Westlife's Kian Egan wins I'm A Celebrity

Westlife star Kian Egan has been crowned king of the jungle on ITV show I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

He beat fashion designer David Emanuel in the final on Sunday.

Egan said: "It's been such a team effort. Everybody in here is a king and queen. It was probably one of the best three weeks of my life."

Runner-up Emanuel, who designed Princess Diana's wedding dress, said the singer was "a great guy - he thoroughly deserves it.

Egan said he would "highly" recommend his jungle experience to anyone although he said the fish eye he had to eat in his final trial was "probably the worst thing I've ever encountered".

Emanuel, who this time last year was recovering from surgery for prostate cancer, said he thought if he could conquer his illness, he may have been able to conquer the jungle.

'Absolutely gobsmacked'

Egan said to him: "You've come in here and outlasted everyone else and that's because you are a good guy and people vote for nice people."

The singer confessed he had not expected to beat reality TV star Joey Essex in the outback.

"I have a fan base of Westlife fans but nothing like what Joey has - he has over two million followers on Twitter, I have 250,000.

"That's still a lot but even so he has 1.75m more than me so it's like, what has happened? It's way beyond my expectations. I never expected to be here in the final. I'm absolutely gobsmacked."

The episode attracted an average of 10.9 million, peaking at 11.5 million, which beat the X Factor results show - watched by an average of 9.2 million earlier. The Strictly Come Dancing results show was seen by 9.4 million viewers.

But the I'm a Celebrity... final wasn't a series high.

The first episode of the current 13th series attracted an average 12 million viewers - peaking at nearly 13 million - marking the highest rating for the ITV programme's launch show.

Rival programmes struggled to compete, including BBC One period crime drama Ripper Street, which was axed last week "to make room for creative renewal".

Actor Jerome Flynn first revealed the news on BBC London 94.9, saying: "It was up against I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and that's been cited as one of the reasons in terms of viewing figures."

A BBC spokesman said: "We are very proud of Ripper Street which has enjoyed two highly ambitious series on BBC One."

"However, the second series didn't bring the audience we hoped and in order to make room for creative renewal and new ideas it won't be returning."