‘I'm a Celebrity’ axed on Saturday and Sunday due to extreme weather

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ITV says technical difficulties caused by the extreme wind gusts has made it unsafe to produce the programme

TV tonight It’s time for Ant and Dec to announce this year’s winner
Ant and Dec host ’I'm a Celebrity’ (Image credit: ITV)

ITV's celebrity reality series I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! will not screen at all this weekend because of damage caused by extreme weather in north Wales.

The series, which has live broadcast elements in it, will be suspended due the technical difficulties caused by conditions in the area.

An ITV spokesperson said I’m A Celebrity 2021 would be replaced tonight and tomorrow night in the ITV schedules by compilation shows (voiced by Ant & Dec) featuring best moments from previous series.  

The publicist continued that the ‘celebrities are safe and currently within the Castle. However our production base sustained significant damage during last night's storm. As a consequence, only essential crew are currently on site... the wellbeing of our cast and crew is of utmost priority to us. ”

The huge wind gusts and bad weather brought by Storm Arwen, is it is known, have caused widespread damage in the north and west of Britain.

The BBC has reported that three people have been killed as a result of the bad weather.

One person on social media tweeted footage of the production area during last night's storm, commenting “This is the damaged production marquee from the lights were all undercover, more than half the marquee ripped down by #StormArwen”

It has been a dramatic first week for the 21st series of the much-loved entertainment programme, with an intruder being caught on the castle set. A statement from the I’m a Celebrity team said: “A security breach was identified and an intruder was removed from the location with immediate effect.

“The safety of both our celebrities and our production crew remains our primary concern.”

As well, veteran TV presenter Richard Madeley left the show due to Covid precautions, having suffered a ‘funny turn’ on Thursday night. Despite a clean bill of health, Richard wasn’t allowed to return to the camp because of their protocols.

We will update with more news about the next screening of I’m a Celebrity as soon as it's announced.

Patrick McLennan
Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.