Presenter reveals details These candidates smelled particularly bad in the jungle
Jan Köppen and Sonja Zietlow will continue to prepare the jungle camp for RTL in 2026. In a podcast, Köppen revealed which jungle star was the smelliest. They are ...
Image: Pascal Bünning/RTL/dpa
... the reality star Luigi "Gigi" Birofio ...
Image: zVg
... and influencer Twenty4tim. He has 2.7 million Instagram followers and an incredible 4.9 million TikTok followers.
Image: Gerald Matzka/dpa
Jan Köppen and Sonja Zietlow will continue to prepare the jungle camp for RTL in 2026. In a podcast, Köppen revealed which jungle star was the smelliest. They are ...
Image: Pascal Bünning/RTL/dpa
... the reality star Luigi "Gigi" Birofio ...
Image: zVg
... and influencer Twenty4tim. He has 2.7 million Instagram followers and an incredible 4.9 million TikTok followers.
Image: Gerald Matzka/dpa
Jungle camp host Jan Köppen has revealed disgusting details about the TV adventure in Australia in a new podcast. He talks about smelly candidates and also reveals who the stinky champs are.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Jungle camp host Jan Köppen reports in the podcast about the sometimes extreme odor pollution caused by a lack of hygiene among candidates.
- It was particularly bad in 2025; Köppen names Gigi Birofio and Twenty4Tim as the "stinky champions".
- The combination of heat, campfire smoke and lack of personal hygiene also makes the 2026 season an odor challenge.
- The 2026 jungle camp adventure starts today, Friday, January 23, at 8.15 pm on RTL.
Jan Köppen has hosted the RTL highlight since 2023, so he knows exactly what the candidates smell like around the campfire after their time in camp: "It's disgusting. When they come out of camp?" he reveals in YouTuber Mirella Precek's podcast "Café Cringe".
And one year showed its particularly stinky side ...
Jan Köppen: "They're doing such a cat wash"
The reason for the stink in the Australian jungle camp? The lack of personal hygiene.
The big problem? The mix of extreme heat, lack of hygiene and smoke from the campfire makes for problematic conditions. According to "Bild.de", temperatures of up to 38 degrees with high humidity are expected this year - a new heat record.
Köppen goes into more detail: "There are some vintages that don't wash at all, and there are some vintages that get it right."
It was particularly bad for the candidates in the 2025 jungle camp. Köppen is caustic: "Last year, they were disgusting!"
Köppen reveals the names of the stinky champs
Köppen doesn't mince his words and tells us who the stinky bosses were: "I think the worst was Gigi in my first season. I don't know if it was the jungle, but he smelled very strong."
By Gigi, he meant reality TV actor and influencer Luigi Birofio (26), who came second behind jungle queen Djamila Rowe in 2023.
Another influencer has made it into Köppen's Müffel League: "And Twenty4Tim too!"
Tim Maximilian Kampmann aka Twenty4Tim was in the jungle camp in 2024 and came third.
With temperatures of up to 38 degrees on the Australian east coast, where the TV camp is located, some candidates from the current season are also likely to make it into Köppen's infamous stink statistics this year.
