ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! has opened its 2025 series with a strong ratings win over rival reality hit The Celebrity Traitors, sharpening a growing contest between ITV and the BBC for control of the UK’s big family entertainment slot. According to Deadline, the jungle show’s first episode drew an average overnight audience of around 6.6 million viewers on Sunday night, climbing to a peak of about 7.3 million midway through the broadcast.
The comparison that matters inside the industry is not with past I’m A Celebrity launches, but with the BBC’s recent breakout success. The Celebrity Traitors’ first episode last month opened slightly lower, at roughly 6.1 million overnight viewers, around half a million behind ITV’s latest launch. That slower start did not stop the castle-based game from building into one of the year’s biggest television stories, with word of mouth and social media buzz driving steady growth across its nine-episode run.
By its finale, The Celebrity Traitors had set a high bar. Figures released last week show the closing episode averaged 11.1 million viewers, rising to a peak of 12 million, with 1.9 million live requests on the BBC’s streaming platform, the highest live figure recorded for an entertainment show there.
A detailed analysis in The Guardian highlighted how the series managed to draw younger audiences back to live viewing, reporting that more than half of 16- to 24-year-olds who watched the show in its time slot did so live or later that evening, and that around 81% of viewers in that age group who were watching linear TV at the time chose the finale.
That performance has encouraged the BBC to commission a second Celebrity Traitors run for 2026, while producers and media analysts sift through the reasons for its success, including its heavy use of social clips, fan-made memes and tie-ins with platforms such as TikTok. Commentators in the UK press have suggested that the show’s twist-heavy structure and unpredictable casting have made older formats look safe by comparison, arguing that I’m A Celebrity may need to refresh its familiar mix of trials and campsite tensions if it wants to match the newer series’ cultural impact.
For now, ITV can point to a valuable early win: its long-running franchise has edged the BBC’s newcomer on launch night and reinforced its status as a reliable draw at the heart of the winter schedule. The larger picture is less settled. Celebrity Traitors still holds the year’s biggest single-episode entertainment audience, and its appeal to younger viewers gives the BBC a powerful asset as both broadcasters prepare their next moves in a ratings battle that now extends from the living room to social media feeds.
