News | RTL Group | Cologne/Jungle, 01/24/2023

Half-Time In The Jungle

On January 13, the 16th season of the reality show “Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!” (I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!) started on RTL. Since then, “IBES” has been the market leader in this slot on German TV day after day. Adding in the views via the RTL+ streaming platform, an average of around six million viewers watched each of the first seven episodes.

For more than ten days now, the celebrities of this year’s season of the reality show “Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!” (I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!)  have been living and surviving in the Australian jungle, bringing RTL top ratings with deep insights into their emotional lives, arguments around the campfire and how they handled the jungle equivalent of bushtucker trials. Now the audience favorite has entered home stretch: Since the weekend, RTL viewers have been phoned in their votes daily to determine who leaves the jungle camp. This year’s season of “IBES” will conclude next Sunday at 10:15 p.m. with the grand finale show.

Taking into account all the final weighted TV audience shares, the first seven “IBES” shows were watched by an average of 4.9 million viewers ages 3 and up. The opening episode alone had a post-weighted market share of 39.7 percent (ages 14 to 49). The market share of the first seven episodes averaged 36.2 percent in the 14- to 49-year-old target group. On the RTL+ streaming platform, “IBES” has garnered more than one million views per episode. So far, a total of around six million viewers have tuned in for each episode. And every single episode of the 16th “IBES” season broadcast so far has been the market leader on German TV in its broadcast slot. The numbers of the 16th season also exceed the ratings of the last year’s season.

“I’m very happy with the season’s performance – both in terms of content and looking at the ratings,” says RTL’s Head of Entertainment Markus Küttner in an interview with the industry medium “DWDL.” “Currently, we’re up 2.3 points over last year’s season among 14- to 59-year-olds – that’s terrific and feels really good for me, and for all of us here.” He said RTL and the production company ITV had again succeeded in putting together a “sensationally strong team.” “All trades share this special mix of creativity, humor and courage that ensures that the jungle is an extraordinary TV experience this year, as it is every year,” Küttner added. 

The daily live broadcast from Australia is accompanied by the jungle-show tie-ins “Die Viertelstunde davor” (The 15 Minutes Before) and “Die Stunde danach” (The Hour After). “Die Viertelstunde davor” is livestreamed on the social media accounts of “Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!” on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube, starting 15 minutes before each new show. In it, well-known jungle faces as well as influencers and die-hard fans of the series join host Cornelius Strittmatter as he looks back on the past episode, gives an exclusive preview, and gets the community engaged in current jungle-camp events with interactive polls. On Facebook alone, “IBES” has more than 1.1 million followers. In the TV jungle talk “Die Stunde danach,” hosts Angela Finger-Erben and Olivia Jones talk to their guests at the Cologne TV studio about the jungle adventure, and welcome jungle experts, former candidates, relatives, and celebrity fans.