'She hasn’t let us down!' I'm A Celebrity stars rally around Grace after her surprise exit

Following on from I'm a Celebrity 2023 episode 8, where Marvin revealed his proposal story, the camp crowned its leader as chosen by the public. 

Meanwhile, Fred Sirieix made birthday plays for Tony Bellew, Josie Gibson, and Danielle Harold took on the Down the Tubes trial, and the camp reacted to Grace Dent leaving the series.

Here's what happened in I'm A Celebrity episode 9 last night...

Follow the camp leader

Monday night's episode saw I'm a Celebrity 2023 crowning a camp leader, based on votes from viewers at home, and fans decided they wanted Sam Thompson in charge of things.

When he learned the news, Sam did a celebratory lap around camp and told the Bush Telegraph: "I’m camp leader! Yes!"

He chose Marvin as his deputy, giving the pair the chance to use and sleep in the camp bus, as well as choose who was going to do which chores around camp. 

He said: "We’re going to smash it. The reason I picked Marvin is because he’s the one, when I’m being stupid, to be like, ‘Mate, you probably shouldn’t do that.’"

They decided to allocate the chores as follows:

Fred & Jamie Lynn = cooking 

Josie & Nella = washing up 

Tony & Danielle = dunny 

Nick & Tony = camp maintenance 

Frankie & Nigel = water 

Sam also had the leader chair positioned in camp for his use during his jungle reign. 

The camp said goodbye to Grace

Announcing the news of Grace leaving camp, Nick read a statement to the others where the former campmate said goodbye.

Nick read aloud: "My Dear campmates, I’m so sorry to let you down. I have left the camp for medical reasons. My heart is broken, I have loved and enjoyed getting to know you all. You’ve held me up and it’s been a pleasure being your friend through this experience. Leaving you all at this stage will be one of the saddest things in my life. I love you all. Your friend, Miss Grace Dent."

All the celebrities rallied around Grace, with all of them offering words of support to their campmate, who had already departed.

Frankie shouted out loud: "Grace, we miss you!"

Danielle added: "Love you, Grace."

Marvin said: "Miss you, Grace."

Nick said: "That’s really sad."

Agreeing, Marvin insisted: "She hasn’t let us down!"

Danielle said: "Bless her, she did really well."

Down the Tubes

Josie and Danielle arrived at the clearing for today’s Trial, Down the Tubes, with Danielle taking Grace's spot in the challenge.

Ant asked: "Danielle, as you know, Grace was unable to take part and as you had the next highest number of votes we’ve got you down here as a last-minute substitute. Do you feel OK about it? Is it better that you haven’t had a long time to prepare?"

Danielle replied: "I think so, the shock might help a little bit and I’m glad I’m here with my Josie."

Revealing the rules, Dec explained: "This is Down The Tubes. You’ll each be strapped into one of these giant tubes, suspended high above the valley floor. One of you will be inside the red tube that contains 10 coloured stars. 

"What you have to do is unlock the stars and then throw them to the celebrity that is in the blue tube, who will unlock their matching coloured box and place the star inside. If a star drops to the valley, it’s gone, you’ve lost it. That’s for the first 10 stars."

Once the Trial was over, Dec confirmed: "There were two that got away, but you managed to lock eight in the box plus the two that you held onto when you dropped out, that makes a grand total of 10 stars."

So 10 stars equals 10 meals for camp, which is not a bad score! 

Misery loves Company

Later the campmates learned there would be an overnight challenge, the Misery Motel. 

Sam read the note to camp: "Celebrities, tonight only eight of you will be sleeping in camp. Three rooms have been reserved at the Misery Motel where you will have the chance to win coins to be spent at the jungle vending machine. It’s up to you to decide which three campmates will check in."

Jamie Lynn said in the Bush Telegraph: "The Misery Motel… it seems like this is going to be a doozy."

The campmates asked Sam to choose and he nominated himself, Sam said: "I’m a man of the people, I’m not going to ask anyone to do something that I’m not going to do myself. And you know I like contributing…"

And Tony added: "I’ll go, I’m game."

Finally, Marvin said: "I can’t leave you behind mate, I’ll go."

Sam confirmed: "The three wise men!"

To which Tony joked: "Take the wise out…"

Jamie Lynn encouraged them: “You’re going to kill it.” 

Arriving at the Misery Motel, the trio checked into reception before they were surprised with a shower of critters, where the episode ended on a teasing cliffhanger. 

More about this Trial will be revealed in Tuesday night's episode.

I'm a Celebrity 2023 continues on Tuesday, November 28 at 9 pm on ITV1 and ITVX.