TV bosses defend I'm A Celebrity ratings

ITV denied today that its flagship show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Was leading the network into a financial black hole.

Reports that the slump in the number of viewers tuning in to the celebrity antics could leave ITV facing a £70m (€100m) deficit were “inaccurate”, a spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman admitted that viewing figures were down by two million per episode on January’s series when an average of 10.1 million viewers regularly tuned in to watch romance blossom between Jordan and Peter Andre.

In Ireland the show is broadcast on TV3 also.

Despite the average audience for the show dropping to 8.1 million for the current series, the spokeswoman insisted that the programme was performing well and put the slump down to a more competitive autumn schedule.

She said the second episode of the show, which was aired on November 22, had pulled in the highest number of viewers of any programme on any channel this autumn.

“It’s attracting audiences of over 8 million on average – if that’s not a successful show, I don’t know what is. It is not just winning its slot, it is trouncing its competitors,” she said.

Meanwhile, in the jungle, nightclub owner Fran Cosgrave has emerged as the odds-on favourite to be the next celebrity to be evicted from the camp, with Sophie Anderton and Janet Street-Porter also both in danger from the public vote.

Cosgrave is the solid 1/3 favourite. Joe Pasquale is favourite to win with the most likely challenge looks to be from Paul Burrell.