• February 18, 2003

Ten celebrities will be helicoptered into a remote camp in the Australian rain forest and appear on an hour-long reality series every day for 15 nights on a new ABC series. I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here will begin tonight at 10 and features actress Maria Conchita Alonso, model Tyson Beckford, TV host "Downtown" Julie Brown, dancer/choreographer Cris Judd, Robin Leach, Melissa Rivers and others. Standup comic/improv performer John Lehr is host. Based on the British show of the same name, the series will let American viewers on the other side of the globe vote to control the action via the phone and the Internet. The series will follow the U.K. version, showing how 10 celebrities fare without their accustomed luxuries, as they experience living with some of the world's most dangerous bugs and snakes. The celebrities will be living out in the open, sleeping on makeshift cots in primitive conditions and trading their gourmet meals for rice, beans and water. And all under the control of the viewing audience. In week one, they will be at the mercy of television viewers who single out a celebrity a night to undertake a dare -- "The Bush Tucker Trial" -- in order to win extra food for the rest of the group. In the final week, viewers vote to keep their favorite contestant in the camp; the one receiving the least number of votes each night is forced to leave. The lone, remaining celebrity at the end of the trial will emerge as the King - or Queen - of the Jungle and win a sizable sum for their favorite charity .