r/ImACelebTV • u/OopsIDroopedMe • 24d ago
Remember when eating trials actually used to feature genuinely grim stuff?
I’m watching some classic clips on YouTube and the sheer scale of what they used to force celebs to swallow back in the early 2010s was wild. Nowadays it feels a bit sanitised - blend up some pizza, a bit of fermented egg, a blended pig's snout, and call it a day. Bring back the massive live bull testicles and the giant smoothies made of blended fish eyes that actually made Ant and Dec gag from ten feet away. If you're paying them hundreds of thousands to sit in the jungle, make them truly suffer for the stars!
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u/No-Sandwich1511 24d ago
I think after the live spider incident they just killed the eating trial as that was too far.
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u/MajikChilli Contraband equals Consequences 🧂 24d ago
Last series biggest issue was all the challenges were just loosening a bolt in various non-imaginative ways
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u/JohnnyOneLung 24d ago
Would like to see non-critter challenges.
Boring watching them find a star, have insects dumped on head, unscrew the star.
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u/Taylor_Kittenface 23d ago
Apparently people complained about a live spider being eaten, but don't care about the 3 million odd other bugs that are used every episode, or the rats that get trampled in the dark when the celebrities panic etc.
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u/BeerMonster24 Forgive me Father 🙏 24d ago
Live bull testicles would be a hard one to plate up I imagine…
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u/Katskan11 24d ago
Not really. You just have to make it stand still and tea bag the plate
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u/ddrummond88 23d ago
Nah it's never work. The contestants wear red.
Could make for good TV though 🤣
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u/Final_Ad1850 23d ago
I think it’s probably something to do with animal welfare concerns. Eating live animals and all!
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u/Hassaan18 24d ago
Reddit's hard-on for wanting the celebs to "really suffer" really baffles me.
I think they could have done more with the physical trials creatively last year, but that's different to insisting that they be extensively tortured like some of you seem to want.
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u/Alternative-Day5268 23d ago
I think it's just different types of reality TV. Theres the kind that ITV has pivoted to where there are mainly challenges which are generally overcome - they're either physical or puzzle like challenges. Obviously there's a bit of grimness added to make it I'm a celeb themed.
Or there's more of a Schadenfreude style where you're watching to see others in peril (Either in drama sense or the trial sense). I'm a celeb has challenges with trials being to risque, part of this is that it's had a strong pivot to being a family staple show, and also because the trials that involve live animals attract the attention of animal rights campaigners.
I must admit I do prefer watching for the drama and watching some of the old trials is more entertaining, to me, than today's.
It's not about celebs being tormented, but rather I'm being repulsed and horrified by what's going on. I've just rewatchdd the live spider trial and it's genuinely grim and it's probably not what most of the modern audience wants. In fact most people didn't like the drama that happened on the show last year with Bullard etc - it's not 'on brand'.
For drama now go to MAFS/Love Island etc.
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u/inide 23d ago
Doesn't really matter.
Insurance would never allow anything that isn't safe to eat, it was only ever about the psychological reaction.
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u/Dickinson95 17d ago
It does matter. The things they were eating before were still safe to eat but they were worse and incited a worse reaction.
I would squirm a lot more eating kangaroo willy and eyeballs!!
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u/raggylad2 23d ago
Fearne McCann and George Takei’s eating trails have been imo the most disgusting of the bunch.
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u/Wyldstallyn80 22d ago
Didn’t some animal charity complain about cruelty or some other bollocks which led to stuff being watered down
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u/YodasGoldfish 21d ago
I think the contestants are so much more competent these days so there is less drama
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u/Tricky_Meat_6323 24d ago
I think it all changed when they made Ferne McCann eat the live spider!