I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here said goodbye to Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson on Thursday, April 20 after two weeks in the star-studded camp.
While fans of the 00s were sad to see him go, he knew his time was up, feeling like he couldn’t compete with younger stars like Nathan Henry, Domenica Calarco and Aesha Scott, who he said were having a “pissing contest” about the amount of followers they had.
“I had a massive crisis of confidence about four days ago, when I suddenly looked at these people around me and I thought, I’ve actually run out of steam and I don’t have anything that can really compare or contend with these wonderful people,” Dicko told Mediaweek after his elimination.
“There are people on the show, people — our friends — who have a purpose and a trajectory and approach, and they can use the profile really well.
“They’re working it in a way that is how they’re trained to be. These are guys who are now going to become famous and rich, without the need of any gatekeepers. They can command the conversation with their community, and their brand in a really spectacular fashion.”
For the aforementioned camp mates, social media is a tool that continues to keep them relevant; however, it’s not something that Dicko is interested in.
“it’s not my world, I don’t have social media. I’ve steadfastly refused to ever get on social media and so I kind of came into this knife fight with a feather and I’m not upset by that,” he said. “I feel it is what it is. I knew I couldn’t go deep on the show. I came hoping to give value. And I think I probably did.”
Dicko reveals why he left television
Even though the 60-year-old has appeared on Australian Idol, Celebrity Apprentice (which he won), My Restaurant Rules and Australia’s Got Talent to name a few, the past decade has seen him shy away from the spotlight.
“I left television about seven years ago, mainly when it left me,” he lamented. “I kind of got to a point where I ran out of options, [because] I never really had any discernible talent. The only talent I had was honesty and that’s kind of the only thing I went on with in this show and it worked for a while.”
Now, a talent manager, Dicko wants to just be a “normal person”.
“I ran away from media and I’ve been making the long road back to being a normal person. So, I stepped back into my old life for this, but I am gonna go back to being a normal person.”
Dicko reflects on the change in fan outcry from 20 years ago and reveals if he has any regrets
Dicko was propelled onto our screens almost two decades ago in the then highest-rating TV show, Idol; however, a comment about Paulini Curuenavuli’s gold dress saw him blasted in the headlines.
“Everyone’s different to what they were 20 years ago,” he said. “You’re totally different to what you were 20 years ago. Our world was different 20 years ago, there was no social media. When I said what I said about Paulini, the sort of kicking I got from Australian media was old school. These days, it would have been very, very different. These days, I would have been cancelled and hung out to dry.
“I can’t argue with that, but the world’s changed. There’s things that we can or can’t say.”
Paulini Curuenavuli and Dicko on Australian Idol. Ten.
When asked if he regretted that time in his life, he was determined that he did not.
“What’s the point of me regretting it? You know, it’s like, if I regret it, can we move on? No. People are still going to talk to me about that in 10 years time,” he said. “I’ve said every single thing I can say about that. I don’t know what I have left to say. No one needs to really speak to me about it. They could just Google to find everything I’ve ever said about it.
“So, I can’t regret it because it’s such a part of my legend and Paulini’s legend. People still talk about it, because it’s clearly something that still pushes people’s buttons. So, how can we regret starting that conversation?”
I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here continues on Sunday at 7.00 pm on 10 and 10Play.