I'm A Celebrity 2013: Cast Assessment

Well it is once again November, and in the world of television this means an influx of largely gentile and family friendly Reality TV shows to grace our TV screens, but this time Stricltly Come Dancing has begun shedding itself of it's dregg contestants and build up steam towards it's finale whilst the X Factor desperately attempts to cling on to there's in a desperate claim for tabloid inches, for most people however November in the Reality TV world largely belongs to I'm A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here. It's hard to believe that what started out as a overly simplified and Britified version of the classic series Survivor has managed to last 13 years on our airwaves, but that is what a comforting format and the family friendly humour of Ant and Dec managed to do for you, yes I do have some grievances with IAC, but it is welcoming enough and enjoyable enough television during the winter weeks, and with the 13th series just around the corner I think it's worthwhile that I check out this years batch of desperadoes looking to kick-start their career.

The one thing that I will begin with when looking at the cast is in all honesty a compliment, the argument could be made at this stage of a Reality Show's career the pulling power of the show and the demand for celebrities to appear can greatly be lowered, Celebrity Big Brother 12's cast of scripted reality rejects and unknown models (as good as they were) being a testament to that, yet IAC has in my eyes still managed to bring about a cast which does have some pulling power, with some names in particular really causing an excitement and interest which may have been lacking, so in this regard casting can be considered a success. However it has been noted in the past be it on IAC or on other reality shows that star power is not everything, more often then not in reality shows it is often the biggest names that fail to light the airwaves and instead falling to the last minute desperation signings who turn out to be the true stars of the show. Added to this I do have grievances with some of the potential entertainment factor of those cast, whilst other series' even pre show had names like Janice Dickinson and David Van Day who you knew could be amazing television nobody seems to fill that role of this group, and when also bear in mind that those expected to go far are some of the duller contestants pre show it does make me nervous that the series may run out of steam.

But general analysis over, let us look at our desperadoes:

Alfonso Ribeiro

For most people of my age it has been Alfonso which has caused the most interest and excitement, the character of Carlton Banks was in all honesty one of the most entertaining characters on television in the mid nineties, stealing the show in what was for all extensive purposes a glorified Will Smith vehicle, and the fact that his 2013 appearance on Graham Norton to do 'the Carlton dance' shows he is still a cult figure, so should Alfonso be anything like his character then we should have a potential contender on our hands. The big problem is however is that I don't think this will be the case, I am left with the feeling that people may have built up such a strong aura over Carlton that when they see Alfonso as the normal, middle aged man he is now that a lot of people will be underwhelmed in the same way a lot of people did with the similar Dustin Diamond during the recent Celebrity Big Brother. Alfonso does seem a pleasant enough chap, and a potentially MORP run in line with his pre-show status should in my eyes make him reach at least the middle stages, but  I cannot see him coming close to winning, even though he will be one which my heart will certainly be wanting to.

Amy Willerton

Amy is the biggest blank canvas going into this series, simply because myself and the British public at large know so little about her that it is hard to make a real assessment, this may be seen as an obvious detriment, as it means she will be coming in with the smallest fan base, but it in a strange way may also be a benefit to her. Whilst characters such as Alfonso will have to live up to pre show hype which they may not come close to Amy will have no expectations aside from being blatant eye candy, and as a result may take a lot of people by surprise should she come across as a decent girl, added to her chances is the fact that in past years we have seen eye candy contestants such as her make up for shortcomings in the personality department to go far, such as with Jessica-Jane during her series of the show. The one major shortcoming however for Amy could be her pre-show associations and the perception of those with the audience, namely that of Katie Price. The British public have been known to judge people as guilty by association, and should this side of Amy be brought to the public's eyes it could spell trouble for her. Also there are elements of her that could see her as an outside bet as the perennial trialist for the series. There is an outside chance of her going far, but the safe money is on her being an early boot.

David Emmanuel

IAC David's have always been known for being some of the best characters in the show's history, David Gest's crazy stories and name-dropping made him a cult figure in the show's history whilst David Van Day showed himself to be a fantastic, hammy and thoroughly entertaining villain, and on paper this newest David does have some elements to similarly shine, he too is notorious as being a bit of a name dropper himself and his demeanor could allow him to become somewhat of the grumpy old man of the camp. There are however two big issues which I have with David which make him skeptical as to how well he could do within the show, the first is that being one of the oldest contestants of the series David is going to struggle the most with the conditions, which in the process could limit the amount of entertainment and potential fun factor he may provide, we saw in previous years how the boisterous Colin Baker suffered in the conditions to the detriment of his success in the show, whilst the other is that I question how endearing a character David may be in the show, some of the camp's OTT characters in previous series were able to do so by maintaining a likability and pantomime quality within their actions, and I question whether or not David will be able to do this. This added with the likelihood of him being this year's 'medical grounds' contestant could see his stay in the jungle being a short one.

Joey Essex 

Unfortunately for myself Joey is my winner pick as of day one, and when you dissect his character it is very easy to see why, a cocktail of contrivance, endearing stupidity and good lucks which will directly appeal to the all important Tween demographic and you have somebody who on paper could be unbeatable, as well as this there is a also a real possibility of Joey due to his Towie connections being a contender as this year's perennial trialist, which if so will guarantee him more airtime and more opportunity for him to showcase and advertise himself to the audience. If there is a warning sign in regards to Joey it is that a lot of this was thought of during Mark Wright's IAC series two years ago, and yet despite a large amount of publicity and promotion from the producers he ended up losing out in the end, and with this year's potential Dougie Pointer coming in the form of Kian we may see the same again. As well as this there is also the perception of Towie from the casual audience, one which is largely negative and resulted in the backlashes of other Towie members such as Amy Childs, Kirk Norcross and Mario Falcone in their respective BB series, and with Joey being one of the more divisive Towie characters in the first place what is to say that the same may happen to him? In spite of this though he has to be considered the early man to beat.

Kian Egan

In my write-up on Joey I touched on the possibility of Kain being the Dougie Pointer to Joey's Mark Wright, and when you look at Kain on paper there is certainly a large number of factors which could lead him to being one of the strongest contenders to win, even though in all honesty I feel a lot of those are down to outside interests rather then Kian's own potential contribution to the show. It has been well established in the past that ex-boyband members have fared remarkably well on Reality Show's such as this, crossing over generation lines to appeal to the tween audience and to the housewives vote, both of which in a show such as IAC bare an utmost importance, and as a result even without much work I can see Kian making the later stages of the show quite easily. The question from that point however becomes how much further he can get, as I don't know about you but I don't seen Kian being that especially fun a character, hell I would even say that there is a probability being somewhat of a misery guts in camp, but the lucky break that he has though is that his pre-show fan base and appeal with the voting demographic is so large that even the most minimal amount of positivity should still see him being around to the end.

Laila Morse

No, this isn't Pink in 30 years time, this is the person who I have down as being potentially one of the show's biggest characters of the series, although whether that character is one which is positive or negative remains up in the air, although I do lean towards it falling on the latter side. Laila does have a lot going for her as a character, she is boisterous, seems quite up for a laugh as well as being relatively outspoken, and I can see a lot of people having the impression of her being a big fun-time grandmother figure, yet I actually feel what we actually have is somebody who could see themselves as somewhat of a grumpy battleaxe figure, while this may be a good thing from an entertainment point of view considering that batlleaxes are some of my favourite IAC archetype of year's past it is not going to be something which is going to win you favour with the public unfortunately. Even if she doesn't fall into this trap though the other worry Laila has is the potential to over-egg her entertainment pudding to the extent that the public end up being sick of her ala Rosemary. Either as a villain or as a try hard hero I don't see her lasting that long.

Lucy Pargenter

I'm probably covering my basis here with Lucy, and that is mainly because of the extreme ways in which her character could go, personally I lean towards the more positive side with her, but it will take two episodes before I can truly assess her. Lucy does have elements about her which can point to her being a success on the show, starring in a popular ITV show in Emmerdale she is going to appeal to a large amount of IAC's audience as both show's have a major crossover appeal in regards to audience, plus her character of Chas Dingle is one of the show's more popular ones which is going to help her in that regarded, as well as this being an ITV show she is going to receive a lot of support from many of ITV's sister shows such as Loose Women and This Morning, and we saw with Anthony Cotton how their support helped to prolong a rather unlikable character further in the show then he deserved to be. However Lucy does have an issue in regards to personality, whilst I certainly see her as a positive figure in the show I don't see her as one which is going to be that prominent within the show, dare I say under the radar, so for that reason she could also see herself being the supposed 'shock' early boot of the series. As I mentioned it will take a short while to suss Lucy out fully, but once we know the outcome of whether she's very short term or a potential finalist will be obvious.

Matthew Wright

Now I am going to take a minority and controversial opinion on this one in saying that I don't have that big of a problem with Matthew Wright, I find his hypocrisy surrounding Reality TV somewhat of a turn-off but on the whole I found the guy witty and intelligent, but I've always been known to pick the wrong side when it comes to Reality TV contestants and Matthew is going to be another example of that as I just don't see him being that relatable to the public and feel that a lot of his short-comings are going to see him as a target in the show regardless of how he comes across in the show, similar to what happened to Kilroy back in his series. That for me is a real shame as well because Matthew has elements which could be positive in the show, he seems very enthusiastic and I can imagine him being quite witty, plus I also picture him being somebody who would very likely try really hard in trials, which is apt as I have him as a contender for being this year's perennial trialist. Unless Matthew is absolutely outstanding in their I just don't see him and the British public taking off, and as a result he could be one of the first to go if not the first, but then again I said the same thing about Carol Thatcher...

Rebecca Adlington

Talk about getting your timing wrong. Had Rebecca Adlington of competed in IAC in the aftermath of London 2012 then this would have been locked up, she would have won the series and in my eyes it wouldn't have been a close contest, a year on however the shine from the Olympic games has worn off and now Rebecca will have to be judged on her own merits, and whilst I think there are aspects of her which could see her go far I don't believe she is the lock to win that she could have been. The main thing Rebecca has going for her is her physical skill, she is going to have a lot of people expecting her to be a fearless challenge dominator, and as we have seen with David Haye, Martina Navratilova and Fatima Whitbread challenge dominators have proven popular with the public, added to that Rebecca does seem to be a sweet pleasant girl, albeit maybe not the most exciting and I can imagine the British public finding her endearing when given the chance, the worry I have is that I don't think Rebecca is going to create herself enough chances to showcase that, she isn't an OTT character capable of airtime hogging, and I do have fears that when the opportunity comes for her to showcase her challenge skill and personality it may be too late.

Steve Davis

Being a big sports fan I am naturally going to want Steve to do well, but I do feel that there are a lot of people who have him down as a contender when even I know this isn't going to be the case. Steve is for me just not exciting television in my eyes, even back in his prime in the 1980's the guy was somewhat of a hate figure namely because of how dull he was, and I can't imagine 20 years time doing his entertainment potential the world of good, in all honesty if I was to see Steve break out as a character it could potentially be as the resident camp grump in a similar vein to Joe Bugner. What Steve does having going for him though is that veteran sportsmen have seen surprisingly good performances in years past in spite of not having the performances in the show to justify it, both Jimmy White and Willie Carson were largely under the radar and dull characters and yet both got themselves top five finishes, and it is a strong possibility of Steve receiving a similar bounce especially considering that arguably his star shone brighter then those two back in his prime. Look for Steve to make it to the later stages even if his personality arguably doesn't warrant it.

My finishing predictions (excluding the inevitable new arrivals):

1) Joey

2) Kian

3) Rebecca

4) Lucy

5) Steve

6) Alfonso

7) Amy

8) Laila

9) David

10) Matthew

Agree of disagree with my predictions? Don't be afraid to comment.