I’m A Celeb: Beloved tradition axed over COVID concerns

For the second year in a row, we won’t be seeing family members enter the I’m A Celebrity camp for an emotional reunion with their loved ones. In the previous series, the finalists got a visit from a loved one in their last 48 hours in camp as a morale booster before the final. However, this was scrapped last year due to Covid and will not be happening this year either. This is to maintain the Covid bubble in camp.

I’m A Celeb family visits axed

A source told The Sun:

Filming a TV show of this size in a pandemic is a nightmare, so ITV have had to trim the fat where possible. Sadly, despite it being really popular, they’ve decided that the friends and family segment just had to go.

They continued:

What with vaccines and the world learning to live with Covid, producers had hoped they’d be able to do it. It’s given some great content over the years, but it was just too hard to guarantee that one of them would not bring Covid, or any other illness, into the camp and jeopardise the final few days.

The source revealed that producers considered putting the family members into quarantine to allow them to make an appearance in camp, but in the end, decided it would be too complicated to organize. It would also mean lots of family members isolating for nothing, as only the final few campmates get the family visit.

When is the I’m A Celeb final?

We’re now in the final week of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! 2021. With Arlene Phillips the first celeb voted out last night, we’ll be seeing one more celeb leave camp every day until this Sunday, 12 December, when we’ll find out who is the new King or Queen of the Castle.