wife of disgraced former Tory MP Neil, was appointed leader for the first day of the programme, I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here.

Socialite Tara Palmer Tomkinson, veteran DJ Tony Blackburn, ex-boxer Nigel Benn, spoon-bender Uri Geller, singer Darren Day, comedian Rhona Cameron and model Nell McAndrew have also volunteered to swap their lavish lifestyles for the gruelling two-week ordeal in the Australian Outback.

But just hours after being seen in the first instalment of the show on Sunday night quaffing a champagne breakfast with lobster, eggs and strawberries, to mark their last moments of luxury, the team proved they had not properly got to grips with how to survive a wilderness.

They were airlifted into the heart of the jungle where bush experts led them to the basic camp that has become their new home.

It was the first time Palmer Tomkinson had worn a backpack and she spent the entire journey complaining of needing the loo.

Darren Day and Nigel Benn had relieved themselves up against a fence before setting off.

On arrival at the camp, Cameron expressed shock at the lack of shelter above the basic stretcher beds, but it was the hole-in-the-ground toilet that gave Hamilton the horrors.

As leader, she was in charge of sorting out the arguments over building a shelter around it.

The chaos descended into a food feast, and the eight celebrities systematically munched their way through virtually their entire rations.

It was a poor start for their adventure. The contestants are cut off from the outside world and viewers of the show decide the fate of the stars - whether or not they eat and how long they stay on the show.

The public can phone in to single out one of the celebrities to carry out a task which determines whether the group eats or goes hungry.

In the second week of the show, hosted by Ant and Dec, viewers will vote for which celebrity they want to evict, until one person is left the winner.

Boxer Benn has attracted the most support from betting punters, with Coral slashing odds of his winning the show from 4-1 to 7-2.

Nell McAndrew remains the favourite at 5-2, with veteran DJ Tony Blackburn also on 7-2.

Coral’s David Stevens said: "Although it’s early days, the winner of this contest is likely to be the least annoying rather than the most appealing."

In the opening show, the contestants were given lessons on how to recognise poisonous snakes, light fires, gut and cook fish, dress wounds and orienteer.

The show is set in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments in Northern Queensland where temperatures can reach a sweltering 37C.

It is home to deadly spiders the size of dinner plates and over 35 species of snake, including three-metre long pythons.

The eight will be filmed 24 hours a day and there will be live nightly broadcasts on ITV1 for two weeks, with extra footage on ITV2.

All money raised from the phone line voting goes to charity.