I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here is back in South Africa in 2023 with Dr. Chris Brown and Julia Morris at the helm.
While the past few years has seen the popular series pre-filmed in Australia, this year, the cast and crew have flown back to the jungle, a place the “Good Doctor” and “Lady Julia” call “home”.
“It feels like going home,” Brown said in an interview with Mediaweek. “It’s been three years and it’s the spiritual home of the show. Everything just feels right over there.”
Speaking alongside Morris, he called what they do “the world’s weirdest breakfast show” because of the “live element” and the “time difference”; however, it’s somewhat magical, given that the treehouse is surrounded by “mist” in the mornings and the stunning views of South Africa.
Dr Chris Brown and Julia Morris weren’t “expecting” to leave the jungle
While the Australian outback had a distinctive feel for the series, both Morris and Brown were shocked about the quick departure they made at the start of COVID.
“We weren’t expecting to leave,” Morris said. “In 2020, we were shooting the show in January and by the end of January when we started to come home, there was still only kind of murmurs of shutdowns here and there and it certainly hadn’t reached Australia. We even left bits and pieces there.”
In fact, Morris left a walking stick, also known as a knob kiery, with a friend thinking that she would be able to use it the following year but as well know, the universe had other plans.
“We’ve headed back to see buddies and it definitely feels very special for sure.”
Dr Chris Brown’s departure from the series
Another “special” element of the 2023 season will be the fact that it’s Brown’s last, given that he is headed to Channel 7 in July. It’s a bittersweet moment for the pair, who have worked together on I’m a Celeb since 2015.
For Brown, he will miss “just laughing” and “calling this a job”.
“But what I’ll miss the most? Just turning up for work and not really knowing what what has happened overnight and just getting excited to bring the craziness of that jungle life to the forefront. It’s been a very privileged front row seat to have and something that I’ll always treasure. And obviously standing alongside Julia has been amazing too.”
He added: “I feel like every year we go to Africa and in the back of your mind, you’re thinking maybe it’s the last one, so at least for me there’s a degree of certainty around that and I can really try to really focus on enjoying it.”
What would normally be quite an untraditional pair, Brown and Morris have created fireworks together over the past eight years, revealing why they think this is.
“We are quite different people,” Brown said. “But I think where we approach so many things from very different angles. But where we meet in the middle is where the spark is. That’s kind of the magic of it all.”
Julia Morris and Dr Chris reveal why people keep coming back for I’m a Celebrity…
There’s a bit of an annual hullabaloo when it comes to I’m a Celeb fans that follow the show, specifically the ones that post on social media with comments like: “Never heard of them”, “And they are??”, “They’re a celebrity??”; but Brown and Morris think it’s hilarious.
“All they’re doing is showing which age group they are,” Morris said with a laugh. “Young people don’t know the oldest celebrities and the oldest people don’t know the youngest. Unless they’re on television every night, not everyone is going to know everyone.
“Plus, the bigger the celebrity, the less they give. They’ve got too much to lose.”
As for why they think people keep coming back to the show?
“I think because there aren’t actually a lot of television shows where you can come together with family and many different age groups and have a really good laugh,” Morris said while Brown added: “We like to surprise and we like to almost poke fun at ourselves, which is where we get a lot of our humour from.”
I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here premieres on Sunday, April 2 on 10 and 10Play.