Noel Edmonds has become the shock first star to be booted out of I’m A Celebrity 2018.
The 69-year-old looked stunned to be named as the person to go, having gone into the show as a big name late entry with a £500,000 appearance fee paid by ITV.
He even stated he would retire from TV if he won the show and was crowned king of the jungle, but he fell a long way short of that.
After the surprise news was broken in camp, he said: “Yes absolutely. Right, am I supposed to look disappointed? It’s been great, really really terrific.”
He was only up for the public vote off after being caught "cheating" during The Immunity Games and denied the win by show bosses.
The Chase’s Anne Hegerty, The Vamps guitarist James McVey, Inbetweener’s star Emily Atack, ex-EastEnder Rita Simons, football manager Harry Redknapp were also up for the chop.
After some sad goodbyes, the evicted campmate made his way across the bridge for an exit interview with presenters Holly Willoughby and Dec Donnelly.
Noel told them: “I am disappointed and relieved in equal message and so excited I am going to be back with Liz.”
“The whole thing is such a weird experience. Since I came in here I said I was just going to be myself. I havent done anything for effect.
“Every day in the dawn I have been going to the raised area I call Noel’s nest.
“I have been doing meditation and refelcting how fortunate I am and have been reflecting how grateful.
“The broadcasting opportunities I have been giving by the BBC, Channel 4 and now ITV. This is in the top 10 life experiences for me.”
Noel entered the show as The Emperor and was in charge of camp for several days building a real bond with Harry Redknapp and then taking part in a memorable eating trial with him called Nero To Zero.
On Harry, he said: “My right hand man who has taken bafflement and bewilderment to new levels.
Earlier in the show, Dec had joked about the shame of being the first contestant to leave the jungle.
He said: "There is no shame in being first out. To remind them of that I have made them a little badge."
The cheeky presenter proudly showed off his bold badge, which had the word "loser" in massive writing, with "not a" barely distinguishable in a tiny front.
Dec also claimed that the emotional after dinner speeches should have been called "after no-dinner speeches" because the "losers" had rice and beans.
The campmates who were up for the vote off gave a short speech to the rest of the group during their last night together.
Rita said: "I hope that whatever time you have left in here is amazing and I’m not saying anything too deep so I don’t get emotional but I love you all and that’s my barrier going up."
Giving her speech, Emily said: “Coming here I realised I don’t need to be anything other than myself, I’ve been stripped bare here and not a single person has judged a bone in my body. You’ve made me the happiest I’ve been in such a long time, thank you.”
Fan favourite Anne told them: “I didn’t think I would do something that was going to make me feel so exposed and vulnerable and people wouldn’t judge me for it. You have all been incredibly kind when I needed kindness so I will miss you all terribly.”
On his experience, James said: “I think we all came in here thinking we knew who we were but I’ll be leaving as someone else as I’ve learned so much from all of you. It’s the most bizarre set up and none of us will ever do this again and what we do in here is so raw.”
Reflecting on his stay, Noel: “It wasn’t easy coming in late so thank you for making it easy as you can, earlier today I was reflecting on how fortunate I am in my life and thinking about true experiences and I wasn’t expecting this to get into the top ten of all time.”
Harry added: “I’ve felt so at home here and loved every minute being around you all. There is not one person here I could say anything bad about, every one of you has been incredible to me and to each other. It’s been an unbelievable experience. I don’t understand what you are going on about but I love every one of you.”
I’m A Celebrity airs tonight on ITV at 9pm
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