AngryGinge just won I'm A Celeb

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Right, onto the news…

Five short years

That's all it took.

From streaming FIFA in his bedroom to King of the Jungle.

AngryGinge's journey to winning I'm a Celebrity has been nothing short of remarkable, and I wanted to take a moment to appreciate what just happened here.

Let me map out the timeline for

you:

2020 → First Twitch stream 2021 → Uploaded his first YouTube video 2023 → First Sidemen Charity Match at London Stadium 2024 → Founded Girth N Turf (a FIFA team featuring Aitch, Wayne Rooney, and Luke Littler) 2024 → Appeared on Sidemen's Inside 2024 → Won Man of the Match at his first Soccer Aid

And then we come to this wild year.

March → Founding member of Baller League with Yanited March → Played at Wembley in front of 90,000 at the Sidemen Charity Match June → Soccer Aid at his beloved Old Trafford December → King of the Jungle 👑

Five years. That's the whole journey (so far).

Thing is, this isn't simply a feel-good story about a creator "making it."

It's proof that traditional media doesn't legitimise creators anymore.

Creators legitimise traditional media.

And I know I've said this over and over, but last night really drove the point home in a way that's impossible to ignore.

ITV didn't do Ginge a favour by putting him on their biggest show of the year. They NEEDED him because they knew his audience would show up.

And they did. In record numbers.

The 13 million votes in last night's final was the most in over 10 years.

Let that sink in for a second.

What I find genuinely remarkable about Ginge's win, and why I think it matters beyond just another creator crossing over into traditional media is the fact that he didn't change who he was for TV.

He didn't sand down his edges or play a character.

He didn't suddenly become "TV-friendly" or tone himself down to appeal to a broader audience.

He was the same guy his followers have known for years.

And the British public crowned him for it.

They didn't want a manufactured version of him. They wanted the real thing - the person his community already loved, brought into their living rooms exactly as he is.

The broader pattern

This is the fourth or fifth time we've seen this play out now, and the pattern is becoming impossible to miss.

George Clarke on Strictly. Niko on The Traitors. KSI as a judge on Britain's Got Talent. And now Ginge winning I'm A Celebrity.

Every single time, the creator doesn't just participate. They become the story. They bring the audience. They generate the conversation.

Traditional TV used to be the platform that made people famous.

Now it's increasingly the platform that borrows fame from people who built it elsewhere.

And I don't say that as a dig at TV.

I say it as an observation about where cultural power sits now.

Why this trajectory matters

What strikes me most about Ginge's journey is the speed of it, but also the consistency.

Five years from first stream to winning one of the biggest TV shows in the country.

That's meteoric by any measure.

But it's not random, or luck.

Look at the progression: Twitch to YouTube to Charity Match to Inside to Soccer Aid to Baller League to I'm A Celebrity.

Each step building on the last.

That's not accident.

That's someone who understood how to build momentum and ride it all the way to the top.

What we can learn from this

I think there are a few lessons here that apply way beyond just creators trying to get on TV.

First, authenticity compounds. Ginge won because he was genuinely himself, and people responded to that. You can't fake that over weeks of 24/7 cameras in a jungle.

Second, opportunities create opportunities. Each yes led to another yes. Each platform led to a bigger platform. But you have to take the first step to get there.

Third, your audience is your leverage. ITV needed Ginge's audience more than Ginge needed ITV's platform. That's power. That's the kind of leverage that opens doors.

And finally - and I think this is the big one - traditional institutions are scrambling to work with creators because they've realised they can't reach young audiences without them.

The 16-24 year old viewership of traditional TV has dropped 75% in the last decade.

That's not a small dip.

That's a full blown collapse.

So when ITV put Ginge in the jungle, they weren't doing him a favour.

They were trying to save themselves.

A final thought

Congrats to Ginge, Stuart Jones, the Upload Agency team, and everyone else who helped make this happen.

Another massive W for the creator scene.

And for anyone reading this who's in the early stages of their own journey - streaming, creating, building something - just remember: five years ago, Ginge was exactly where you are now.

He just kept showing up. Kept being himself. Kept taking opportunities when they came.

And now he's King of the Jungle.

Your turn.

Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱

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