It’s somewhat impressive to spend 30 years presenting without getting caught up in any live TV showdowns. But Ant and Dec’s drought of true drama came to an end last week thanks to the monumentally chaotic I’m a Celebrity: South Africa live final.
There’s no denying this Geordie double act are national treasures with many strings to their bow. Love or hate them, they know how to deliver a live set piece, having performed adrenaline-inducing challenges including axe throwing, high-speed electric bike racing, and even jumping through a ring of fire on motorcycles, on their cosy variety show Saturday Night Takeaway. They’ve crowned millionaires on game shows and risked rubbing famous people up the wrong way with elaborate pranks. Their brand of live television mastery – which saw them win the National Television Awards’s presenting prize for 23 years running – is admirable, but falls very much in the sphere of structured entertainment. Enter stage left, Jimmy Bullard and David Haye.
Last week, the finale of an all-stars I’m a Celeb brought back all the contestants, eight months after what was easily the most explosive show in its history. The furore stemmed from one episode of the series, recorded in September 2025, in which former footballer Bullard quit a task despite knowing it would send him and soap star Adam Thomas, who he was paired with, crashing out of the competition. Thomas was not happy, angrily confronting Bullard – and in “unbroadcastable” scenes, Thomas hurled the c-word at him.
The final presented an unprecedented situation for the presenters. It was known that a showdown with Thomas was on the cards, after tensions had been left to simmer for months, and sure enough, it all kicked off: Ant and Dec found themselves interrupted by Bullard, who accused the show of editing the argument to make him look bad. Haye, who Thomas has since accused of being “manipulative” in camp, repeatedly chimed in for good measure. The usually relaxed presenting duo struggled to contain the chaos. “You weren’t there!” they bellowed at Haye and, in an extremely rare move, threw impartiality out the window when Bullard asked them outright if they thought Thomas’s behaviour had been intimidating. “I didn’t think it was,” Ant said. “And I was there.”
It was a response to an ever-evolving saga that’s captured the attention of those who haven’t watched I’m a Celebrity for years – and has continued to accelerate days after Thomas became the most defeated winner the show has ever crowned. The involved parties are still calling each other out – and Ant and Dec themselves had to play down embellished reports of a showdown they had with Bullard and Haye in the car park of the studio where the finale was filmed.
The fact remains that the finale was an uncharacteristically hostile viewing experience for I’m a Celeb fans – but also oddly thrilling to see Ant and Dec battling egos in a way they’ve never had to before. Since debuting in 2004, the series has prided itself on being a reality show devoid of drama; the feel-good antidote to social experiment Big Brother. If you wanted to see people tearing strips off one another, I’m a Celeb has never been the show for you.
Personal struggles aside, Ant and Dec have had an easy ride of it for too long, appearing to actively avoid controversy. This puts them on a different trajectory to another host who has been working relentlessly since the 1990s: Davina McCall. In 2020, McCall told The Independent: “I’ve always been attracted to trying to do something a bit different. I’ve always embraced shows that some people would be disgusted by. The number of times I’ve said to myself: ‘This could be a career ender.’”
They’ve no doubt been at the heart of contentious situations – all eyes were on them when Nigel Farage was an I’m a Celebrity contestant in 2023. The series was described as “reputational rehab” for the former Ukip boss, whose political career seemingly strengthened after his stint in the jungle. But if Ant and Dec weren’t happy with his appearances on the show, they never once showed it. They left the tough conversations to their campmates and instead softly mocked Farage in scripted moments from the comfort of their studio. This is a far cry from McCall, and even her one-time Big Brother replacement Emma Willis, who would not be afraid to ask hard questions to divisive housemates. In 2018, in an interview that would make Ant and Dec bristle, Willis grilled former Emmerdale star Roxanne Pallett on an incident dubbed “punchgate”. Pallett had falsely accused Coronation Street’s Ryan Thomas – brother of I’m a Celeb: South Africa star Adam – of physically assaulting her during a play fight.
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Addressing such presenting challenges in 2024, Willis told The Independent: “Even if it’s not down to you, you are the person that is held accountable for it in the press because you’re the face of it. It’s not my job to be an a***hole to somebody, it’s my job to ask.”
These are wise words that Ant and Dec could afford to listen to. They’ve long been walking poster boys for impartiality in a way other hosts have not been able to be. A more cynical person would suggest that it took two angry people to question I’m a Celebrity’s integrity for the pair to get involved. But dare we say it was good to see them floundering a little, acting off the cuff and – shock, horror! – sharing an opinion.
