Last Updated: 18 October 2026
Im a celebrity 2026 is already the most talked-about reality series of the autumn, even though the jungle camp is still empty, the campfire is unlit and not a single celebrity has yet been photographed arriving in Australia clutching a hat and looking nervous about the local wildlife.
This guide explains everything that can honestly be said about the new series before it begins. We set out when the launch is expected in mid-November 2026 and why the exact date still has to be confirmed by ITV, explain how the format works from the first Bushtucker Trial to the crowning of the King or Queen of the Jungle, look honestly at the rumour season without treating gossip as fact, and show you how to watch every episode live and on catch-up. Our complete guide to im a celebrity 2026 will not invent a line-up, a launch date or a single trial that has not happened.
What is im a celebrity 2026? It is the 2026 series of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, ITV’s long-running reality show in which celebrity campmates live in the Australian jungle, face Bushtucker Trials to win food, and are voted out by the public until one is crowned King or Queen of the Jungle.
What I’m a Celebrity 2026 Is: A Plain Definition
Im a celebrity 2026 is the 2026 series of ITV’s reality programme I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, in which a group of famous campmates live together in a jungle camp in Australia, earn their food through Bushtucker Trials and face public votes until one winner remains. That single sentence contains the whole appeal: fame on the outside, hunger and homesickness on the inside, and nowhere to hide from either the cameras or each other.
The series is hosted by Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly, known to viewers simply as Ant and Dec, who present from a studio overlooking the camp and act as the audience’s guides to everything happening below. Their role is part commentary, part comedy double act and part gentle mischief: they explain the trials, react to the campmates’ highs and lows, and deliver the results of the public votes each night. For many viewers, the presenters are as much a part of the programme’s identity as the camp itself, and the campmates in im a celebrity 2026 will be measured, teased and championed by the pair just as every camp before them has been.
The camp is in New South Wales, Australia, where a clearing in the jungle becomes home for around three weeks. There is no hotel, no catering and no contact with the outside world: campmates sleep outdoors in hammocks and basic beds, wash in a jungle shower and waterfall pool, cook over an open fire and rely on the basic ration of rice and beans unless trials and challenges add something better to the pot. Stripped of stylists, agents, phones and home comforts, celebrities become simply campmates, and that levelling is the heart of the format.
When Is I’m a Celebrity 2026 Expected to Start?
The honest answer is that im a celebrity 2026 is expected in mid-November 2026, with the exact date to be confirmed by ITV. That expectation is based on the series’ recent pattern rather than on any confirmed announcement: recent series have launched on a Sunday in mid-to-late November, running nightly through late November and into early December, and there is no sign that ITV intends to move one of its most reliable programmes out of the slot it has made its own. Treat mid-November as a firm expectation and any precise date you see elsewhere, at this stage, as a guess.
ITV traditionally confirms the launch date much closer to transmission, once its autumn schedules are locked, and the official line-up is traditionally revealed about a week before launch. That reveal is a set piece in itself: each campmate is named, photographed in their jungle clothing and introduced with a short interview about their fears, their hopes and the luxury item they have chosen to bring into camp. Until that moment, nothing about the cast is official, however confidently it may be reported, and the launch date for im a celebrity 2026 should be treated the same way: expected, widely anticipated, and not yet confirmed.
The most reliable places to check as November approaches are ITV’s own listings and guides such as the Radio Times guide to the 2026 series’ release date, which tracks official announcements as they are made. When ITV does confirm the date, expect the pattern of recent years: a Sunday-night launch show on ITV1, longer than a standard episode, in which the campmates are introduced, split into their first groups and sent into camp to face their first night, their first meal of rice and beans, and almost certainly their first trial vote.
How the Series Works: Trials, Tokens and Eliminations
The format of im a celebrity 2026 follows the structure viewers know well, because the programme has refined it over many series rather than reinventing it. Food is the currency of camp life. The basic ration keeps campmates alive but hungry, and almost everything beyond it has to be earned, which is why the trials matter so much: a camp that eats well is a happy camp, and a camp that goes hungry starts to argue about portions, effort and each other. The series runs, in broad terms, like this:
- Launch and arrival: the campmates are introduced and enter camp, usually after an opening challenge, and settle into jungle life with the basic ration and their first camp duties.
- The trial routine begins: each day the public votes for which campmate faces the Bushtucker Trial, and the stars they win decide how many meals the camp eats that night.
- Challenges and treats: alongside the trials, smaller challenges offer treats, letters and luxuries, while the Dingo Dollar Challenge sends two campmates off to earn treats that the rest of camp must answer a question to unlock.
- Votes turn to eliminations: partway through the series the public vote changes from choosing trial victims to voting to save favourites, and campmates begin to leave one by one.
- The final: the last campmates face final trials, the public chooses its winner, and Ant and Dec crown the King or Queen of the Jungle in the final show.
Bushtucker Trials are the set pieces: one or more campmates face heights, water, confined spaces, jungle creatures or famously unappetising eating challenges to win stars, and each star is worth a meal for camp. In the early episodes the public votes for who takes part, which is why the campmate who screams loudest in the first trial often finds themselves chosen again and again. Later, the campmates themselves decide who goes, and volunteering, or refusing to volunteer, becomes part of camp politics. Tokens and stars are never just prizes in im a celebrity 2026; they are the difference between a full pot and another night of rice and beans, and everyone in camp knows exactly who earned dinner and who brought back nothing.
Eliminations give the series its second half. Once the voting switches to saving rather than selecting, the campmate with the fewest votes leaves across the famous bridge each night, pausing for an interview with Ant and Dec about their time inside. The numbers shrink, the bonds deepen and the final approaches, until a small group remains to contest the last episodes. The winner is decided by the public alone, and the crowning, with the new King or Queen of the Jungle seated on the throne in camp, closes the series.
The Rumour Mill: How the Line-Up Story Works Each Autumn
Every October, talk about im a celebrity 2026 turns to one question above all others: who is going in? October is peak rumour season, and it follows a familiar pattern. Names linked in press reports begin to circulate, each described as being in talks, being approached or being a target for producers, and each story is repeated widely enough that it can start to feel like confirmed news. It is not. A rumour is a report about a possibility, and in jungle terms the only confirmation that counts is ITV’s official reveal, traditionally published about a week before launch.
That is why this guide does not name specific rumoured celebrities. Naming names linked in press reports, without any confirmation, would present guesswork as a cast list, and every year some of the most confidently rumoured names never appear while the actual line-up includes people nobody predicted. The rumour mill has its own logic: agents like their clients mentioned, newspapers need autumn entertainment stories, and the programme benefits from weeks of free speculation. None of that makes a rumour true, and readers serve themselves best by enjoying the speculation as speculation.
What the official reveal usually includes is worth knowing, because it turns rumour into fact in a single day. Expect each confirmed campmate to be announced with an official photograph, a short biography and quotes about why they signed up, what they fear and what they will miss. Expect, too, the usual mix that producers aim for each year: household names from television, sport, music and comedy alongside younger faces from social media and reality television, and at least one booking designed to surprise everyone. Autumn is also a busy season for celebrity reality formats generally, and readers following the wider schedules may enjoy our guide to the celebrity traitors cast, another series where the line-up reveal is half the fun.
How to Watch I’m a Celebrity 2026 and Its Spin-Off
Watching im a celebrity 2026 is straightforward, and the series is built for nightly viewing across its run. Your main options are:
- Live on ITV1: watch each episode as it airs in the evening on ITV1, which is also the safest way to see trial results and eliminations before social media does.
- Stream live or catch up on ITVX: episodes stream on ITVX, ITV’s streaming service, so you can watch live or catch up on demand on a phone, tablet, laptop or smart TV.
- The ITV2 spin-off: the sister show, known as Unpacked in recent series, airs on ITV2 with extra interviews, unseen moments and discussion of each night’s episode.
- Official clips and extras: ITV publishes highlights, trial clips and camp extras through its official programme pages and channels throughout the run.
The starting point for episodes, clips and official information is the I’m a Celebrity series guide on Wikipedia, which tracks every series, its campmates and its winners, while episodes and catch-up sit on ITVX. The spin-off deserves a mention of its own: Unpacked, as the ITV2 sister show has been called in recent series, is where evicted campmates give their first long interviews, presenters and guests dissect the night’s trial, and viewers get the behind-the-scenes detail that the main show has no room for. For devoted fans it is part of the nightly ritual rather than an optional extra.
One practical warning applies every year: eliminations and trial results are discussed online within minutes of broadcast, and the winner’s name trends the moment it is announced. If you are watching on catch-up, even a day behind, mute the relevant words on social media and avoid entertainment news homepages until you are up to date. The jungle keeps its secrets only for viewers who watch live, or who guard their timelines as carefully as the campmates guard the fire.
Why I’m a Celebrity Remains a Ratings Banker
Few programmes reach a 2026 series at all, and fewer still arrive as an event the whole country schedules around. When im a celebrity 2026 arrives in November, it will do so as one of ITV’s most dependable programmes: a nightly series, running across consecutive evenings at the darkest, coldest point of the year, offering warmth, comedy and light jeopardy at exactly the moment audiences most want them. That reliability is not an accident, and it is why broadcasters describe programmes like this as bankers.
The format’s strengths are simple and durable. The trials are instantly understandable television: a famous person, an unpleasant challenge, and dinner at stake. The camp supplies the soap opera, as tired, hungry people form friendships, fall out over chores and washing-up, and reveal more of themselves in three weeks than years of interviews usually manage. Ant and Dec provide the warmth and the jokes, the public provides the power through its votes, and the nightly rhythm turns casual viewers into committed ones, because missing two episodes in this format means missing a feud, a trial and possibly an elimination.
It also belongs to a small family of celebrity reality formats that still cut through in a fragmented viewing age, the same autumn landscape that includes our guide to celebrity race across the world 2026. What the jungle has over almost all of them is ritual: the bridge, the trials, the dingo dollars, the letters from home and the crowning are beats the audience knows by heart and returns for, the way it returns for a favourite song. Familiarity, in this case, is not a weakness in the format; it is the format.
When does I’m a Celebrity 2026 start?
The 2026 series is expected to launch on ITV1 and ITVX in mid-November 2026, in line with recent series, which have launched on a Sunday in mid-to-late November. ITV has not yet confirmed the exact launch date, so mid-November should be treated as an expectation rather than a confirmed date. Check ITV’s official listings nearer the time for the confirmed date.
Who presents I’m a Celebrity 2026?
Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly, known as Ant and Dec, host the series. They present from a studio overlooking the camp in New South Wales, Australia, introduce the Bushtucker Trials, react to life in camp and announce the results of the public votes, including the crowning of the King or Queen of the Jungle in the final.
Where is I’m a Celebrity filmed?
The series is filmed in the Australian jungle in New South Wales. The celebrity campmates live in an outdoor camp with hammocks and basic beds, an open fire for cooking, a jungle shower and a waterfall pool. They have no contact with the outside world and rely on a basic ration of rice and beans unless they win more food in trials and challenges.
How do Bushtucker Trials and eliminations work?
In Bushtucker Trials, campmates face challenges involving heights, water, confined spaces, jungle creatures or eating trials to win stars, and each star is worth a meal for camp. Early in the series the public votes for who takes part. Later, the vote switches to saving favourites, the campmate with the fewest votes leaves, and the last campmate remaining is crowned King or Queen of the Jungle.
How can I watch I’m a Celebrity 2026?
Watch live on ITV1 each evening during the run, or stream live and catch up on ITVX, ITV’s streaming service, on a phone, tablet, laptop or smart TV. The ITV2 sister show, known as Unpacked in recent series, adds evicted campmates’ first interviews, unseen moments and discussion of each night’s episode.
Who is in the I’m a Celebrity 2026 line-up?
Nobody has been officially confirmed yet. The official line-up is traditionally revealed about a week before launch, and until ITV publishes it, every name circulating in October is a rumour from press reports rather than a confirmed booking. Some rumoured names each year never appear, so wait for ITV’s official reveal for the real cast.
Conclusion: What to Watch For in 2026
So the position, stated plainly, is this: im a celebrity 2026 is expected in mid-November 2026 on ITV1 and ITVX, with the exact date to be confirmed by ITV and the official line-up traditionally revealed about a week before launch. Ant and Dec will host from above the camp in New South Wales, the campmates will live on rice, beans and whatever the trials provide, and the public will decide, first the trial victims and then the winner, until a King or Queen of the Jungle is crowned. Everything else you read this month, treat as rumour until ITV says otherwise.
Bookmark this guide for im a celebrity 2026, check ITV’s official page as November arrives for the confirmed launch date and line-up, and be watching ITV1 on launch night. The fire will be lit, the first trial vote will open, and for three weeks the jungle will once again be the warmest, hungriest and most entertaining place on British television.
