Topics: Ant and Dec, Reality TV, ITV, Im A Celebrity, Celebrity, TV And Film
After I'm A Celeb presenter Ant McPartlin held his hands up over making some 'unprofessional' behaviour during Dean McCullogh's Bushtucker trial, a flood of fans have jumped to his defence.
Ant's comments - which were made following Thursday night's episode (21 November) - were in reference to Radio 1 DJ and jungle campmate Dean McCullough, after he yelled out those eight, dreaded words during a Bushtucker Trial for the second time this week.
I'm sure any fan of the ITV reality series will be able to agree that the 32-year-old has been having a tough time with the challenges.
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On Tuesday night (19 November) - just two episodes into the brand new instalment - Dean screamed out 'I'm a celebrity, get me out of here' just minutes into the 'Sinister Sarcophagus' trial.
The task saw Dean shut into a vertical coffin and asked a series of Egypt-related questions, with a star being released with every correct answer.
After he was joined by some creepy crawlies, however, the Northern Irish star gave up and begged producers to intervene, sacrificing each and every star he'd already been able to accumulate.
And as regular viewers will know by now, as soon as a celeb star shows weakness, they're often voted to complete in a further stream of trials - think of Helen Flanagan, or Gillian McKeith for example.
That's exactly what happened in Dean's case, and last night, he was elected to take on a second challenge, again calling, 'I'm a celebrity, get me out of here," just a matter of seconds in.
Following Dean's first plea, Ant and his co-host Declan Donnelly admitted on Tuesday night that they were 'disappointed' to see the trial end so prematurely, telling I'm A Celebrity Unpacked viewers they wanted to see the trial 'done properly'.
Dec began: "We are genuinely disappointed because you are prepared to do the whole trial and you want to see the whole thing."
"There’s a lot of time gone into the trials so when it’s called early your like, 'Aww'. That’s why we continued to ask him some questions after because we were really enjoying it."
Ant then jibed: "But on the other side we’re like 'oh, a bit of an early finish, let’s get out and get a suntan'."
He added: "Even in the past when we’ve had people not go through with it we’ve sometime bought the trials back because we want them to be seen."
In the days that followed, however, Ant felt compelled to apologise for his 'unprofessional' behaviour in Dean's latest Bushtucker trial.
"My annoyance came across on screen and I was quite unprofessional and I’m not happy about it," he said during last night's spin-off show. "You get to the point where you’re like 'What are you doing?'"
"I think you hid it quite well," Dec jokingly mocked.
However, Ant has said he'd be 'kinder' to Dean as he faces his fourth trial, adding: "I’m going to try good cop today."
Following the presenter's remarks, hundreds of viewers have since taken to social media to share their thoughts.
"He wasn't mean! Just said what everyone else was thinking," one fan penned.
Another claimed: "He was just doing what most of us were all thinking lol. I would have got annoyed as well. Please stop voting for him."
While a third continued: "Ant said everything people were thinking and saying at home."
