The Jump 2016 Has Its First Casualty In The Air

With host Davina McCall dressed like an entrant in the NRA’s Miss Survivalist contest, and still gurning her way through every link, Channel 4’s The Jump 2016 got underway last Sunday pitting a dozen “celebrities” against each other in a competition based around winter sports, but which of them survived and which were eliminated?

As touted in our previous coverage we were introduced to the mayor of the poor Austrian town the production team invaded, shown the Cowbell Trophy to be won, the house band and (naturally) Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, a man whose Ski Jumping career was entirely based on coming last due to evident lack of skill and not minding,
Which is apt enough given this year’s contest began with the Skeleton.

The Jump 2016 Odds At Bet365

• The Front Runners
• Beth Tweddle 3/1
• Dean Cain 4/1
• Mark Francis 6/1

Minimal training, a helmet cam, and a semi-famous person sliding down an ice chute with a tea tray under their tits…..what could possibly go wrong? Perhaps gambling news headlines of fatalities straight away would mar things, to make it look easy The Jump 2016 began with Dean Cain, one time Superman from TV and constant link joke fodder, up against Olympic sprinter Linford Christie, both displaying good humor throughout the event, and the jollity-turned-up-to-11 interview with Davina.

The loser from each pair goes into, what on Sunday was one of two, disqualifying contests in “The Air Jump” a sort of mini-ski ramp with the lowest being eliminated. This appeared quite tame after the Skeleton races, however it became apparently that whilst slamming your head into every corner on a bobsleigh track is dangerous, it doesn’t compare to doing windmill impressions whilst leaping from a ski-jump however small.

Bet On Sports In The UK? Try The Jump 2016

The Jump 2016 Odds At Bet365

• Sid Owen 8/1
• Linford Christie 8/1
• Brian McFadden 10/1
• Tamara Beckwith 10/1

Rebecca Adlington, former Olympic swimmer, who had tried too hard and lost out to Girl Aloud singer Sarah Harding in the Skeleton, became the first serious casualty of The Jump 2016 as she dislocated a shoulder on take-off, landing awkwardly and then being in manifest and obvious pain.

This is what we tuned into see. Her screams from behind closed doors in the hospital another piece of classic Channel 4 broadcasting, and despite the injury she survived till next week. Unlike Louisa Lytton, who didn’t.

The Jump 2016 Odds At Bet365

• Tina Hobley 16/1
• Sarah Harding 20/1
• Rebecca Adlington 20/1
• Jame Argent 33/1

Of course after Beth Tweddle, the gymnast, came first in the Skeleton, her odds of winning The Jump 2016 have shortened considerably, she’s not 3/1 favorite at Bet365, with Dean Cain just behind at 4/1 and Mark Francis Vandelli a good, if rather posh, bet at 6/1, Eastenders’ Ricky (Sid Owen) is at 8/1 as is Linford Christie, who might not fare as well on the snow as he did on the ice. Despite Beth’s lead at the moment the vast majority of bettors see a man winning at 4/7 a better bet than a woman at 5/4.

Sadly UK gambling laws prohibit wagers on human suffering, because otherwise we’d be able to place a bet on who’ll be in hospital next and for what reason. Personally I’m hoping James Argent breaks his neck, but then I’m cruel like that, and whilst the Air Jump has proved itself to be far more entertaining that it looks, we’ll have to see if this Sunday’s competition can weed out any more competitors as they take the snowy slopes. The novelty bet I’d love to find is the odds on Davina hosting next time in an ISIS T-shirt holding an AK-47.