Debunked: Exactly which chores the I’m A Celebrity campmates *really* have to do in the jungle

One thing guaranteed to cause drama on I’m A Celebrity is the dreaded chores rota. Barry and Danny took over as camp leaders this weekend, and had to divide up all the tasks among their campmates. Not all of their decisions were especially popular, to put it mildly.

The chores rota is one of the weird rules the I’m A Celebrity campmates have to stick to. To help you fully comprehend the drama this week, here’s an overly thorough explanation of exactly which chores the I’m A Celebrity campmates really have to do, and which are pretty fake. I would definitely want to be on camp maintenance, because the TV crew does like 99 per cent of it for you.

Washing-up

Yes, two celebs really do have to wash up all the other campmates’ cutlery and those metal containers they eat out of. Surely this is the grimmest job, because it must take a small age. And imagine having to pick off the fossilised flecks of crocodile butthole or whatever from other people’s saliva-ladened forks.

The campmates chuck all their bowls in a bucket for two people to wash up
(Image via ITV)

The washing up often causes drama because it’s one of the most heavy-going chores. Jane Moore was pretty irritated when Barry and Danny told her to do the washing up last night. She accused them of being ageist and sexist, and complained it “seems much like the 1950s”.

Fetching firewood

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Sorry, but this chore is another illusion. This task is part of the “camp maintenance” section of the chores rota. It caused some serious drama over the weekend. Jane and Dean’s allocated chore was to collect firewood. Jane went off to collect the firewood, thinking Dean was right behind her. The celebs are discouraged from wandering off through the jungle by themselves. Dean was having a nap. The Corrie actor Alan tried to wake up Dean, since it’s his job to go with Jane. Dean groaned and didn’t move. Alan went after Jane instead. Dean eventually caught up with them both, and had a go at Alan for making him look lazy in front of everyone. He repeatedly complained that Alan should have given him a minute to get going. What tea.

The real mystery is how Dean managed to get to sleep with so many people chatting around him?
(Image via ITV)

The thing is, gathering firewood is probably the easiest of all the chores in the I’m A Celebrity camp. The celebs aren’t really expected to fetch axes and hack down a tree. The production team leaves a stash of chopped, seasoned and dried logs ready. The celebs only have to carry it from round the corner to the camp. Surely this is the easiest chore on the whole rota?

Camp water

The ambiguously named “camp water” on the I’m A Celebrity chores rota refers to fetching water. According to the 2014 campmate Carl Fogarty, the celebrities got water from a big barrel and were advised to boil it to be extra safe.

He told WaterAid, “The water from the barrel didn’t look to dirty but we were still advised to boil it, even for brushing our teeth.”

He added, “The best thing about being selected for a challenge was that there were cold bottles of mineral water available.”

We’ve seen celebrities lugging big green containers of water around camp, so I’m guessing the people assigned to “camp water” have to fill those up from a tap somewhere and take them back to camp? It must be quite the arm workout. But they’re not expected to gather rainwater themselves or anything like that.

All the cooking

I would be struck down by food poisoning within a day
(Image via ITV)

I swear the most challenging part of the cooking chores is that only the two of the I’m A Celebrity cast are allowed to do it at once. Pretty much every year there’s some kind of drama when the more competent cooks are assigned another chore, but keep pestering the people whose job it is to cook. Tulisa is a bit guilty of this in 2024.

Yes, the campmates do really have to cook rice, beans, and miscellaneous Australian animals over the campfire. No, they’re not allowed any seasoning. Tulisa was forced to hand over the contraband salt which Melvin brought into the camp this year.

Cleaning the dunny

This task comes under “camp maintenance” and it’s also a bit of a lie. No, the I’m A Celebrity campmates don’t really have to scrub each other’s sh*t off the toilet seat. I’m guessing that cleaning the toilet properly would require a lot of chemicals and health and safety forms, so it’s just easier for a poor unfortunate member of the production team to do it?

The cricketer Phil Tufnell, who won the show way back in 2003 when low-waisted jeans were cool and dinosaurs roamed the earth, spilled this secret in his memoir. He wrote, “A little secret here – the contestants remove the dunny, but don’t actually empty it. They carry it down to a camouflaged wooden hut, tap on the door, and clear off.

“It’s basically an extreme version of that old knock-and-run game where you wrap a bit of dog muck in newspaper, set it on fire, drop it by someone’s front door, ring the bell, and leg it.”

The chores rota in all its glory
(Image via ITV)

Although this was a while ago now, it totally lines up with what Sam Thompson said this week on the aftershow I’m A Celebrity… Unpacked. He complained about how revolting it is to clean out the dunny. “It’s quite gross, it really is. You get used to it but the first time, he is right, people freeze up for the first few days but then when it all lets loose it gets real heavy real fast!

“Well, you have 12 campmates in there at one point and you have to unscrew the lid so you have to look – I’m sorry this is a bit graphic – but you have to look at everything in there, and you wouldn’t believe the waste that come out.”

So, it sounds like celebs still only have to take the waste bucket out of the toilet and dump it somewhere for the crew to deal with it.

I’m sure it’s not a pleasant job. And if I saw a spider in the toilet, I would just run out screaming instead. But cleaning out the dunny isn’t quite the horror-fest which everyone makes it out to be. I can see now why Maura was keen to be allocated this chore. It probably only takes five minutes a day.

Featured images via ITV