From Reality Star to Prime-Time Player: Sam Thompson’s Evolution
For a long time, the narrative seemed set: once a reality TV personality, always a reality TV personality. Sam Thompson, a familiar face from the London scene of Made In Chelsea, seemed destined to follow this path. His early career saw him behind the bar on the hit E4 show, followed by stints on Celebrity Big Brother, and multiple appearances on Celebs Go Dating. The ultimate reality TV challenge beckoned, and he famously embraced the jungle on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, captivating audiences with his infectious enthusiasm and seemingly effortless charm.
However, Sam is now ready to close the chapter on his reality TV contestant days. “I don’t think I’ll do another reality series,” he states. “I peaked. The jungle was my dream, that was the best show I’ve ever done in my life, so I don’t know where you go from there.” Reflecting on his extensive reality TV journey, he adds, “I’ve done a lot of these shows and there’s no hate on any of them but, when your time comes, you go ‘What a brilliant way to leave it’.”
Transitioning away from the familiar confines of reality television and into mainstream entertainment hasn’t been without its hurdles. “It’s a weird one, because you see the door from being on reality TV, but you can’t get through the door – because you’re on reality TV. You’ve got to try and push your way through it.”
Fortunately, Sam has managed to not only nudge that door open but swing it wide. He’s landed a coveted role in primetime light entertainment, firmly in the presenter’s chair rather than the contestant’s. Alongside Joel Dommett, Judi Love, and fellow I’m A Celeb alum GK Barry, Sam is a central figure in ITV’s new Saturday night offering, Celebrity Sabotage. In this innovative show, they take on the roles of saboteurs, orchestrating elaborate pranks on contestants of fictional TV shows. Renowned personalities like Clare Balding, Rylan Clark, and Sara Davies (all in on the joke) host a different fabricated format each week, ranging from a dating show to an Apprentice-style challenge. Sam and his co-stars are tasked with disrupting the contestants’ experiences through cunning pranks, before ultimately revealing that the show they believe they’re on is not real, providing a cash prize to soften the blow of their deception.
The scale of Celebrity Sabotage is impressive. “I’ve never done anything on a scale like this,” Sam admits. “It’s like a show within another show with its own hosts, it’s absolutely mad. Two productions going on, with two crews.” The saboteurs often adopt outlandish disguises to carry out their missions. “I was a scarecrow, a bale of hay, I wore a suit of armour, dressed as Cupid, and a lifeguard,” Sam recalls. For someone living with ADHD and an abundance of energy, remaining still in disguise proved a significant challenge. “Staying still in itself is hard, but in a creaky suit of armour where if you move a centimetre, it’s so obvious. I’ve never been so nervous.”
Adding to the complexity were the unpredictable elements of working with animals. “GK and I had a mission to get these llamas to follow us and make it look as if they had basically left the premises. But the llamas weren’t playing ball, so we had to bolt it out of there before the contestants saw us. We were failing the mission but we left the gate open and the llamas ran free. The next mission was just, don’t lose the llamas, which wasn’t even in the brief. The producers were like ‘What the f**k is going on?'” he laughs.
Losing llamas for national entertainment was certainly not on Sam’s radar when he first agreed to appear on Made In Chelsea 13 years ago. At the time, his romantic life was proving less than successful. “It’s a great show when you’re really young,” he explains. “I was like ‘You know what? I don’t get any dates, I don’t get into nightclubs. It’d be quite fun to be – in air quotes – ‘cool’, for a couple of years’. Then I’ll go and get a different job.”
Three years later, he took the plunge into Celebrity Big Brother. “Everyone said ‘Don’t do it. It’s career suicide’ but there was no career. I was 23, I had nothing to lose. I wouldn’t do it now, but at the time, it felt right in my gut.”
As it turned out, a traditional day job was never necessary. By the time he departed Made In Chelsea after six years, the influencer era was dawning, shifting the power dynamic away from traditional media gatekeepers. “I loved making what I thought to be funny videos, and the power was in my hands. If I made good content, I could get millions of views and no one was telling me what I can and can’t make and can and can’t do.”
His social media reviews of Love Island caught the attention of a producer, leading to an invitation to co-host The Morning After podcast and become a regular guest on the spin-off show Aftersun. “That apparently is why I got asked to do the jungle because they were like, he’s a nice guy to work with and he’s enthusiastic about this stuff, so why don’t we throw him in?’ Then, everything that came off the back of the jungle, I was so grateful to receive, I gobbled it up,” he says.
Currently, Sam is also experiencing massive success with his podcast, Staying Relevant, which he co-hosts with his best mate and contrasting personality, Pete Wicks. The podcast’s popularity has surprised both of them, particularly Pete. “Mate, I literally couldn’t get Pete there to do it, I’m not joking. He was like ‘I can’t be arsed. It means nothing to me’. But I dragged him into this tiny cubicle with two microphones and said ‘Hello, and welcome to Staying Relevant‘ and he went ‘Oh my God, this is shit. No one’s gonna f**king listen to this’. He did not understand it. Fast forward to now and he’s leading so much of the pod himself. He cares so much about it.”
Has Pete ever admitted he was wrong? “Only when he’s had a drink. Whenever he gets a bit pissed, he’ll be like ‘I owe all this to Sam because I didn’t want to do it’.”
Sam and Pete’s friendship blossomed after meeting on Celebs Go Dating, where it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. “He thought ‘Who’s this annoying little prick?'” smiles Sam. “But there was just something about him. I loved his energy. I’m drawn to strong men, I’ve found I bounce off those kinds of dudes really well. And also I was like ‘this guy’s gonna be brilliant TV, so I’m just gonna piss him off’. Then it became something far, far more.”
During his visit to Australia last year for I’m A Celebrity Unpacked, Sam sought guidance from one half of the iconic presenting duo, Ant & Dec. Declan Donnelly and his wife Ali invited him for dinner, where Sam seized the opportunity to ask for advice. “I was like ‘Dec, I’m sorry, I’ve got to ask you a few questions because you and Ant are my idols. I was like ‘Do you ever disagree with Ant?’ He said ‘Yeah, of course we do, but when we’re in a room with people we don’t know, we have each other’s back every time. We never disagree in front of anybody, we only disagree in private and we disagree agreeably, and let each other have their space’. I remember listening to him like ‘f**k, those are the masters, always having each other’s back, always being best friends first. That is why me and Pete work as well, because we are genuinely brothers before anything else.'”
A significant part of Staying Relevant‘s appeal lies in Sam’s open and honest discussions about his life and relationships. He is currently in a relationship with Talitha Balinska, following a challenging period last year marked by his split from long-term partner Zara McDermott. “Pete is more closed than I am – which I really respect, by the way – and keeps his private life private, but the audience we talk to are like my family. We did a book tour and met thousands of people who’d queued to speak to us. I feel so safe telling them about my love life or about the hard times because they’re there for me and we’re all in it together.”
How does fame sit with him, particularly when personal aspects of his life, like his ex’s new relationship with a pop star, become public knowledge? “If you ask Pete, he’d tell you I’ve always wanted to be famous, and that’s not true. I love being known, but because if I wasn’t well known, I wouldn’t be able to create content, and doing that is my most zen place,” he considers. He doesn’t seem overly troubled by negative comments. “I do get shit but it’s great. I’ll be walking down the street and there’ll be a guy in a van going ‘Ah you’re that funny c**t’. I’ll take that. You get the odd one, but people are inherently nice – and if they’re not, they’re just having a bad day.”
Despite his consistently upbeat persona, Sam acknowledges experiencing difficult times. Three years ago, he received diagnoses for ADHD and autism. “Pete has a nephew with autism and he used to say ‘You are autistic, mate’. And when I went on SAS: Who Dares Wins, Louise Mensch said ‘You’ve got ADHD’. She told me that being diagnosed changed her life and I should look into it. It stuck with me because life is quite hard sometimes, mentally. I struggle to pay a parking ticket. Trying to book a flight, I will have an implosion. I want to be a dad one day and I’d like my kid to come to me for advice, and I thought ‘if I can’t pay a bloody parking ticket, we’ve got a problem here’.”
Approaching his 30th birthday, Sam sought a diagnosis, which coincided with an idea for a documentary on the subject. “I went to get the diagnosis and I said to the director ‘I’m not gonna cry, so stop poking the camera in my face, you’re not gonna get what you want’. But I literally did just that. It was this feeling of release. At school, you were just a naughty kid, which is really hurtful, actually, and I forgave myself for loads of things, like not doing homework or being sent out for being talkative,” he says. “And, as I got older, I knew I couldn’t sit in an office because I can’t stay still. I got sent home on work experience because they were like ‘mate, you’re just more annoying than helpful’. I worried a bit, like, ‘God, how am I gonna get a job?’ But you forgive yourself so much.”
The diagnosis proved to be a significant turning point. “I still go to ADHD therapy and it’s taught me about how to be in relationships, friendships, in my career. I want to be a TV presenter and the best thing about ADHD is I can hear people speak to me in my ear whilst I’m interviewing someone, because my brain is in two places, so I can do all that incredibly well.”
His next television appearance will be on The Great British Bake Off For Stand Up To Cancer. “I’m not going to tell you how I did, but f**k me, I was bad at baking. Shocking. When they asked me, I was like ‘I just want to let you know I haven’t ever baked’. They were ‘Yeah, everyone says that’. But I’m not just shit, I’ve never turned a baking oven on in my life. I don’t know cream and butter, I haven’t the foggiest. They went, ‘It’s ok’ and I realised ‘Ah, I’m the joke, I see how this is going. Fine’.”
Following his foray into competitive baking and his role in onscreen pranks, the future remains open, but Sam has an ambitious career bucket list. “What do I not want to do?” he smiles. “I want me and Pete to host The Brits. I feel like we would do all right. And I genuinely want to break America with Pete, plus I want to do a show like we did at the 02, but at Wembley Stadium. Our mantra is ‘you never know, we’ll have a go’. I’m a dreamer. Mate, I will shoot for those stars.”
