Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast past Leep Theline, Get a Podcaster enthusiasts,
Speaker 1: thank you for clicking and downloading. On today's episode of
Speaker 1: TV Reload with Liz Ellis, we will be talking about Gladiators,
Speaker 1: which is out now on Network ten and you can
Speaker 1: catch up on No. Ten Plus. One of the most
Speaker 1: exciting and iconic sports entertainment programs in the world, Gladiators
Speaker 1: did make its triumphant return to Australian screens this week,
Speaker 1: Premiering in twenty twenty four, A new tribe of twenty
Speaker 1: first century superhumans, the Gladiators, will wrestle, rumble and battle
Speaker 1: brave Ossie contenders from all works of life in the
Speaker 1: ultimate test of speed, strength, stamina, agility and power, Welcoming
Speaker 1: a new generation of fans to the spectacle of Gladiators
Speaker 1: with charm, wit and sporting expertise. Are iconic sports heroes
Speaker 1: and our hosts, Liz Ellis and Bo Ryan. There's so
Speaker 1: much to unpack with Liz Ellis today. What it was
Speaker 1: like to work with Bo Ryan. Did they swap notes
Speaker 1: on their time in the jungle? Is there going to
Speaker 1: be another series of Gladiators. I will ask her as
Speaker 1: well about her ill fated screen test with Vola and
Speaker 1: if you got into trouble for revealing that secret on
Speaker 1: national radio. Anyway, let's bring Liz into the podcast. So
Speaker 1: sit back, relax as we dive just that little bit
Speaker 1: deeper into the world of television and go behind the
Speaker 1: scenes of Network tens rebooted Gladiators for twenty twenty four. Hello, man, Liz,
Speaker 1: what time do they get you up this morning? Have
Speaker 1: you been up since dawn?
Speaker 2: Five o'clock?
Speaker 3: The alart went off today and yesterday, so that hurt,
Speaker 3: especially since last night I was going to get an
Speaker 3: early night and then I light in bed after watching Gladiators,
Speaker 3: of course in my hotel room, and then I started
Speaker 3: watching Succession and eleventh thirty.
Speaker 1: I went, shit, what season of Succession are you up to?
Speaker 3: I just finished episode three last night, so I've literally
Speaker 3: just started.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll get you back and we'll do a debrief
Speaker 1: on Succession later.
Speaker 2: Succession. I'm bloody loving it, though I'm feeling a.
Speaker 1: Little worse for wear today, but that's because we stayed
Speaker 1: awake and watched all of Boyce Swallow's universe, which is
Speaker 1: on Netflix and I have to recommend that to you.
Speaker 1: But anyway, it's not a different network. It's so good.
Speaker 2: That's okay. Did you read the book?
Speaker 1: And I found the book really harrowing because it was
Speaker 1: quite bleak, and I always get quite sensitive when parents
Speaker 1: can't look after their children. You know, there was a
Speaker 1: couple of books I read that year that were a
Speaker 1: bit like that where the show has a lot of
Speaker 1: because I'm from the eighties, I grew up in I
Speaker 1: was born nineteen eighty, so anyway, I grew up with
Speaker 1: all of that music that I was the eighties rock.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just the show's brilliant, So all right.
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to it because I loved I loved
Speaker 3: the book. To me while to get into the book
Speaker 3: to understand it. But once I got into it, I
Speaker 3: was like, oh, okay, a little.
Speaker 1: Bit melodrama, but yet said in our world.
Speaker 2: I love his books that they're written in like said
Speaker 2: in Brisbane.
Speaker 1: I haven't read any of his other books, but I
Speaker 1: was in Big w as we are always in Big
Speaker 1: who buying our books because they're like sixteen dollars, and
Speaker 1: I saw more of his books, so I was like,
Speaker 1: I've got to read it, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you do.
Speaker 1: How strange I was talking to you immediately after you
Speaker 1: came out of the jungle and won. I didn't think
Speaker 1: I'd be talking to you so soon afterwards. But Liza,
Speaker 1: I have to tell you, there was a lot of
Speaker 1: downloads on that particular episode, and the people that loved
Speaker 1: you on that show really translated to my chat with you.
Speaker 1: It was oh wow, Yeah, it was quite amazing.
Speaker 2: I wonder why, maybe because you brought out the best
Speaker 2: in me.
Speaker 1: No, I think it's because you know what, It's the
Speaker 1: same with Gladiators. When I heard you were doing this show,
Speaker 1: and I thought back to Mike Hammond and the people
Speaker 1: that hosted that show before. They were able to bring
Speaker 1: a lot of their personality to the show and a
Speaker 1: lot of the humanity or relatability that I think that
Speaker 1: you have. So I think this casting for Gladiators is
Speaker 1: just perfect for you.
Speaker 2: Oh thank you.
Speaker 3: I actually I loved filming it, and what we loved
Speaker 3: when we were doing it was yes, it's entertainment, and
Speaker 3: yes we do it's a lot of tongue in cheek
Speaker 3: and we poked fun at things. But at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, these contenders are stepping up and this
Speaker 3: is their World.
Speaker 2: Cup and you have to respect that. So you have to.
Speaker 3: Bring out the best in them and let them show
Speaker 3: their personalities and really display that they're not just on
Speaker 3: a television show. They're doing something that means a lot
Speaker 3: to them. And that was I think really important. And
Speaker 3: I think we saw that last night. You know, in
Speaker 3: the first episode with Magadonka, you saw what it meant
Speaker 3: to hurt or win through the heats, Like it's not
Speaker 3: just a silly TV show for her, It's a massive achievement.
Speaker 1: I feel like with her name when she applies, we
Speaker 1: just did. The producers go, well, she's got to be
Speaker 1: on the show, Like, you know, what else is she
Speaker 1: going to do with her life with a name like that.
Speaker 1: She's a gladiator.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she was fantastic.
Speaker 3: And you know the fact that she turned up with
Speaker 3: a photo of her and Vulcan when she was five,
Speaker 3: it just goes to show. You know, the thing that
Speaker 3: I love about this show is that it means so
Speaker 3: much to so many people. And just in the last
Speaker 3: couple of days, I've had so many conversations with people
Speaker 3: who were like.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I love this show.
Speaker 4: When I was a kid, we used to go to
Speaker 4: school and there was a hill and we used to
Speaker 4: pretend we're on the pyramid and we had to throw
Speaker 4: each other down. And I love that, but I've also
Speaker 4: loved watching my kids, Like last night, my kids were
Speaker 4: so engrossed it, and my sister sent me a photo
Speaker 4: of her kids, who were fifteen and ten, watching it,
Speaker 4: and I said, do they like it?
Speaker 2: She goes, I ask them, but they're two engrossed to it.
Speaker 3: They can't answer me, and I'm like, yeah, it's like
Speaker 3: this whole new generation of kids going, this is the
Speaker 3: greatest thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: I remember watching it like it was event television for
Speaker 1: us growing up, So that first run of it in
Speaker 1: the nineties before it came back in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: which I might have been a bit too old or
Speaker 1: thought I was too cool for at the time because
Speaker 1: it would have been in my twenties. But I just
Speaker 1: remember we used to have furniture that we would stack
Speaker 1: up to pretend it was the pyramid, and I love it,
Speaker 1: but we would try to climb it as though we
Speaker 1: were you know, we were just literally wrestling on you know,
Speaker 1: eight stacks of pillows. But isn't it Nostalgiama and so
Speaker 1: brilliant to think that this television show is back and
Speaker 1: that this new generation can enjoy it, hopefully as much
Speaker 1: as we did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, there's not a lot of television
Speaker 3: around that is family viewing, family friendly viewing where you
Speaker 3: can all sit around and you all have a bit
Speaker 3: of a laugh, but you all enjoy the spectacle and
Speaker 3: you all enjoy the contest. And I think that's a
Speaker 3: number of gladiators is at it's very heart. It is
Speaker 3: it's a contest, but then it's wrapped in entertainment, and
Speaker 3: it's wrapped in entertainment that the family can really get into.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3: I feel like I need to apologize to all the
Speaker 3: parents out there whose kids are going to start doing
Speaker 3: stuff like putting the pillows up and making the pyramid.
Speaker 3: Any last night, in the last ad break before the eliminated,
Speaker 3: my kids just started spontaneously wrestling each other.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: If Elie is responsible for broken arms all over Australia.
Speaker 2: Well hopefully they don't do that, but don't trump out
Speaker 2: of a couch.
Speaker 3: I'm probably responsible for some untidy land drones, but you
Speaker 3: know they did get Channel ten, did get Phoenix at
Speaker 3: the very start to do the whole Hey, kids, don't
Speaker 3: try this at home, which spending your eyes like a
Speaker 3: red flag. The kids go, yeah, I'm going to try
Speaker 3: this at home.
Speaker 1: It's just nice to know that there's more vulcans and
Speaker 1: storms and there's a new breed of these people coming back.
Speaker 1: You know, what was your reaction to being asked to
Speaker 1: do this show? I mean, because you were so popular
Speaker 1: coming off The Jungle, I'm sure Channel ten bev McGarvey
Speaker 1: scramble for something for you to do. And sometimes when
Speaker 1: someone who as popular as you coming off a show
Speaker 1: like that, they just slapped them into something where this
Speaker 1: is like the right Manutia, like this is the right
Speaker 1: fit for you. What was your reaction to that.
Speaker 3: I was really excited, actually, and I was really wary
Speaker 3: of that because I wasn't that keen initially on doing Celebrity,
Speaker 3: because I thought I've spent all these years building up
Speaker 3: this series, sporting sort of resume as a commentator and
Speaker 3: a panelist and a host, and then.
Speaker 2: To do reality it's a bit like, oh, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know so, and then I love doing it as one
Speaker 3: of the best things I've ever done, but I sort
Speaker 3: of thought, I'm going to be really careful about what
Speaker 3: I do next because I don't want to just go
Speaker 3: for a reality TV show to reality TV show. And
Speaker 3: then Ten came to me with Gladiators, and I thought, God,
Speaker 3: it's perfect because it allows me to do something completely different,
Speaker 3: but with the DNA of something that I'm really used to. So,
Speaker 3: you know, it's entertainment and it's a bright, shiny, flashy show,
Speaker 3: but at its heart, like it's that sporting contest. It's
Speaker 3: it's people being brave and standing up and doing something
Speaker 3: that's well out of their comfort zone, tacking on people
Speaker 3: who were bigger and stronger than them, but who just
Speaker 3: put one foot in front of the other. So yeah,
Speaker 3: as soon as they mentioned Gladiators, I was like, I
Speaker 3: became I became a kid again.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, go back and original, Like, were
Speaker 1: you going back and watching the original? Yeah?
Speaker 2: And I went back.
Speaker 3: And the other other thing that I watched, which was
Speaker 3: really great, was watched the Netflix.
Speaker 2: Doco Muscles in Mayhem. I don't know if you've watched it.
Speaker 3: It is fascinating and it's about the start of Gladiators,
Speaker 3: so about the actual conception and how they sort of
Speaker 3: made it up on the run in the eighties in
Speaker 3: America and how you know, the people who like the
Speaker 3: talk show hosts were like, this is this is the
Speaker 3: death of television.
Speaker 2: This is the end of television.
Speaker 3: Because I'd never seen anything like it, and like, it
Speaker 3: was so fascinating. But I loved it because you know,
Speaker 3: I'm a student of history.
Speaker 2: I love history.
Speaker 3: When I was Captain of the Diamonds, I made sure
Speaker 3: that we that I introduced things that gave us a
Speaker 3: real understanding of where we'd come from. So to watch
Speaker 3: that doco and get a real understanding of where Gladiators
Speaker 3: has come from over the last forty years was fantastic.
Speaker 3: It was like, Okay, this has been around for a
Speaker 3: long time, and I'm really part of rather than being
Speaker 3: just the host, I'm part of a group of people
Speaker 3: who were charged with holding on to it, you know,
Speaker 3: at the moment, and then hopefully we'll hand it on
Speaker 3: to somebody else because it's a sort of format that
Speaker 3: I think will always be around, and you really you
Speaker 3: realize that you're out of a much longer, really interesting
Speaker 3: sort of history.
Speaker 2: So I actually.
Speaker 3: Felt, really I felt really privileged after watching it going, Yeah, Wow,
Speaker 3: they've ten of entrusted Bow and I with this, and
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, Bow and I just
Speaker 3: a couple.
Speaker 2: Of idiots on the sideline. But you know, it's all
Speaker 2: part of it.
Speaker 1: How did you get along with bo, Because, like, he's
Speaker 1: been hosting a show by himself, so he probably almost
Speaker 1: could have been a little bit selfish in the way
Speaker 1: that he could be a host. But there does seem
Speaker 1: to be a bit of a bond happening. There is
Speaker 1: he naughty schoolboy to your strict teacher, like, what are
Speaker 1: the dynamics?
Speaker 3: That's probably he's like this over energetic puppy who just
Speaker 3: bounces around and he's so screamingly funny that the whole
Speaker 3: way through every day, I had to get my makeup,
Speaker 3: my eye makeup done two or three times because I
Speaker 3: kept laughing till I cried, and then.
Speaker 2: I make up and cry off.
Speaker 3: But to his eternal credit, you're right, he's used to
Speaker 3: hosting TV shows by himself. But he was so generous,
Speaker 3: he's so good at his craft. It's the first time
Speaker 3: I'd hosted a show like this, and he gave me
Speaker 3: so much information and helped me understand where the edit
Speaker 3: points were and helped me understand what you do to
Speaker 3: the camera and how different it all is to just
Speaker 3: sitting commentating a netball game or sitting on a panel
Speaker 3: show and hosting it or anything like that. So he
Speaker 3: was generous, he was funny. He's exhausting sometimes, so I'll
Speaker 3: tell you that.
Speaker 1: But honestly, though, Liz, this is the best thing about
Speaker 1: it was that we've got a news headline today about
Speaker 1: Brendan Favola, and I'm wondering whether or not you got
Speaker 1: into trouble for revealing that Brenda Vivola auditioned for this,
Speaker 1: like has fev reached out to you? So for people
Speaker 1: who aren't reading the headlines that may not know this story,
Speaker 1: Liz was on what his breakfast show? No, what is it?
Speaker 1: His drive show?
Speaker 2: Any drive show? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So then he asked you, you know, obviously you
Speaker 1: got the gig first, did they screen test you with people?
Speaker 1: And you revealed that you actually screen tested with Brenda
Speaker 1: Vivola before bo got the gig. There's Brenda Favola. Because
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a taboo thing and acting, you're
Speaker 1: not allowed to say who you've screen tested.
Speaker 3: Again, Yeah, well, I wouldn't have said anything, but I'd
Speaker 3: done fev's breakfast show that morning and he brought it up,
Speaker 3: he said, so when he said that, I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: we can talk about it. Because I walked in, I thought, God,
Speaker 3: this is going to be awkward because I knew that
Speaker 3: he had auditioned, and he knew that he'd auditioned because
Speaker 3: we did it together. And I thought, well, I'm not
Speaker 3: going to say anything because that's like you say, like
Speaker 3: you know, you don't say you didn't get the job.
Speaker 3: And he was like, oh, I didn't get the job
Speaker 3: because I was too fat, and I was like no, anyway.
Speaker 3: So when he said that, okay, we can talk about it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, look, and he and I get along really
Speaker 3: well and he's fun, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: they just you know, Bo got the job, and I
Speaker 3: really I don't care.
Speaker 2: I don't mind who I work with.
Speaker 3: They're both fun and they're both good values, so they
Speaker 3: both bring different things. So yeah, but it was like
Speaker 3: yesterday when I walked into Feb's breakfast showing, well and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh.
Speaker 1: It's gonna know a little bit of goss on this
Speaker 1: from what I was told that Bo had auditioned. To
Speaker 1: be on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here
Speaker 1: with Julia Morris, And if that had happened, I think
Speaker 1: FEV was going to host with you.
Speaker 2: That's what I was, you know more than me.
Speaker 1: Was just Beth mcgarvy's going to email me later and say,
Speaker 1: how do you know this stuff?
Speaker 2: You know way more than me. I'll get to say
Speaker 2: a lot of our numbers this week because I like
Speaker 2: those as well.
Speaker 1: How much teleprompting was there? I mean was a lot
Speaker 1: of ad libbing all.
Speaker 3: Ad libing, So we had some basic scripts we didn't
Speaker 3: have We didn't have an AUTOQ or anything like that.
Speaker 3: We had some basic scripting that we'd go through and
Speaker 3: we knew where we needed to get to with everything,
Speaker 3: but pretty much off the cuff.
Speaker 1: And you know what's also great about this format is
Speaker 1: that you're allowing us to get to know the gladiators.
Speaker 1: And I feel like more so you're doing that with
Speaker 1: this reboot than when they rebooted it in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight. You know, they kind of just tried to
Speaker 1: sort of action action action the whole thing. Where I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying that we're getting dialogue continuously from the people that
Speaker 1: are competing in the show, but towards you, which allows
Speaker 1: those personalities to grow and for audiences to feel more
Speaker 1: ownership over it. I guess yeah.
Speaker 3: And we want the audience to all in love with
Speaker 3: the gladiators. There's a gladiator there for everyone, but we
Speaker 3: also want them to really admire their contenders and to
Speaker 3: fall in love with them, because at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, they're who you're cheering forward to get through.
Speaker 3: And so I'm wrapped that we're we're able to spend
Speaker 3: a bit of time each show getting to see the
Speaker 3: silly side of the gladiators by getting to see what
Speaker 3: doing this means to the contenders as well.
Speaker 1: Did you know what sort of changes they were going
Speaker 1: to make to this time around or do you know
Speaker 1: were you part of those sorts of conversations as to
Speaker 1: whether or not it was going to be a strict
Speaker 1: sort of remake of what it was in the nineties,
Speaker 1: Like what sort of conversations were there about any changes
Speaker 1: that may needed to have happened to have it here
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, when the idea was like first floated with me,
Speaker 3: the way it was floated was that it would be
Speaker 3: it would be largely true to the nineteen nineties version,
Speaker 3: but it would be fun and there'd be a fun element.
Speaker 2: There would be an element.
Speaker 3: Of behind the scenes, and that's what you get with
Speaker 3: the gladiator's locker room and the contender's locker room, and
Speaker 3: that Bo and I or whoever the hosts were, it
Speaker 3: would be our job to really or the personality out
Speaker 3: of the contenders and to you know, bounce off the
Speaker 3: gladiators for different things. So yeah, that was always part
Speaker 3: of it, and I think when Bo and I turned
Speaker 3: up and started watching it, we're also really came to
Speaker 3: make sure that the athletic contest was something that was
Speaker 3: really showcased as well.
Speaker 1: But I think as well, you know, the two of
Speaker 1: you love people like you're both curious, and even in
Speaker 1: presenting in acting, I find that word comes back to
Speaker 1: me a lot. And that's where you do your job
Speaker 1: so well, is when you stay in that curious space
Speaker 1: where you want to know more about people, it comes
Speaker 1: across very authentic. I think, thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's and you know, all of our contenders
Speaker 3: have really great stories and they're not TV people, right,
Speaker 3: so we had to make sure they were comfortable to
Speaker 3: want to talk to us because suddenly they're in the studio,
Speaker 3: there's lights, there's cameras, there's stuff going on, there's someone
Speaker 3: doing their makeup. Like it's just like, well, actually there's
Speaker 3: someone doing my makeup. The contenders in wear makeups. It
Speaker 3: would have ended up all over the gladiators, but like,
Speaker 3: you know, you need to make them comfortable and so
Speaker 3: I think, you know, the thing that really sort of
Speaker 3: prepared me for that was the work that I've done
Speaker 3: over the years on radio and interviewing people on radio,
Speaker 3: because you get the best out of people when they're comfortable,
Speaker 3: when they trust you. So that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 3: And we spent lots of time chatting to the contenders
Speaker 3: off camera, so they knew us. And you know, I've
Speaker 3: got a beautiful message last night from one of the
Speaker 3: contender's mums, you know, thank you me for looking after
Speaker 3: her girl.
Speaker 2: So you know, that was just so nice.
Speaker 3: It's lovely, and they're the connections that make your job
Speaker 3: really fun to do.
Speaker 1: How long are you How long does it take to
Speaker 1: shoot an episode? I think people love to know that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. You know, last night we watched it
Speaker 1: on television, you know, with ads and everything. And so
Speaker 1: it's you know, an hour and a half. But are
Speaker 1: you able to shoot it quite quickly or does it
Speaker 1: take a lot of time?
Speaker 3: Thanks for over So each episode took us a day
Speaker 3: to shoot. Wow, yeah, so a full day. So filming
Speaker 3: we generally started about midday, so you get in early.
Speaker 3: You'd have all your meetings, go through all the scripts
Speaker 3: and everything, and work out where you want to get
Speaker 3: to with each segment.
Speaker 2: Hair and macer wardrobe. I took longer than bow obviously.
Speaker 1: And then it's like that when he wakes up. I've
Speaker 1: been with them him when he's gotten up in the
Speaker 1: morning and I'm like, are you wearing any makeup? And
Speaker 1: he's like no, And I'm like, you just normally look
Speaker 1: this good, Like it's quite scary.
Speaker 3: It's just a beautiful human, whereas I turn up looking
Speaker 3: like this. It's a process. So yeah, So we would
Speaker 3: start filming the cameras and start rolling about midday and
Speaker 3: we'd finish any time between ten pm and one am.
Speaker 1: So it's a long day, so very very long day.
Speaker 1: But I mean it's such a it's getting to be
Speaker 1: a kid again. So I guess that's the thing that
Speaker 1: would help you with this show. You just turn up
Speaker 1: like it's totally fun.
Speaker 3: I've got a friend who works in she's a nurse
Speaker 3: in the emergency department at a major hospital, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: she works the same sort of ships. She doesn't have
Speaker 3: anyone doing hair and makeup or bring her food or
Speaker 3: you know, looking after a wardrobe. So I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm so privileged to be here. There's no way I'm
Speaker 3: going to wind about doing a long day. I've got
Speaker 3: all the energy in the world, so especially if you
Speaker 3: keep feeding me chocolate and coffee, I'll be fine.
Speaker 1: I'm terrible to wake up, but once I'm awake, and
Speaker 1: I did three years of breakfast radio, so I learned this.
Speaker 1: I don't like the alarm, but once I'm up and
Speaker 1: I've had the shore and the coffee, I'm ready to go. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Totally, right, totally, So you can absolutely do it. And
Speaker 3: because it was the first time the show had been
Speaker 3: made by anyone who was working on it, we just
Speaker 3: we shot a lot more than we did And if
Speaker 3: we get to go to a season two, it'll be
Speaker 3: a bit tighter the days, I would imagine, because we'll
Speaker 3: know what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Well, do you know what that's really a good segue
Speaker 1: to the question I was going to ask you about
Speaker 1: this prize. There's a prize this time around that's never
Speaker 1: been there before, which is that the ultimate winner gets
Speaker 1: asked if they will they get the chance to become
Speaker 1: a Gladiator, which I think is amazing. Do you know
Speaker 1: if that's something that they all want though, like they.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, they are so desperate for it.
Speaker 3: You wait, so as we get through to the quarter
Speaker 3: finals and the semifinals, it hates you can really see
Speaker 3: how much they all want it. They are so desperate
Speaker 3: to be to be part of the Gladiator's crew. And
Speaker 3: don't forget for like some of the contenders they're into
Speaker 3: things like CrossFit and some of our gladiators are CrossFit gurus.
Speaker 3: So our contenders are so desperate to get there. They
Speaker 3: like it is such a massive thing for them. So
Speaker 3: it was beautiful to see sort of that drive behind them,
Speaker 3: and it really does push them all the way through
Speaker 3: the series.
Speaker 1: I feel like for me, if I got there to
Speaker 1: the end, I'd be like, can I exchange my Gladiator
Speaker 1: title for more cash?
Speaker 3: Like, you know, maybe maybe you could like put it
Speaker 3: on email or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, try and trade it over and see what about.
Speaker 2: The ten thousand dollars, thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll just take the ten thousand dollars. I don't
Speaker 1: want to come back and you know, risk and injury,
Speaker 1: so you know I need to put an extension on
Speaker 1: the house. Yes, well, this is a terrible question to
Speaker 1: ask you at this point, but have you picked a favorite?
Speaker 1: Have you picked a favorite gladiator? And you know they're
Speaker 1: probably not going to listen to this podcast, they may do,
Speaker 1: but who have you connected bits?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well it's like my children. I always tell
Speaker 3: my children I have favorites. It just changes every day
Speaker 3: depending on who's best behaved. So I had different favorites
Speaker 3: as he went through. Like, of course, I loved Phoenix
Speaker 3: from the get go because he is just magnificent and
Speaker 3: he's so tough and you know, big and strong and yeah,
Speaker 3: and he's you know, he's so good at what he does,
Speaker 3: and he's charismatic, you know. But as he went along,
Speaker 3: I love Cyclone, like he's got this beautiful personality which
Speaker 3: probably you won't see the softer side of him, but
Speaker 3: he's just gorgeous.
Speaker 2: Viking is just beautiful.
Speaker 3: So you know, those three, and you know, and then Maximus,
Speaker 3: they're all just lovely.
Speaker 2: They've all got really beautiful sides to them.
Speaker 3: Cobra Cobra is nearly my age and so he's what
Speaker 3: forty eight, and he's still amazing. And then for the women,
Speaker 3: Like initially I was really like, I was really drawn
Speaker 3: to Chaos because she's so chaotic. You can't take your
Speaker 3: eyes off her. She has just mad energy and she's
Speaker 3: so strong. She's the strongest person I've ever.
Speaker 1: Met, like from another world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, And Halo's beautiful.
Speaker 3: I love Halo because she's like, she looks really beautiful
Speaker 3: and she's probably the most finally built of all the
Speaker 3: of all the gladiators, but she's got that Mma stunt
Speaker 3: woman background, so she's really deceptively strong, and I love
Speaker 3: that about it because you get so much more than
Speaker 3: what you think you're going to get. Arrow is magnificent.
Speaker 3: My little girl walked in straight away and just love
Speaker 3: fell in love with Arrow.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I bonded with Raven and Electra because they're both mums
Speaker 3: and so were all there missing our kids going oh
Speaker 3: you know, and Electra her babies were really little, so's
Speaker 3: she was really missing her little boy. So you know,
Speaker 3: they've all got different aspects and you know, different days
Speaker 3: you'd be like, oh, they were my favorite today. Then
Speaker 3: tomorrow you get in and there's like, oh they are
Speaker 3: awesome today. So yeah, they're all just they're really interesting
Speaker 3: and it was interesting to see them grow across the course.
Speaker 3: So the first few Bo and I decided to only
Speaker 3: call them by their gladiator name, and the first few
Speaker 3: days are a bit awkward about it, and then by
Speaker 3: the end of it, they were owning it.
Speaker 2: They just were inhabiting it, loving it. They were like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's me is that was cool.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering whether or not you and Bo had any
Speaker 1: conversations about your IMA celebrity experience, because he really didn't
Speaker 1: enjoy doing the jung call. Did you guys swap notes
Speaker 1: on that? And did you Sunday morning quarterback him on
Speaker 1: what he could do better?
Speaker 2: No, no, we didn't talk about it.
Speaker 3: We had so many hours sitting around waiting for lighting
Speaker 3: to be reset or something to happen. So yeah, we
Speaker 3: talked about it, and our experiences were very different. But
Speaker 3: you know, I don't want to give away anything, but
Speaker 3: he was just a bloody joy to work with, so
Speaker 3: you know, we both came from really different experiences in
Speaker 3: that television show to be on this one, but straight
Speaker 3: away we just clicked I love it.
Speaker 1: Well. Something that everyone gets asked, and you've been asked
Speaker 1: this before because you've done the podcast before, but what
Speaker 1: is something from behind the scenes of Gladiators, something that
Speaker 1: we as an audience won't get a chance to see,
Speaker 1: kind of like a Gladiator secret if you will, that
Speaker 1: you could share with us from your time hosting the show.
Speaker 2: That's a really good question.
Speaker 3: Probably just how much the gladiators really liked each other,
Speaker 3: Like they all got along so well. They're all staying well,
Speaker 3: most of them were staying in a hotel with each other,
Speaker 3: so you know, we'd hear stories about them just bonding
Speaker 3: and having fun. And it was just so nice because
Speaker 3: the way that it shot, it could have been really competitive,
Speaker 3: and I made and that the wrong personalities, like Channel
Speaker 3: ten takes to risks. I put all these big, driven
Speaker 3: people you know in together and from the get go
Speaker 3: was obvious that, you know, Phoenix and Halo and Viking
Speaker 3: were going to be the faces and that could have
Speaker 3: proud of problems, but they just all got along so well.
Speaker 3: And what you see on their instagrams where they're all
Speaker 3: you know, cheering each other on is exactly what you
Speaker 3: get behind the scenes. So it was really they really
Speaker 3: did become a team, and I thought that was a
Speaker 3: really nice aspect of it. They probably won't come out
Speaker 3: because it's not part of the Gladiator persona that you know,
Speaker 3: you might want to be showing, but they became a
Speaker 3: really tight team, and I thought it was terrific.
Speaker 1: Maybe they just psyched them to make sure that they're
Speaker 1: not actual killers, you know what I mean, Like, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's probably a good idea, one of.
Speaker 1: Those really expensive psych tests. Liz, I am such a
Speaker 1: big fan and I've grown up with you over the years.
Speaker 1: I just love that this is your job now and
Speaker 1: I look forward to there being another season of this
Speaker 1: and I love being in your audience and just seeing
Speaker 1: what you're going to do next.
Speaker 3: I think, OK, been, that's so lovely. It's been a
Speaker 3: enjoy chatting to you this year. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I know it's so exciting. I'll be back to talk
Speaker 1: to you about another show. I'm sure payroll bankrolling you now.
Speaker 2: Let's just talk even if there's no show.
Speaker 1: Hey. I love it enjoy chatting to the media about
Speaker 1: the show today, and I'm crossing my fingers about the ratings.
Speaker 1: So anyway, after yourself, thank you