Fans’ fury as Adele thrown out of jungle... by app error
FURIOUS I’m A Celebrity fans have accused ITV bosses of fixing the results after a voting blunder on the show’s online app.
Viewers complained the vote should have been cancelled altogether after Radio One DJ Adele Roberts became the first to leave the jungle.
The chaos began after phone voters were told they were dialling to save their favourite campmate during Friday night’s elimination.
But online, a ‘wording error’ meant voters were told the opposite – and they were asked which contestant they wanted to boot off instead.
Instead of axing the elimination altogether, hosts Ant and Dec announced that the vote would be based solely on phone votes – which led to the departure of Miss Roberts.
Now fans are insisting that ITV fixed the vote. The DJ’s supporters branded the decision to go through with the elimination as unfair because her young fans were much more likely to use the app rather than the phone. One wrote on Twitter: ‘This is an absolute travesty!
‘How was Adele the first to go? Problems with the app... screams of an attempt to fix the voting!’
Another complained: ‘ImACeleb can fix the vote to suit them eh.’
Others insisted that without the blunder, former soap actor Cliff Parisi, 59, would have been axed.
One said: ‘I’m fuming. All the mums who rang up to vote for Cliff had their votes count but all the Radio 1 listeners who’d have used the app had their votes discarded.’
Miss Roberts – whose luxury camp item was a framed picture of singer Jane McDonald – was in the running for eviction along with former Girls Aloud star Nadine Coyle. The 40-yearold starred on Channel 4’s Big Brother in 2002 alongside the late Jade Goody and is one of just 29 non-white celebrities to appear on the show in 19 series.
There has never been an ethnic minority winner, and only four have made it to the top three. Ex-footballer John Fashanu was runner-up in 2003, while actor George Takei, athlete Fatima Whitbread and Emmerdale star Adam Thomas have come third.
A source close to the show told The Mail on Sunday: ‘You always vote to save your favourite but the wording on the app wasn’t clear, it said the opposite. Unfortunately, Adele has been the victim here, her demographic of much younger fans are far more likely to use the app rather than pick up the phone. This has caused a real mess.’
ITV sources said the ‘contingency’ is to use phone votes. Fans have been assured that the app has now been amended and the gaffe cannot happen again. An ITV spokesman said yesterday: ‘The app was never broken, it was a wording error... So everything will be fine for the next vote-off.’