Joey Essexwas chosen over several of his cast mates on The Only Way Is Essex to appear on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, it is reported.
The Mirror claims that the 23-year-old scripted reality show star beat pals James Argent, Lauren Pope, Lucy Mecklenburgh and his cousin Chloe Sims to land a spot in the jungle.
A source told the paper: "The producers wanted a Towie person but they could only ever have one. Joey seemed like the stand out one but the competition for the opportunity was very fierce.
"All of the girls wanted to do it, they had their hearts set on appearing but on the show so they were pretty gutted when they didn't get the chance to star in it.
"There was a lot of bitching and gossiping about who of the cast was going to get the chance to go to Oz."
Joey has [uuid=127f13c3-f5f4-4085-b723-de6d3cee446d]quickly become the bookies' favourite[/uuid] to win this year's show - which gets under way tomorrow night.

[uuid=6c7bb914-89be-48c5-94a8-21dbc3828a61]SEE THE I’M A CELEB 2013 LINE-UP HERE![/uuid]