Blago: I wish I was eating the bugs on reality show

Former gov says he watched wife on TV with his kids

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he missed seeing the first night of his wife’s Costa Rican reality TV exploits because he was at a school event with his daughters.

But he recorded Monday night’s episode of “I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here,” and he and his kids watched it together — after he first made sure there was nothing objectionable for them to see.

“I wanted to make sure my kids didn’t see anything that might not be good for them to watch,” he said Tuesday on WLS radio’s Don Wade and Roma Morning Show.

Among the family viewing: watching Patti Blagojevich eat a tarantula, which the former Illinois first lady described as tasting “musty, yeasty.”

Rod Blagojevich said his 6-year-old daughter told him she would have rather watched her dad eat it.

“She said, ‘Daddy, I wish you were there to eat the tarantula, not Mommy,’ ” the indicted ex-governor said. “Chivalry is not dead. I said, ‘I wish I was, too, sweetheart.’ ”

Rod Blagojevich was the producers’ first choice for the show, but the judge in his federal corruption case wouldn’t let him travel outside the country.

Eager get the TV paycheck, Patti Blagojevich went instead.

Monday’s first episode saw her being swept down a Costa Rican river, at one point grabbing a hanging tree in a vain effort to gain footing.

Rod Blagojevich told the radio hosts he thought she performed better than he would have.

“If I was swept away in the river, I probably would have been swept away forever,” he said.