I'm A Celebrity viewers were left baffled at the beginning of series 22's debut episode on Sunday night after hosts Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly revealed that the public had already been voting for the Jungle VIPs.
MORE: I'm a Celebrity star Chris Moyles' 6-stone weight loss: before and after
After welcoming footballer Jill Scott, TV presenter Charlene White, radio DJ Chris Moyles, Celebrity Gogglebox star Babatundé Aléshé and reality star Olivia Attwood to a luxury hotel ahead of their journey to camp, the presenters revealed that Olivia had received the most votes.
WATCH: I'm a Celebrity's 2022 line-up: meet the celebs
"You won't actually be making your way into camp together," explained Dec. "That's because the public has already been voting for one of you to become a jungle VIP."
Olivia then elected Chris as her plus one to join her for a luxury meal in the VIP section, leaving the remaining celebrities to face their first challenge.
Viewers immediately took to Twitter to express their confusion over the public vote, with many unaware that the voting system had been opened and others branding it a "secret" vote.
READ: Matt Hancock's hidden health condition rules him out of Bushtucker trials
READ: I'm a Celebrity 2022: See the full line-up for the new series
One person tweeted: "People voted? I didn’t even know that voting for anything had opened," while another added: "Err Ant&Dec when was this public voting please."
© Photo: ITVOlivia was voted as the Jungle VIP
A third viewer commented: "Since when was voting already opened for @imacelebrity because I didn't know it was open?" while another added: "Is the voting a secret thing this year, when did that happen?"
While some viewers may not have been aware, ITV opened voting on the I'm A Celebrity app at the end of October, asking the public to vote for Jungle VIPs – Very Isolated People – who will be spending their first night of the show stranded on an island.
Voting closed on Tuesday 1 November.
While Olivia and Chris were tucking into their delicious VIP meal, Charlene, Jill and Babatundé travelled 150 feet up in the air to face the first task of the series.
© Photo: ITVThe 2022 I'm A Celeb line-up
The trio were asked to walk out on a plank at the top of a 32-story building in a challenge named 'The Ledge'.
While Charlene and Jill braved the great height and made it to the end of the plank, Babatundé let his fear get the better of him and decided to step back to safety, meaning the celebs won two out of a possible three stars.
Like this story? Sign up to our What to Watch newsletter to get other stories like this delivered straight to your inbox.
