For the hundreds of celebrities who have entered the jungle on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, one aspect consistently takes them by surprise. It's not just the hunger or the isolation, but the overwhelming noise. The relentless hum of insects and the chorus of birdsong is so intense it can feel like an assault on the eardrums.
However, any new contestants arriving early to camp this week would have heard a very different sound echoing through the trees: the muffled cries of a journalist undergoing one of the show's most gruesome new challenges.
The Gruesome Challenge: Facing the Rotten Ringmaster
Tom Bryant, the Mirror's Associate Showbiz Editor, was given an exclusive preview of the infamous jungle ahead of the new series starting on the 12th of November 2025. His mission was to undertake a brand new Bushtucker trial dubbed the 'Rotten Ringmaster'.
The rules, delivered sternly by the show's trial producer James, were brutally simple. Tom had 60 seconds to eat a camel anus. He was forbidden from holding his nose, swallowing it whole, or washing it down with water.
Seated on a plank above a pool of dark, foul-smelling water, Tom was handed the specimen, impaled on a cocktail stick. Any fleeting hope that it might resemble a canapé vanished with the first bite.
How to describe the taste and texture? He compared it to a rubbery, crunchy, and hairy piece of leather, perhaps boiled to an unsettling firmness. The experience was, by his own account, horrific.
New Horrors Await This Year's Celebrities
Despite the revulsion, determination won out. After a gruelling 45 seconds, Tom forced the morsel down and claimed his star, though he was still unceremoniously dumped into the murky waters below as part of the trial's finale.
This year, the producers are spicing up the eating trials with a fresh menu of disgusting delicacies. Fellow trial producer Katie, another mastermind behind these concoctions, revealed some of the new challenges in store.
Camel brain is one new introduction that has never been featured on the show before. Katie hinted that it's not the flavour but the texture that will likely prove most challenging for the celebrities.
The team's research is meticulous, designed to find the most offensive items possible. When asked for the most rank delicacies, Katie didn't hesitate: Witchetty grubs are pretty rank, you bite them and they explode. Fish eyes and fermented eggs were also highlighted as particularly brutal.
No Easy Way Out for Vegetarians
For any contestants considering a tactical switch to a plant-based diet to avoid the animal-based horrors, the producers have a stark warning. The vegetarian and vegan options can be even worse.
Katie specifically mentioned 'vomit fruit' as a particularly grim alternative. Her advice to anyone thinking of claiming vegetarian or vegan status on the show was simple: maybe think again.
The message to the new batch of celebrities is clear: prepare yourselves for a sensory onslaught and some of the most challenging eating trials the show has ever devised. The jungle is ready, and so are its new, stomach-churning tests.
