Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast past week that line. Welcome back,
Speaker 1: guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name
Speaker 1: is Benjamin Norris, and this is your podcast to get
Speaker 1: all the inside goss on the popular TV shows that
Speaker 1: you may be watching from around the world. Underniably, our
Speaker 1: TV sets are still a major part of our home entertainment,
Speaker 1: and yet very little is known about how our favorite
Speaker 1: shows get made. So each episode I've been finding guests
Speaker 1: the wanna dive just that little bit deeper into the
Speaker 1: shows that they've been currently making, so that you can
Speaker 1: hear all their exclusive stories and gain access to the
Speaker 1: biggest names in Australian television. I want to thank you
Speaker 1: for downloading or subscribing to this podcast however you've found it.
Speaker 1: I love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave
Speaker 1: a review or a comment on your chosen podcast platform.
Speaker 1: On today's podcast, I have Alex Maveridiks, who has proven
Speaker 1: to be my most popular guest on TV Reload. I
Speaker 1: actually have lost count of the amount of times that
Speaker 1: he has appeared on the podcast. And while you would
Speaker 1: be forgiven for thinking that we would have nothing left
Speaker 1: to talk about I'm here to tell you you are wrong.
Speaker 1: This is his best chat yet, As he probably already
Speaker 1: have guessed, he would be here to promote one of
Speaker 1: his shows, and this time it is Love Island Australia,
Speaker 1: which is returning for its fifth series on Monday night
Speaker 1: on Channel nine. I can tell you right now that
Speaker 1: the series five eras theme is perfection and swifty fans,
Speaker 1: you'll know what I mean, and the men and women
Speaker 1: are absolutely hotter than ever, and you know that Alex
Speaker 1: will hammer that point home every single time that he
Speaker 1: has a new show to promote. However, the best part
Speaker 1: about Alex and I getting together is not just the
Speaker 1: genuine banter, but the mind boggling stories that no other
Speaker 1: executive producer would dare to tell. He is absolutely the
Speaker 1: essence of what this podcast stands for and the benchmark
Speaker 1: for all guests to hold themselves against. We are going
Speaker 1: to talk about the casting of three particular Islanders, which
Speaker 1: happened by a mistake but sets up the most explosive
Speaker 1: storyline that the show has ever seen. We will talk
Speaker 1: nudity on freeedoware channels from Uncut to up Late and Yes,
Speaker 1: Jamie's two thousand and six trousers, snack get to mention.
Speaker 1: And what I have to say about that is if
Speaker 1: you know, you know, I will find out about the
Speaker 1: secret global Council of Love Island executive producers and how
Speaker 1: they get together and share their secrets to make this
Speaker 1: show better and better every year. Plus you're going to
Speaker 1: get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes of Love
Speaker 1: Island Australia, which is starting this Monday night premiers on
Speaker 1: nine Now, dropping at six pm Eastern Standard Time, and
Speaker 1: it's on every Monday to Thursday. And I just want
Speaker 1: to say, let's welcome Alex Menvererdyke's back to the podcast.
Speaker 1: And I really do hope you enjoy this very exclusive
Speaker 1: and very naughty chat about Love Island Australia. How are
Speaker 1: you you will?
Speaker 2: Yes? And very well?
Speaker 1: What's more surprising that we're still friends or that I'm
Speaker 1: still with my partner Ben? What surprises you more?
Speaker 2: I they're both pretty pretty ridiculous. I mean, you know
Speaker 2: long lolds on both of those things in twenty twelve.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I would have thought by now that you'd
Speaker 1: somehow gotten rid of me.
Speaker 2: That way, you may still go you still be of
Speaker 2: use to me. So you know that's still around.
Speaker 1: Well that's what you've got to do, right, But another
Speaker 1: series of Love Island is dropping this week, which is
Speaker 1: very exciting, and the Internet has been clogged with excitement.
Speaker 1: Finmal celebrity, get me out of here with Robert Irwin.
Speaker 1: But you must be elated with this kind of success, right.
Speaker 2: Oh Look, I love both this show, so I am.
Speaker 2: I'm so so lucky. Look I'm all said, it fell
Speaker 2: into my lap. But you know, you know I get
Speaker 2: to make Love Island, you know, I mean, I just
Speaker 2: love the show so much. It is so stupid, and
Speaker 2: you know, like I'm doing the screenings for this current
Speaker 2: series every morning at the moment, so you know, I'm
Speaker 2: probably I'm going to be what fifteen episodes ahead of
Speaker 2: the general public, you know, as Jarla cuts them, and
Speaker 2: I'm pissing myself laughing every single morning. It is the
Speaker 2: best way to start the day. I just I just
Speaker 2: think it's the best show. And I'm a celebrity. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm about to make my tenth seasons of
Speaker 2: that season of that and sometimes I think, God, can
Speaker 2: I even come up with another trial where they've got
Speaker 2: to be electrocuted and get covered in snakes and fall
Speaker 2: and jump off flip. But then when you get over there,
Speaker 2: it just feels so different every year, you know. And
Speaker 2: I mean that is the great thing about these two shows.
Speaker 2: And any EP will tell you this, you know, So
Speaker 2: I'm not telling anything you I haven't heard before. But
Speaker 2: it's such a different vibe every single year because it's
Speaker 2: a completely different cast, so we can get away with
Speaker 2: doing you know, the same things over again. It feels
Speaker 2: completely different, Like you know, this season of love Al
Speaker 2: I'm talking about love aland more specifically, this season of
Speaker 2: Love Island feels so much different to season four, which
Speaker 2: of course is a fantastically successful series and loved it,
Speaker 2: but it just feels so different because the vibe is
Speaker 2: so incredibly different and the characters are just so much more.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't just watch it. You're gonna love it, guys.
Speaker 1: I just for the first fifteen minutes. That's all I
Speaker 1: tell people to do. To watch this new series because
Speaker 1: it's so addictive.
Speaker 2: I mean, it gets off and running very quickly. And
Speaker 2: you know, at Wall of love Land is always hard
Speaker 2: truth be told because you've got to show ten backstories,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, how many reality backstories have we
Speaker 2: all watched you know, Hi, I'm Johnny and I'm this,
Speaker 2: that and the other, and I'm here to step on
Speaker 2: toes and blah blah blah blah blah, And how do
Speaker 2: you keep making them different every single time? And we've
Speaker 2: got to go back to a big brother. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, you know what was your backstory? What was
Speaker 2: your headline? Can you even remember it?
Speaker 1: I can tell you that painted me out. I think
Speaker 1: I said I'm the bitchiest person you'll ever meet, Like
Speaker 1: it was a sizzle reel of the nastiest gay person
Speaker 1: you've ever come across.
Speaker 2: That was when you were allowed. In twenty twelve, we
Speaker 2: were still allowed to call gay people nasty without being canceled.
Speaker 1: Now it's a given, it's a given.
Speaker 2: I remember back then saying to Chris, this guy is
Speaker 2: a cartoon character. I actually I remember using those words.
Speaker 2: Just remember saying Ben is a cartoon character. He is
Speaker 2: the cartoon baddie and you sort of were really, let's
Speaker 2: be honest.
Speaker 1: Eleven years later, Alex, eleven years later, and I still
Speaker 1: get all the TV villains writing to me as soon
Speaker 1: as their series finishes, asking for advice. But I enjoy it.
Speaker 1: I love talking to these people that have been played
Speaker 1: as as long as they're the PG villain, like, they
Speaker 1: haven't done anything too sinister. They've kind of acted up
Speaker 1: to what I enjoy villains do well.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I'm a spoiler alert. I'm going
Speaker 2: to say that someone who is a little bit of
Speaker 2: a villain does very well in this series of Love On. Anyway,
Speaker 2: going back to what I was saying episode one of
Speaker 2: Love Island, I'm going to go from Tangents all night right.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Episode one of Love On. It's not hard watch. It's
Speaker 2: a bloody easy watch. It's a fantastic episode, of course
Speaker 2: it is. You know, all the good stuff happens, and
Speaker 2: you meet new characters and you get all the stepping
Speaker 2: forward of Sophie hilarious in it. But you've got to
Speaker 2: get through ten backstories and you've got to get through
Speaker 2: a very big format point, which is who's going to
Speaker 2: couple up with who? And what are they going to
Speaker 2: do this year? And oh my god, they've changed that
Speaker 2: with the villa and that takes five segments, you know,
Speaker 2: to do to unpackle that stuff. And it's only when
Speaker 2: you get to the end of episode one and into
Speaker 2: episodes two and three where everyone starts getting it on
Speaker 2: with each other and everyone starts hating each other and
Speaker 2: all that beautiful reality TV stuff starts happening. But look,
Speaker 2: it's a great first step. I'm glum. Look, I know
Speaker 2: you haven't seen it properly yet, but you're gonna like it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna love it. How hard is it? Though you
Speaker 1: kind of touched on this before, but I think it's
Speaker 1: a really important thing. How hard is it to keep
Speaker 1: long running shows like these, you know, current and on
Speaker 1: trend because you know, there's such a fickle nature these days,
Speaker 1: and we see shows come and go, they try and
Speaker 1: relaunch and come up with new ideas. But you're working
Speaker 1: on two shows that are past five season like it's madness.
Speaker 1: How do you do that? How do you keep audiences?
Speaker 1: You kind of touch on a bit, but I want
Speaker 1: to know a little bit more than just refreshing the characters.
Speaker 1: There's got to be more to it.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what. Never ages? Okay, being funny never
Speaker 2: gets old, all right? You could go back and watch
Speaker 2: the two Ronnie's, Monty Python's, The Paul Hogan Show, you know,
Speaker 2: go back to Bloody Charlie Chaplin and custard pies and faces.
Speaker 2: It's still funny. It doesn't matter how many times you
Speaker 2: do it. If you can keep your con tent funny
Speaker 2: and if you keep your audience laughing, it never ages.
Speaker 2: With Love Island, I'll tell you what else doesn't get old.
Speaker 2: Sexy people, because people have been shagging each other since
Speaker 2: the time. That is literally the reason we are here.
Speaker 2: Sexy doesn't get old. Funny doesn't get old.
Speaker 1: With honor Bowyerism, Voyeurism also doesn't get.
Speaker 2: Hold, doesn't get old, It doesn't get on. You know,
Speaker 2: how many times have we caught ourselves up trees with
Speaker 2: binoculars looking into windows.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Alex, how many times?
Speaker 2: No. Vorism doesn't get old. And celebrit you know, revealing,
Speaker 2: you know, revealing secrets about celebrities never gets old, even
Speaker 2: if you know about them. You know, that's how you
Speaker 2: keep it fresh. Can I come up with twenty different
Speaker 2: trials from a celebrity every single year? Absolutely not, you
Speaker 2: know you just I mean, yes, I could, but they're
Speaker 2: just going to start getting ridiculous. You know, we will
Speaker 2: do the Viper Room every year. You know, we will
Speaker 2: do some eating trials every single year. We will send
Speaker 2: them up a cliff every single year because it works.
Speaker 2: So you know what the point in changing everything? You
Speaker 2: just changed? You changed sixty percent of the show, and
Speaker 2: you stick with the ones that work.
Speaker 1: If you go too far with that, you'll end up
Speaker 1: killing one of those celebrities. So I'm kind of happy
Speaker 1: that you know you stick into some basics there.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, well, that's the last thing we want to do.
Speaker 2: Safety first every single time.
Speaker 1: How did you go like planning this series? And the
Speaker 1: reason I'm asking you this is because I can imagine
Speaker 1: because I know the team of people you work with,
Speaker 1: they're all amazing, they're all geniuses. How did you go
Speaker 1: throwing ideas around? And can you tease me with anything
Speaker 1: that didn't quite make the cut? Did you have any
Speaker 1: ideas that you were going to try and put into
Speaker 1: this series that got scrapped?
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, I'm going to tease you with this. So
Speaker 2: we had an idea. It was my idea, and Josie
Speaker 2: kind of liked it, and some other people probably liked
Speaker 2: me and said they liked it. But anyway, the idea
Speaker 2: was we were going to get a UK Islander, a female,
Speaker 2: and she was going to be a British spy and
Speaker 2: we were going to call it Double Low Heaven. The
Speaker 2: idea was that the girl was going to come in
Speaker 2: whilst the other girls were out on a beach day
Speaker 2: or something and flirt outrageously with the boys. Possibly she
Speaker 2: would have had a near piece in and we were
Speaker 2: going to be feeding her what to say and what
Speaker 2: to do. That was the That was the working idea.
Speaker 2: So we went looking for a UK female islander. We
Speaker 2: did some googling, we did some watching. We called a
Speaker 2: couple of them, you know, we DMed a few of them.
Speaker 2: Lucinda got back to us, so Jose and I zoomed Lucinder.
Speaker 2: We knew nothing about her. Pultsy was the really girl.
Speaker 2: That's all we knew about her. This is Lucinda Strafford,
Speaker 2: who you were all going to do very well, very shortly.
Speaker 2: She arrived at episode one of this series. Jose and
Speaker 2: I zoomed her, and within about four minutes we realized
Speaker 2: that my idea was shit and it wasn't going to
Speaker 2: work unless you had an actress. And you can't just
Speaker 2: ask a girl to go in there and you know,
Speaker 2: be that along with the boys, and blah blah blah, blah,
Speaker 2: but we loved her so much, like she was so
Speaker 2: infectiously incredible, so funny, so beautiful, so desperate for a boyfriend.
Speaker 2: Like you know where people are only there for the followers,
Speaker 2: and you know, sure, we can take a bit of that,
Speaker 2: but this girl desperately wanted a girl.
Speaker 1: That boy close to being a bunny boil at.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we were like, do you know what my
Speaker 2: idea is? Ship, But let's just put it in a
Speaker 2: villa anyway, And so we pitched a channel on and
Speaker 2: they saw what we saw and.
Speaker 1: They said, yes, but that primo would have been good
Speaker 1: because I could see the bra as the zeros and
Speaker 1: then you just put the seven next to it, right,
Speaker 1: that would have been good, not bad.
Speaker 2: Or maybe we'll go for it again next time.
Speaker 1: I just need a little finessing, a little workshopping.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll just delete this section of the podcast, not
Speaker 2: go with it anyway. Now, something else the next time.
Speaker 2: But they that's something that didn't make the cart and
Speaker 2: that's how that's how Lucinder got in there. It was
Speaker 2: a stupid idea that never made it. I'm going to
Speaker 2: open my can of coke. You're going to hear as.
Speaker 1: I've edited out the can of coke being opened on
Speaker 1: every podcast. This is episode four for you. This is
Speaker 1: podcast Christmas for me. By the way, Alex, every time
Speaker 1: you come on it is my Christmas.
Speaker 2: I feel like I need to say something outrageous. Was
Speaker 2: the fourth time we've done so. I feel like I
Speaker 2: need to be like, hey, I've had a threesome with
Speaker 2: Sophie Mung and Julian Moore.
Speaker 1: No the Sophie Monk. Oh yeah, there we go, Sophie Monk,
Speaker 1: Julia Morris. It's like you put Sony Krueger in there,
Speaker 1: but she's no longer working for you.
Speaker 2: Daily Mail, there's your headlong.
Speaker 1: I remember once I interviewed someone and you text me
Speaker 1: afterwards and you said, I know you just interviewed this person.
Speaker 1: What's the Daily Mail headline? And I said, I don't
Speaker 1: think I had one. I think you wrote back and said,
Speaker 1: what's the point. What's the point of having them on
Speaker 1: the podcast anyway? Well, is there a way that you
Speaker 1: can communicate with like the other Love Island franchisees, because
Speaker 1: I remember back in the day, there was like a
Speaker 1: Big Brother headquarters or a summer camp that you all
Speaker 1: get together and switch ideas around. Does that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff happen for this franchise. Can you all get together
Speaker 1: and swap ideas?
Speaker 2: Yes, there is, In all honesty, we just watch each
Speaker 2: other seasons now. I mean you know that. I remember
Speaker 2: going to the Big Brother conference in Amsterdam way back
Speaker 2: before your season even I think there must have been twenty eleven,
Speaker 2: and it was literally Lucky United Nations. It was sixty
Speaker 2: odd producers sitting around a massive table with their little
Speaker 2: flags in front of them. It was like, use are
Speaker 2: the tasks that we have done in Sweden and we
Speaker 2: think it worked really well. The money that used to
Speaker 2: be around in you know, flying their executives around the
Speaker 2: world possibly to come back with three, you know, three
Speaker 2: task ideas, that shit just doesn't fly anymore. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, there is a Love Island conference that people
Speaker 2: do share ideas. I liked, I really liked a couple
Speaker 2: of things. America did this this time their most recent series,
Speaker 2: and they've got Love Island Games about to launch now,
Speaker 2: which is a complete different way of doing the format.
Speaker 2: The UK are about to do Love Island All Stars.
Speaker 2: People are doing. It's at that stage of the franchise
Speaker 2: now where people are starting to do stuff away from
Speaker 2: the norm. You know, same thing happened with Big Brother
Speaker 2: way back in the day.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you two quick questions on this
Speaker 1: because I just thought of them. Which contestants are so
Speaker 1: for Love Island Games? Were you happy with the Australian
Speaker 1: people that were picked to be a part of that?
Speaker 2: Well, I suggested them Humby, you know, I suggested that.
Speaker 2: So it was the American execs messaged me and they
Speaker 2: told me about the show. I was like, great, and
Speaker 2: they're like, who's your Australian picks? And I probably went
Speaker 2: back with a list of on and say maybe twelve
Speaker 2: to fourteen people that I know would have been great,
Speaker 2: and they ended up using all five and I think
Speaker 2: they only use four.
Speaker 1: Do you think they picked the right ones? But they're
Speaker 1: the ones you would have picked to do something like
Speaker 1: that if you were the EB.
Speaker 2: They've been released somebody, Yes they have so, yes, they
Speaker 2: used to. They use Callum and Jess from season four,
Speaker 2: who I absolutely would have you know, I put them
Speaker 2: forward and they're brilliant. They are in it from the start.
Speaker 2: So I've been seen up to episode ten of Love
Speaker 2: on Games, so I can't tell you beyond then. I
Speaker 2: know they ended up using Mitch and Tina, and I
Speaker 2: think this is all public domain, so I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: I can talk about this.
Speaker 1: No, No, those names are out the fie. I don't
Speaker 1: think we know how far they go, but the names
Speaker 1: are out, so I think we're pretty safe.
Speaker 2: So Callum and Jess are in there, and they are
Speaker 2: absolutely fantastic. You know they were brilliant picks Mitch and
Speaker 2: Tina that you'd have them in any reality TV show anywhere.
Speaker 2: I know that they looked at ca I looked at
Speaker 2: Josh Packham.
Speaker 1: I think they flew Cassidy over there. I know someone
Speaker 1: has flown over there and didn't want to do the
Speaker 1: extended lockdown or something, and they had to fly them back.
Speaker 1: I remember there was a bit of I don't know
Speaker 1: if you heard that, Goss.
Speaker 2: I think Cassidy was over there, and I'm not sure
Speaker 2: about the detail of why she didn't end up in
Speaker 2: the show, but I think, God Cassidy would be one
Speaker 2: of our best Islanders. Everyone.
Speaker 1: This is the second part of the question, Alex is
Speaker 1: All Stars for this show? Please tell me that in
Speaker 1: All Stars is next season, because I need to see
Speaker 1: Cassidy back on my screen. She is my favorite Islander.
Speaker 1: Of all time. She was so crazy but yet so engaging.
Speaker 1: I don't think i'd be friends with her in the
Speaker 1: real world, but she was the best. I just and
Speaker 1: she needs to do All Stars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's great reality talent and I just think she's fantastic. Look,
Speaker 2: I'm going to say the same thing about All Stars
Speaker 2: as I always said about Big Brother All Stars, and
Speaker 2: I was proved right.
Speaker 1: I have to say, but absolutely you were correct.
Speaker 2: Yp Did you know what it did? It's very hard
Speaker 2: to ask people to be as amazing as they were
Speaker 2: the first time round. I would always favor a kind
Speaker 2: of virgins versus veterans type SCENARIOO where you have like
Speaker 2: maybe half and half or something. I'm very interested to
Speaker 2: see how the UK one goes, and I'm very interested
Speaker 2: to see how Love alland Games goes. I'd, you know,
Speaker 2: always let the two countries with the most money, or
Speaker 2: either the UK and the US, go and either make
Speaker 2: it amazing or fuck it up first, and then we
Speaker 2: will do whichever one works. That's how we do it
Speaker 2: in Australia, go and go and let someone else fuck
Speaker 2: it up first.
Speaker 1: Different markets, though Alex Lake is in Do you know
Speaker 1: I think that All Stars does not work in Australia.
Speaker 1: And I also think we are in some ways getting
Speaker 1: close to the end of some of these celebrity shows.
Speaker 1: I'm a Celebrity start at so I think it's still safe,
Speaker 1: but some of these other franchises, like like as in
Speaker 1: some of these other celebrity ones, it's wearing a little
Speaker 1: bit thin.
Speaker 2: As the most Celebrity version did or right didn't it?
Speaker 1: And I think they've just announced another series They're going
Speaker 1: to do another one.
Speaker 2: You see. That's as the as the person in charge
Speaker 2: of On with Celebrity, that's tough for me because that's
Speaker 2: just taken another sixteen celebs off the market. And trust me,
Speaker 2: you've made nine seasons of on SLEB and you're trying
Speaker 2: to find fourteen or sixteen people to do the tenth season.
Speaker 1: Alex, do you know as well as I do that
Speaker 1: all the celebrities that were on Amazing Race, they were
Speaker 1: all from your shows. Everyone on Amazing Race had done
Speaker 1: I'm a Celebrity, or they've been on Love Island, or
Speaker 1: they've been on one of your shows. It was hilarious.
Speaker 1: They're mining your products, is what I should say.
Speaker 2: They are doing with me what I'm doing with the
Speaker 2: UK in the US, so like, let's see if Alex
Speaker 2: fucks them up first, and if he doesn't, we'll use them.
Speaker 1: These people still do these shows after working with you.
Speaker 1: I still always think that that is your magic because
Speaker 1: so many people I know who've been on reality shows
Speaker 1: and never do it again, and they say that they
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it again because they don't trust the producers.
Speaker 1: And here you are. You've I think if you ring
Speaker 1: anyone that's been on any of your shows, you probably
Speaker 1: count on one hand the people that would say.
Speaker 2: No, come there would be one hand. I can definitely
Speaker 2: think a few that didn't love it, but not not
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: That's the Daily Mail headline, Alex, who's somebody who would
Speaker 1: say no to coming back on one of your shirts?
Speaker 2: Absolutely not telling you.
Speaker 1: That I love setting you up for this come on, but.
Speaker 2: Look, thank you for saying that, and that's nice. I look,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm just honest with them. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: it's like I was with you before Big Brother. You know,
Speaker 2: I haven't said that your Big Brother was my first
Speaker 2: EP gig, so you know, I probably made more mistakes
Speaker 2: in that season. Having said that, everybody from that season
Speaker 2: I think still likes me. It's hard because I you know,
Speaker 2: I'm Facebook friends with everyone and I follow over on
Speaker 2: in Instagram, et cetera. But if you add up all
Speaker 2: of the reality people that I've had on Big Brother
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, Big Brother twenty thirteen, Big Brother twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: nine seasons of One the celeb that's nine. That's twelve,
Speaker 2: five seasons of Love Ireland. That's seventeen reality seasons with
Speaker 2: an average of fifteen on each. And I'm going to
Speaker 2: grab my phone really really quickly go to the calculator
Speaker 2: app and go seventeen time fifteen and this is conservative.
Speaker 2: That's two hundred and fifty five people that have been
Speaker 2: through the Villa, the Jungle, the Big Brother House under
Speaker 2: my watchers EP. And that means that I've done two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty five last rights chats, which is you know,
Speaker 2: what we call the final kind of honesty chat that
Speaker 2: I have with everybody before they go in, and that
Speaker 2: is the chat where I think, I say, listen, you know,
Speaker 2: if you go in there with a wide open brain
Speaker 2: and say, do you know what the worst thing that
Speaker 2: can happen here is a great story for the grandkids,
Speaker 2: And I'll be out in a couple of days and
Speaker 2: the best thing that happens here is Australia is going
Speaker 2: to fall in love with me and I'm going to
Speaker 2: make a million dollars at this. The reality is something
Speaker 2: in between those two things is going to happen. And
Speaker 2: that's it. That's what this is. You know, this is
Speaker 2: an adventure. This is fun, That's what this is. You
Speaker 2: know we won't cut you loose afterwards. You know, we
Speaker 2: will make sure you're okay, and yadda yadda, And we
Speaker 2: always choose people that are psychologically robust enough to be
Speaker 2: watched twenty four hours a day. Other word, we wouldn't
Speaker 2: be doing our due diligence.
Speaker 1: I think no one wants to watch me twenty four
Speaker 1: hours a day now that I'm forty three. I think
Speaker 1: everyone's happy with my clothes on on a podcast where
Speaker 1: they can't see me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of one hundred percent on. You know, I've seen
Speaker 2: you in very compromising situations because I didn't have to
Speaker 2: watch you for twenty four hours a day, and some
Speaker 2: stuff you just can't unsee me.
Speaker 1: I just remember thinking I got Stockholm syndrome from working
Speaker 1: with you, because I remember that chat that you had
Speaker 1: with me, and it just made me addicted to wanting
Speaker 1: to impress you do you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 1: where you're obsessed with your captor. So there's got to
Speaker 1: be something in there, something of a skill set that
Speaker 1: you can impose that kind of pressure or psychology onto
Speaker 1: these people.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know how I respond to that
Speaker 2: other than to say that I think I feel like
Speaker 2: we're working together, Like we want the show to rpe, right,
Speaker 2: we want it's great for both of us. If the
Speaker 2: show rates, I get my recommissioned bonus and you know,
Speaker 2: fame and fortune.
Speaker 1: You know, so living on the canals and the Gold
Speaker 1: Coast like I'm living on the GC. Yeah, anyway, we
Speaker 1: need to get back to Love Island. People be like,
Speaker 1: shut up, and Love Island has this twist, right, So
Speaker 1: you've got this villain era is basically what people are
Speaker 1: seeing to sort of launch the show sort of.
Speaker 2: There is Villainias. That's that's the one that's been in
Speaker 2: the promo. So I tell you the.
Speaker 1: Promo, But that's what I mean, Like that's what you've
Speaker 1: teased everyone. How is the villain era going to work? Like?
Speaker 1: What does that bring to the show?
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's more than just villain era. It's it's
Speaker 2: eras full stop. So we looked at the basically, when
Speaker 2: we were starting the creative for Love Island season five,
Speaker 2: it was when everyone was waiting online for nine hours
Speaker 2: for Taylor Swift tickets. It was that month that was
Speaker 2: like the headline in Australia. People bloody, you know, drinking
Speaker 2: nine cups of coffee and staring at us spinning wheel
Speaker 2: when trying desperately trying to book Taylor Swift tickets, and
Speaker 2: her tour was called the Era's Tour. We were like,
Speaker 2: there's something in this because all the cool kids are
Speaker 2: saying eras right errors, however, you want to say, there's
Speaker 2: the Aussie Simpson era.
Speaker 1: The accent, Yeah, yeah, I get it wrong, Potato potato.
Speaker 2: And then we hit the road on the casting tour
Speaker 2: and pretty much, you know, I'm going to say one
Speaker 2: in five people were saying, I'm in my gloss era,
Speaker 2: I'm in my fuck girl era, I'm in my I
Speaker 2: don't give a shit era, I'm in my healing era,
Speaker 2: I'm in my this era. And we're Josie and I
Speaker 2: and Jalla, and you know, then the network we kept
Speaker 2: catching each other's eyes and going, there's another one, there's
Speaker 2: another one. So when we went in to pitch the
Speaker 2: you know, the new creative to Channel nine because they
Speaker 2: always ask you what's different this year, and we go,
Speaker 2: you know, there's hot people. You know, what's different this year,
Speaker 2: and we go, this year, we're doing eras. It's all
Speaker 2: about you know, Taylor Swift started. So this is what
Speaker 2: we've done, and it's quite smart. I think we've broken
Speaker 2: the series down into era. So it starts episode one.
Speaker 2: They start in their spicy era. Okay, spicy, the spiciest challenges,
Speaker 2: spicy games, lots of you know, spicy things happen, and
Speaker 2: then it goes into the vibe era, which is where, okay,
Speaker 2: we've got through all the spiciest stuff. Now it's trying
Speaker 2: to work out if the person you're with is the one,
Speaker 2: and we start throwing in more bombs and testing their relationships.
Speaker 2: Then it gets to villain Eia. No villainea is just
Speaker 2: an easy way of saying we're gonna be real wankers.
Speaker 1: That I just love that, and that's like you do
Speaker 1: that in a way and all the series. But it's
Speaker 1: like when you make them say savage things about each
Speaker 1: other in front of each other like that is just
Speaker 1: gold television. I love it.
Speaker 2: So we did some pretty full on stuff and villain Eia,
Speaker 2: you know, like some brutal dumpings, you know, some brutal
Speaker 2: ways of bringing people in. It's proper noisy. You know.
Speaker 2: We were supposed to do it for like six or
Speaker 2: seven days. I think we ended up doing it about
Speaker 2: fourteen because every single thing we did it was like,
Speaker 2: oh well that's that's still Villainiera, and then from villain
Speaker 2: Eia it then goes into something else here and then
Speaker 2: out to get in.
Speaker 1: I just I'm sold. I'm sold all the eras as
Speaker 1: soon as you said Taylor Swift and you know the
Speaker 1: Swifties out there as well, You've just accessed an entire
Speaker 1: demographic bigger than any other demographic in the world, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Look, anyone who's got the passion and the dedication to
Speaker 2: sit on a website for half a day trying to
Speaker 2: get a ticket from half a mile away to see
Speaker 2: you know, a pin prick dancing around. They're the sort
Speaker 2: of people I won't watching my show.
Speaker 1: By the way, I'm in my Dorito's era, which I've
Speaker 1: really got to get myself out of. I can tell
Speaker 1: you that much. Right now, I don't think that'll be
Speaker 1: happening because no one's eating a fucking dorito wearing bathers
Speaker 1: and bikinis, which makes me ask you this question. I
Speaker 1: always think this in the first episode, how do you
Speaker 1: know that all these people's bodies look that great? So
Speaker 1: in the audition room, do you make them all put
Speaker 1: on their bathers? Like, how do you know that they're
Speaker 1: going to be confident enough to be basically in the
Speaker 1: nickers for the entire series.
Speaker 2: When they come to the auditions, they bring their swimmers
Speaker 2: with them, so they come into us. So okay, So
Speaker 2: there's a couple of rounds it back to day with
Speaker 2: you guys. Clearly it wasn't about bodies in Big Brother years,
Speaker 2: but now it's fairly n So okay, love old audition.
Speaker 2: You turn up, you have you know, a kind of
Speaker 2: a chat, a big, a prolonged chat with like the
Speaker 2: series producer and a couple of other cast and producers.
Speaker 2: Then they come through to myus and Joe CDPs and
Speaker 2: someone from the network Jaala comes to the Brisbane ones,
Speaker 2: you know, blah blah blah blah. We took Tailor Demir
Speaker 2: to the perth ones last year, I think, or maybe
Speaker 2: the year before kind of remember. Anyway, once they come
Speaker 2: through us, because it's really awkward and a bit bloody
Speaker 2: weinsteiners if you go right now, get your kid off
Speaker 2: and spin around so that. But they then go in
Speaker 2: to a to one of our aps, so basically a
Speaker 2: photographerone who's great at taking photos and there's a lovely
Speaker 2: backdrop and they and then they take some photos and
Speaker 2: the swimmers just like any model would do.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine if you did that back in the day,
Speaker 1: like Chris Blackburn? Imagine if back in the day there
Speaker 1: it's just you and Chris Blackburn and just getting sheerers
Speaker 1: to walk in and there. But he'd be arrested.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we absolutely would. We would have been canceled. Ages.
Speaker 1: Do people this year live up? Have they lived up
Speaker 1: to their audition? Because do you know what I have
Speaker 1: to say is like I get scared for people. You know,
Speaker 1: do people come in and promise the world and then
Speaker 1: turn up into the villa and then turn into someone different?
Speaker 1: Like does that happen to you each year? Where someone
Speaker 1: over the over promises in their audition every year?
Speaker 2: Because people are getting more savvy about how to how
Speaker 2: to audition for reality TV shows. There's something on Reddit.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're familiar with it, if you
Speaker 2: go looking for it, and there's no way I'd be
Speaker 2: able to find it quick to tell you about now.
Speaker 2: One of the people that auditioned this year told me
Speaker 2: about it. There's like a whole community of want to
Speaker 2: be reality stars that's on Reddit, and it's like, this
Speaker 2: is what you say, this is how you walk into
Speaker 2: the room, this is what you know. They're watching you
Speaker 2: from the second you you know, they must think we've
Speaker 2: got millions of dollars, you know, because one of them said, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, they've got a cameras set up in the
Speaker 2: in the lobby, and you know they have all that
Speaker 2: are in the bathrooms at the same time. You know,
Speaker 2: it's like, mate, do you have you seen what our
Speaker 2: budgets are?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: You know, we're lucky to have four people, you know, and.
Speaker 1: They're just sitting there with your finger sandwiches. There's nothing
Speaker 1: in dec in it about it. The budgets died.
Speaker 2: But there's a whole community of this is what you say,
Speaker 2: this is what you do. So you know, the more
Speaker 2: people share this information. The fact of the matter is
Speaker 2: you've got to past the talk test. It doesn't matter
Speaker 2: if you looked like bloody. I mean, it doesn't know
Speaker 2: if you look like a Roman statue. In fact, we've
Speaker 2: held we've thrown Roman statues out. We did this year.
Speaker 2: This guy walked in this year and he was the
Speaker 2: best looking man I've ever seen in my life. And
Speaker 2: I genuinely mean that. If I wasn't so rapidly heterosexual,
Speaker 2: would I would have asked him out immediately?
Speaker 1: Why did he look feminine? That's trying to work out.
Speaker 1: He thought he was.
Speaker 2: Chiseled. This man had that. I mean, he was just
Speaker 2: the perfect looking man. He was, you know, he was
Speaker 2: masculine but not too blokey. He was built but not
Speaker 2: too bulky. You know, he was just the best looking man.
Speaker 2: And the girls like, oh my god, the poor bastard
Speaker 2: could not string two words together. And there is no
Speaker 2: point when you've got ninety minutes in some instances of
Speaker 2: TV to make in twenty four hours, putting someone like
Speaker 2: that on television, because you know they're not going to
Speaker 2: last you. And yes, the girls are going to go
Speaker 2: gaga for them, but if they can't talk, there is
Speaker 2: no point in putting them on the show, So I
Speaker 2: want to get that story out because people so they'll
Speaker 2: just put the hottest people in that we don't we
Speaker 2: know but want to.
Speaker 1: I want someone who talks like Sylvester Stallone in the
Speaker 1: first Rocky movie. Just someone really hot that's like burh
Speaker 1: and like drawl comes out. Although last year you had
Speaker 1: massive success with bringing Al Perks in from mass and
Speaker 1: this year you've decided to leverage some more unfinished maths business.
Speaker 1: What can you tell me about Abbi and Kiara that
Speaker 1: teases us what I'm talking about but doesn't give the
Speaker 1: whole thing away.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, first of all, First Site is the most expected,
Speaker 2: the most successful show on the nine network. We were
Speaker 2: on the nine network, and so when we see an opportunity,
Speaker 2: of course we can take it. Al Perkins was fantastic
Speaker 2: for us. Last year. We went to Perth and we
Speaker 2: met this girl called Kira. I hadn't seen that season
Speaker 2: A Married at First Sight because I was in Africa
Speaker 2: making on a slib. I believe when it was on
Speaker 2: air there was some reason. I just basically missed all
Speaker 2: of the hoopla and everyone else has gone nuts. That's
Speaker 2: Bronte sister, and we didn't go we didn't go. You know,
Speaker 2: it wasn't a direct casting thing. You know people ask
Speaker 2: every year do you go scouting around instagrams and ask
Speaker 2: people on audition? YEP, of course we do. You know,
Speaker 2: there's no secret in that. We didn't do this with that.
Speaker 2: With Kira, she just turned up at the audition and
Speaker 2: everyone's like, oh my god, that's bronches work great. Talk
Speaker 2: to her. She was bloody fantastic. She's the best resting
Speaker 2: bitch face I've ever seen in my life. She looks
Speaker 2: like she hates the world because she's actually thinking nice
Speaker 2: thoughts at the same time as anyway, So so Kira
Speaker 2: was pretty much okay. She's gorgeous, she's great talent, she's
Speaker 2: got you know, a math's link. She would have got
Speaker 2: some sort of following. People would think she's a boss
Speaker 2: bitch because she's called out, you know, some bloke on
Speaker 2: americith first site. So she's she goes straight onto the
Speaker 2: wall and like, you know, she's probably gonna get in.
Speaker 2: We didn't go to Sydney. I think it was, Yes,
Speaker 2: it was Sydney, and this girl Abby walks in and
Speaker 2: she's like, you know, I've been on the Bachelor's and
Speaker 2: you know, like, oh, yeah, you know, and I also
Speaker 2: obviously she's gorgeous, and then she starts talking about you know,
Speaker 2: and there was this thing where I, you know, I
Speaker 2: was with this guy and he then went on maths
Speaker 2: and I was shagging him beforehand, I was shagging him afterwards,
Speaker 2: and there was all this drama and people are like
Speaker 2: nutching me under the desk, going that's the chick that
Speaker 2: you know. So people had to pull all the bits
Speaker 2: together for me. But when we went into channel and
Speaker 2: he said, hey, we've got Bronzie's sister Kira. Oh, we
Speaker 2: got this girl Abby who was with Harrison before and
Speaker 2: they've just gone and before we you know like, I'm
Speaker 2: I don't know, you can.
Speaker 1: Tell me to cut this out, but you know it'd
Speaker 1: be linked to me somehow that those girls were in consideration.
Speaker 1: I rang you and I was because I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's such such juicy content. So
Speaker 1: many people must have been talking it's so amazing, but
Speaker 1: it is some of the best casting. And it blows
Speaker 1: my mind that you didn't go and find those women,
Speaker 1: that these women were already auditioning and that's how you
Speaker 1: put it together. It blows my mind.
Speaker 2: It goes one step further than that, because then someone
Speaker 2: we did approach. We've been chasing this guy called Read
Speaker 2: for a couple of years, male model, gorgeous from Perth,
Speaker 2: moved to the coast. We did our entire casting tour,
Speaker 2: and we were happy with the boys we had, and
Speaker 2: then finally this lazy bastard called Read replies to one
Speaker 2: of the producers DMS and goes, yeah, I'm up for
Speaker 2: a chat. He came to my house and I auditioned
Speaker 2: him in my kitchen and he told me, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I slept with this girl from Maths. And I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: which one He's gone? And I've got my face. I've
Speaker 2: got to not like smile because I already know that
Speaker 2: Kira's in the cast, and I'm like, holy.
Speaker 1: Shit, Alex, I just picture you looking past him and
Speaker 1: thinking I can afford an extension on this property now
Speaker 1: on the basis of this thing alone.
Speaker 2: So not only did we have that, we've got Read
Speaker 2: as well. So it's like and honestly, this wasn't us
Speaker 2: twizzling out stars and working out how to be how
Speaker 2: to make this. It fell in our lap. Yeah, just
Speaker 2: fill in our laps and so look, we'll take all
Speaker 2: the accolades. And it's it's great telling. Yeah, it's brilliant.
Speaker 2: I mean it's just it's just delicious and good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I won't spoil it. It's you know, it's great.
Speaker 1: How can producers control some of those elements though, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, are there ways to make the islanders, you know,
Speaker 1: to get maximum drama, Like let's just say you filmed
Speaker 1: for a whole day and coincidentally, all of these absolutely
Speaker 1: amazing talk test people with the best bodies in the
Speaker 1: world don't deliver. I remember in like Big Brother, I
Speaker 1: think you used to send in like way too much
Speaker 1: sugar or booze. I can't I can't remember. It's been
Speaker 1: eleven years. But with Love Island, do you feed them catnip?
Speaker 1: Do you put her horny goat weeed in any of
Speaker 1: their food? Like? What do you need to do?
Speaker 2: I'm going to touch some wood here because I believe
Speaker 2: in the five seasons of Love On that we have
Speaker 2: made in Australia, we haven't had that situation that we've
Speaker 2: absolutely had boring days. Love On is not a drinking show.
Speaker 2: You know, they are allowed to units of alcohol every
Speaker 2: day because you don't look great when you're drunk, and
Speaker 2: you make stupid decisions when you're drunk, and they sleep
Speaker 2: in a bed together, so we've got to be red
Speaker 2: hot like that. Some of them, like literally have no
Speaker 2: alcohol at all. And you can ask anyone who's ever
Speaker 2: been the love on Villa, they have never been drunk.
Speaker 2: You know, two glass of wine over a long period
Speaker 2: of time tops, so that tactics out the window. Energy
Speaker 2: drinks have been known to go in. But probably more
Speaker 2: so than that is the year standard beach rev up,
Speaker 2: which sort of involves one of us going into the
Speaker 2: beach hut and saying, hey, we're making a TV show here,
Speaker 2: and today you have sun baked, had a swim and
Speaker 2: eaten some toasties. Go out there and make some fucking television.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love it. I just imagine their
Speaker 1: faces as well. Like you know, that is a good
Speaker 1: way because the type of people will apply and the
Speaker 1: type of people that go on these shows, they want content,
Speaker 1: they want to get the most amount of screen time.
Speaker 1: So that is absolutely the best way to tanalyze them.
Speaker 1: You know, four contestants that are as thirsty as what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about with people who want the screen time.
Speaker 1: What do you need to do in Love Ireland to
Speaker 1: make it all about you?
Speaker 2: Throw yourself with the throw yourself with the experience, and
Speaker 2: understand that it can't all be about you because there's
Speaker 2: a you know as twelve or thirteen other people, all
Speaker 2: of which stories we've got to tell us. Well, so okay,
Speaker 2: this is I guess insider knowledge to budding reality stars
Speaker 2: when you make the cut is when it's your moment,
Speaker 2: grab it hard, make it loud, make it noisy, make
Speaker 2: it romantic, make it sexy. But when it's someone else's turn,
Speaker 2: don't try, and don't try and jump in on that
Speaker 2: as well. You want your own lane. You don't want
Speaker 2: to be across everything because then you get boring very quickly.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, he's in this as well. We're sticking
Speaker 2: his nose in this, or she's sticking her nose in
Speaker 2: this as well. It's all about looking around the villa
Speaker 2: or looking around the jungle, or looking around the house
Speaker 2: or whatever it may be. There's nothing going on two
Speaker 2: o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon. Everyone's asleep. This is your
Speaker 2: turn to go and pull the person that you might.
Speaker 2: You've had your eyn for a chat and like, put
Speaker 2: it on them hard, or do that tell that one
Speaker 2: story that you've been saving up, you know, that killer
Speaker 2: story you've been saving up. It's wait for the lulls
Speaker 2: and hit them hard, because when you've got your own space,
Speaker 2: you will own an episode.
Speaker 1: What I was going to ask you, though, is what
Speaker 1: stuff got could this series? Because is there stuff that's
Speaker 1: too like is there a time that you have to
Speaker 1: press a button and the screens go black because it's
Speaker 1: too saucy or it's not you know, fit for television.
Speaker 2: Ah, we never show sex. We can't show sex, and
Speaker 2: we won't show sex. And there is there's absolutely always sex.
Speaker 2: You know, it's always sex and love on the villa.
Speaker 2: It took them a while this time, but you know
Speaker 2: if they got into it sooner or later. We have
Speaker 2: this thing called the consent heart. Talk about it very quickly,
Speaker 2: which is you know, on their they have a button
Speaker 2: on their bed heads and if they push their button,
Speaker 2: half a heart lights up in for red. So they
Speaker 2: can't see it in the room. There's completely black in
Speaker 2: the bedroom, pitch black, but we can see in the
Speaker 2: control room. So when a full heart is lit, that
Speaker 2: tells us that they are both consenting to what happens
Speaker 2: in the bed.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, get on with it.
Speaker 2: If half a heart is lit, then we are egal
Speaker 2: eyes all over them, you know, we'll have all the.
Speaker 1: Came What kind of a job is this? Honestly, what
Speaker 1: job do you have made?
Speaker 2: But it's responsible because you know, like consent is everything,
Speaker 2: you know, like like I imagine, I mean, look, you can,
Speaker 2: you can, you can join the dots. If someone someone
Speaker 2: is touched that doesn't want to be touched, that's really
Speaker 2: a terrible thing, like no jokes aside, a terrible thing.
Speaker 2: So we we had to put something in place that
Speaker 2: tells us to get those two are up for it,
Speaker 2: and fine, and we'll stop filming. We'll move our cameras
Speaker 2: away from them because we can't show people having sex.
Speaker 2: We show people kissing, you know, we can show a
Speaker 2: bit of doing a yeah, but after that, there's nothing
Speaker 2: in it for us, you know, but I.
Speaker 1: Can't believe that that button exists. I mean, it's so good.
Speaker 1: We're in twenty twenty three, so consensual sex is absolutely
Speaker 1: something we're all talking about and training in talking to
Speaker 1: our children about, you know, so obviously something like that
Speaker 1: is there.
Speaker 2: So anyway, but to answers the question. We can't show sex,
Speaker 2: we don't show full nudity. It's not it's their home,
Speaker 2: you know, I say to them on the way, and
Speaker 2: this is this is your home. This is where you
Speaker 2: will brush your teeth and have a and get dressed
Speaker 2: every morning and eat your breakfast. This is your home
Speaker 2: for as long as you stay in it. And yes
Speaker 2: we're making a television show. We're not going to show
Speaker 2: you fully naked. We're not going to show you having sex.
Speaker 2: We're not going to show you on the toilet. I
Speaker 2: will never do those things.
Speaker 1: But what about hanging a sex so but Big Brothers
Speaker 1: just come out saying that they're going to do they're
Speaker 1: bringing back up late, uncut, whatever it is, they're bringing
Speaker 1: it back. But it's twenty twenty three. How much can
Speaker 1: they really show us? How much do you think that
Speaker 1: they're going to be able to show us in this
Speaker 1: new Big Brother's up Late none cut, that wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been on Love Island.
Speaker 2: Nothing, nothing, It'll be some extra swearing, there'll be no
Speaker 2: new to see. There's not a chance in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three that you can film people nude in showers anymore.
Speaker 1: I know, why can't we see that. I remember last
Speaker 1: year watching Love Island and I remember we got to
Speaker 1: see I think Callum Hole's bump while he was in
Speaker 1: the shower, and like my partner and I literally had
Speaker 1: to stop watching it in the bedroom. We had to
Speaker 1: watch it on the big screen TV in our lound room.
Speaker 1: But we were like, turn around, turn around, why can't
Speaker 1: we see that these days?
Speaker 2: Bums a fair game. Male bums are fair game because
Speaker 2: girls wear g strings right up the bums and we're
Speaker 2: looking at girls bums all the time. So why shouldn't
Speaker 2: be able to look at a boys bump? Willies and
Speaker 2: willies and boobs and vaginas on the table?
Speaker 1: Having you on the podcast four times to get you
Speaker 1: to say vaginas.
Speaker 2: I mean they're off the table. Look, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean you could you get the Big Brother housemates
Speaker 2: to sign a contract saying they agree to be shown
Speaker 2: fully nude on TV? Yes you could? Would you do it? No?
Speaker 2: You wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Why not? I've got past last year? If I do
Speaker 1: Naked and Afraid and they didn't go ahead with it,
Speaker 1: but they are there was the casting people called me
Speaker 1: about it, So I mean, if Naked Afraid going to
Speaker 1: have nudity, Like what about these shows?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's a fair point. And look, I
Speaker 2: don't I don't work for I don't make a Big
Speaker 2: Brother and more so I really can't common of what
Speaker 2: it's going to be. I'm telling you that my gut
Speaker 2: feeling is that swearing that this. If you go back,
Speaker 2: I don't know you have to clips on YouTube anymore.
Speaker 2: If you go back and watch the Big Brother Uncut
Speaker 2: that I was involved with, and you know I was
Speaker 2: kind of doing fraud and at live at this point
Speaker 2: and control them. But if you go back to two
Speaker 2: thousand and three, two thousand and four, season three and
Speaker 2: season four a Big Brother Australia, when Uncut was at
Speaker 2: its peak, they would have very very very graphic conversations
Speaker 2: about anal six. They would talk about stuff that you
Speaker 2: just cannot talk about on television anymore, like really full on.
Speaker 2: They would be filmed showering. You know, they would be
Speaker 2: you know, they would freeze frame it and you know
Speaker 2: they'd freeze it and you know the cut back of
Speaker 2: Gretla in the studio and gress would make like you know,
Speaker 2: dick jokes. But I just cannot see in this age
Speaker 2: and this time where everyone is very very gun shy,
Speaker 2: and everybody is very protective of everyone's feelings and body
Speaker 2: shaming and yadda yadda, yadda yadda, which is quite right.
Speaker 2: You know, the world has evolved. I cannot see television
Speaker 2: unless it is a show like Naked and Afraid or
Speaker 2: you know, what's the one in the UK where they're
Speaker 2: literally looking at each other's cocks and you know, I
Speaker 2: don't know what that is, but I'm googling it naked
Speaker 2: dating or something naked.
Speaker 1: My god, this makes me sound so bad, but I'm
Speaker 1: definitely going to google that and watch that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just can't see it. So feeling is that
Speaker 2: Big Brother and Cut would just be you know, swearing.
Speaker 1: But if they showed bit boobs and penises and you know,
Speaker 1: all the rest of it a lot in this series,
Speaker 1: and what does that mean? You would then do it
Speaker 1: for Love Isolent or do you think that that would
Speaker 1: damage Love Island's brand? Like you wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 2: We don't need to and we never will not on
Speaker 2: my watch. I mean, I don't. I don't need to see.
Speaker 2: If you want to watch people naked porn done, you're
Speaker 2: going to see way better nudity than you're going to
Speaker 2: see on on on TV. So I think you know
Speaker 2: it's people make choices, don't they. You want to watch
Speaker 2: people naked and shagging, go and watch porn, no problem.
Speaker 2: You want to laugh reality TV.
Speaker 1: Watch fans, Yeah, I mean get caught.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, there's the link.
Speaker 1: I know, but it's the like people. I feel like
Speaker 1: this is a big mistake for the Peak producers. No offense,
Speaker 1: I have no vendetta against you whatever, but I think
Speaker 1: it's a big mistake to say that they're bringing that
Speaker 1: show back if they're not going to show what people
Speaker 1: are there for, and people are there some Saxon in
Speaker 1: the shower with his giant trouser snake. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I think they'll be disappointed if they don't get that.
Speaker 2: I will be stunned if they get that. But you should.
Speaker 2: You know. Look, you're the one with the microphone in
Speaker 2: front of you, and you're the one that talks to
Speaker 2: everyone in the industry. So you go and talk to them,
Speaker 2: and do you know what I mean? Honestly, good luck,
Speaker 2: good luck to them. It will never happen on Love on.
Speaker 2: We're never going to show people naked and love on what.
Speaker 1: About with your training, you know, like because you're in
Speaker 1: Spain and there's the villa, and kudos forgetting Spain again,
Speaker 1: because like even you look attractive in photos in Spain.
Speaker 2: Must be an incredible light.
Speaker 1: We got trained before we got into Big Brother because
Speaker 1: there's snakes in near dream World? Is there any training
Speaker 1: because of the wildlife in Spain? Is there anything you know,
Speaker 1: did you have to be worried about? Is there anything
Speaker 1: that's going to attack them while they're in the villa?
Speaker 2: Are you taking the piss or not? We're talking about Spain,
Speaker 2: not South Africa. Have you got the shows mixed up?
Speaker 2: The most dangerous thing in Spain is the is a wasp.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I thought they'd be like, you know,
Speaker 1: like a very poisonous rattlesnake or something, or you know,
Speaker 1: like do they have raccoons? I don't know. What do
Speaker 1: they have in Spain? They've got to have something dangerous
Speaker 1: that you'd have to train.
Speaker 2: I guess they've got wild They've got lots of stray
Speaker 2: caps in Spain.
Speaker 1: But I'll get by one of them. You'd be in trouble.
Speaker 2: But no, there's no dangerous world life in Spain's you
Speaker 2: know the most the most dangerous thing in Spain is
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 1: I think that is the trouser snake. Like in Dream World,
Speaker 1: Big Brother, we were told be careful of brown snakes,
Speaker 1: and you're like, no Blove Island, Spain, trouser snakes and
Speaker 1: this is what to do if you get if you
Speaker 1: get faced with one.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you so. I'll tell you so funny. The
Speaker 2: South Africa what twenty times? Now? You know nine times
Speaker 2: I make the series nine times to the wrekis I've
Speaker 2: seen lions hip rhinos, I've seen black members, I've seen
Speaker 2: you know, I've seen the most deadly wildlife in the world.
Speaker 2: I was in Great White Sharks. The biggest snake I've
Speaker 2: ever seen in my life was at dream World working
Speaker 2: on Big Brother. It was enormous, and I'm talking enormous.
Speaker 2: It was. It was the size of a car.
Speaker 1: Was that Jamie was the housemate Jamie from two thousand
Speaker 1: and six.
Speaker 2: This is a real snake. And it was round the
Speaker 2: back of the amphitheater, around the back of whether they
Speaker 2: did the Eviction's nice to part my car there because
Speaker 2: I had the best car park, of course, and I
Speaker 2: was six o'clock one night and I turned the corner
Speaker 2: and my heart stopped. It was the biggest snake I've
Speaker 2: ever seen in my life. Ego.
Speaker 1: I always knew when you're on set on Brother, because
Speaker 1: I could smell cigarette smoke from behind the walls.
Speaker 2: Well, we'd smell bapes. Now I've moved on. Tully always
Speaker 2: used to say cigarettes and izzy miaki the all she smells.
Speaker 2: Anytime she smells the cigarettes and cologne, she thinks of me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, of course, of course. How many bombs
Speaker 1: are you putting in this yere? Because I remember you
Speaker 1: saying to me before I went into Big Brother. You
Speaker 1: were like, if there's lots of intruders coming in, that
Speaker 1: means that you guys aren't doing your job properly. So
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about how many bombs are
Speaker 1: going in because that's a pretty good indication of how
Speaker 1: the cast is going to perform this year.
Speaker 2: I see that. I think that that applies for Big Brother,
Speaker 2: and it applies for arm a celebrity. It doesn't apply
Speaker 2: for Love Aren't because Love Island is much faster moving
Speaker 2: reality than certainly old school Big Brother used to be.
Speaker 2: Not a day goes past where either someone goes someone comes. Sorry,
Speaker 2: about partner pump. Someone comes in, someone breaks up, someone
Speaker 2: hooks up, you know, stuff goes on. Like it is
Speaker 2: a very fast moving reality show. So there are lots
Speaker 2: of bombs. I kind of remember how many twelve or so?
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, if you have twelve intruders and
Speaker 2: Big Brother, then you know the series is screwed.
Speaker 1: Shit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely different beasts. So yes, there's lots of hot
Speaker 2: people to come with get like, you know, you've got
Speaker 2: to keep testing the relationships with love, aren't it's that show.
Speaker 2: You don't need to keep testing the relationships on Big
Speaker 2: Brother because it's not a dating show. Apparently it is now,
Speaker 2: but it certainly didn't used to be.
Speaker 1: It's just curious because I was thinking of that you
Speaker 1: needed to do that. How quickly can you get potential
Speaker 1: people on standby in Australia over to Spain to get
Speaker 1: them in there.
Speaker 2: It's probably a four day turnaround. So they were all
Speaker 2: booked beforehand, all contracted beforehand. Now clearly you're not in
Speaker 2: until you walk through the gate. You know, you could
Speaker 2: be flown over to Spain and then we could change
Speaker 2: our mind based on what's happened whilst you're on the flight,
Speaker 2: you know that could absolutely happen, and you're not in
Speaker 2: until you're in. But everyone who enters the villa this
Speaker 2: year had a Love Island contract already and we're ready
Speaker 2: to go.
Speaker 1: Are you surprised that Austin and Claudia from last year
Speaker 1: are still together?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Is that surprising to you?
Speaker 2: No, because I don't think there's two hotter people in
Speaker 2: the entire universe and they've somehow found each other. Like literally,
Speaker 2: Austin and Claudia are perfect in every way. That makes
Speaker 2: me sick just to look at them.
Speaker 1: But is this show about finding love? That's why I'm
Speaker 1: going with it. It's like, I feel like it's surprising,
Speaker 1: becase because I feel like this show, like The Bachelor,
Speaker 1: tries to sell itself as we're looking for people to
Speaker 1: find love for the rest of their lives, where I
Speaker 1: don't feel like that's the Love Island brand.
Speaker 2: No, No, you're half right and half wrong. Okay, So
Speaker 2: my question to everybody listening to this is that older
Speaker 2: then I'm going to say thirty is are you still
Speaker 2: with the person you were with when you were twenty two?
Speaker 2: Ninety seven percent of the people the answer will be known,
Speaker 2: so by that very definition. It's unlikely that Love Island
Speaker 2: are going to find It's far more likely that the
Speaker 2: bachelor or farmer wants a wife. You know, are going
Speaker 2: to find people that get married and have kids because
Speaker 2: they meet when they're older. You know, people have got
Speaker 2: more life experience. They're more genuinely looking for a life partner.
Speaker 2: That's the number one point I'm going to make. Having
Speaker 2: said that, do we cast people who we genuinely believe
Speaker 2: are looking for partners? Absolutely? Absolutely? Having said that, would
Speaker 2: we put someone in the villa who came into casting
Speaker 2: and was the best talker in the universe and hilarious
Speaker 2: and we didn't believe a word they said, Yes, we
Speaker 2: would absolutely still put them in. Yes, it is a
Speaker 2: show about finding love. Absolutely it is. I'll take that.
Speaker 2: I'll die on ditch about that. But are we as
Speaker 2: serious about it as the other dating shows? Probably not.
Speaker 2: But you know we make it with our tongues and
Speaker 2: our cheeks, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like it.
Speaker 2: Of course, it's not a social experiment, you know, we're not.
Speaker 2: It's not Big Brother Season one. It's love On you know,
Speaker 2: it's fun first, and this is I tell them all this.
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's a great experience. And if you
Speaker 2: walk out of here with a boyfriend or a girlfriend,
Speaker 2: then fair play to give. Then you've nailed it. If
Speaker 2: you don't hate, you know, you might be holding up
Speaker 2: some smoothies on Instagram making a couple of grand you know.
Speaker 1: My second last question for you is about Sophie, because
Speaker 1: I love Sophie Munk. She's so brilliant. But you know
Speaker 1: what I find is so amazing every year is how
Speaker 1: do you make her stand out and look different from
Speaker 1: the contestants Because where on FBO Island, Abby Chadfield looks
Speaker 1: like one of the contestants standing with them. And maybe
Speaker 1: this is to do with star power, but Sophie every year,
Speaker 1: even when she sits with them, even when she talks
Speaker 1: to the girls and has a girl chat, she still
Speaker 1: comes across as the host of the show. Is there
Speaker 1: any kind of way that you do something to create
Speaker 1: that or is that just Sophie Monk.
Speaker 2: She's got an aura about her and she's always had
Speaker 2: it and that's why she's a star. You know. I
Speaker 2: think that's why she did on Pop Stars and Bardo
Speaker 2: did what they did, and it's why that she's been
Speaker 2: able to come to the person that she is. Sophie
Speaker 2: Monk has an absolute aura about her. The whole bring
Speaker 2: on the Monk thing. You know, it was just such
Speaker 2: an obvious, you know, she's just like this incredible presence.
Speaker 2: Obviously she looks amazing. Obviously her stylist dresses her beautifully.
Speaker 2: Her dresses are so on point and so great, and
Speaker 2: they just keep getting better and better and better. Okay,
Speaker 2: So basically what happens is if Sophie's in red were
Speaker 2: we are watching the girls getting ready every single night,
Speaker 2: we know that there's a you know, and this is
Speaker 2: this every single night. So what we do is across
Speaker 2: the board we tell the girls and the boys no
Speaker 2: one is to wear the same color and wants to
Speaker 2: wear the same outfit because we want everyone to pop. Okay,
Speaker 2: and so let's say we know there's a five bit
Speaker 2: that might we know someone's getting dumped. We don't tell
Speaker 2: the Islanders that, but we know that Sophie's in a dress.
Speaker 2: And we see a girl go the cub and pick
Speaker 2: a red dress, we'll literally say two something else.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, see that's a good way to make her
Speaker 1: stand out. But literally, there's very few Australian presenters in
Speaker 1: my mind, that can still have that aura that she
Speaker 1: manages to have and still control the audience's understanding that
Speaker 1: she's the host than Sophie Monk like I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean she this person could probably fit into the same dresses.
Speaker 1: I think Courtney act could probably do the same thing.
Speaker 1: So Sophie, ever says no to doing one of the series,
Speaker 1: I think Courtney might be able to fill in. But
Speaker 1: very few people have that commanding presence, you.
Speaker 2: Know, and what she has become. I mean in season
Speaker 2: one she was great. I mean she was great, but
Speaker 2: it was her first proper presenting job and I was
Speaker 2: pretty much doing every single word in her ear. It's
Speaker 2: season five now, and to see what you know, she
Speaker 2: was a rabbit in the headlights at the start. She
Speaker 2: was brilliant, but like she was brilliants one was such a.
Speaker 1: It's still so likable in season one because Sophia could
Speaker 1: literally turn up and stuff up the words and look
Speaker 1: like she's reading a teleprompter, and she'd still she's still
Speaker 1: a stars, you know, I mean five stars.
Speaker 2: To see what she is today, she's such the complete
Speaker 2: presenter now and her scripts would barely write them anymore,
Speaker 2: and it's just almost like bullet point guide. You know,
Speaker 2: you need to hit this point, this point in this point,
Speaker 2: and she just goes in and she's just great with them.
Speaker 2: You'll see her in this series. She's you know, we
Speaker 2: send her out on a boat with them one day.
Speaker 2: It's brilliant, and we you know, we send her into
Speaker 2: the villa for a couple of things that aren't dumpings,
Speaker 2: and she's just just fantastic a lover. She's great.
Speaker 1: Before you go, My last question is, what is something
Speaker 1: from behind the scenes, something that we will not see
Speaker 1: on the series of Love Island? Kind of like a
Speaker 1: behind the scenes secret that you're willing to share and
Speaker 1: understand that I need a Daily Mail headline.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll give you something from last year's finale. You
Speaker 2: know it's not sallacious, but it's just a classic example
Speaker 2: of the shit that goes on behind the scenes on
Speaker 2: shows like this. We make no secret in the fact
Speaker 2: we're pre recorded now, right. But the same as the voice,
Speaker 2: the same as Mikey's rules were, the same as being
Speaker 2: a master chef for the same as all the shows
Speaker 2: where you record two or three endings and then the
Speaker 2: audience vote for the winner, and then you play the correct,
Speaker 2: ending to the general public to decide to show who wins.
Speaker 2: So last year we had in the finale Claudia and Austin,
Speaker 2: Phoebe and Mitch and Callum and Maddie, and I'd come
Speaker 2: up with this thing because they kept talking about eggs
Speaker 2: in their baskets, and I said, it'd be really funny
Speaker 2: if when we do Love All Money, we have two
Speaker 2: golden eggs in a basket and one of them chooses
Speaker 2: one who's got fifty thousand dollars written on it. The
Speaker 2: other one chooses the other one that's got zero dollars
Speaker 2: written on it. Anyone who saw last year's finale we
Speaker 2: know exactly what I'm talking about. But we announced I
Speaker 2: think Callum and Maddie as the first winners. And of
Speaker 2: course Callum, with his stupid big mits, has cracked the
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars egg right, which is literally a ray
Speaker 2: painted gold and fifty k stenal.
Speaker 1: Time can't be reused.
Speaker 2: Art guy Trent, who's a legend comes to Sala Grands
Speaker 2: Flams every year. It's got his head in his hands.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what's the problem, where's this? You know? Just
Speaker 2: bring out the spare eggs. He's like, there's no spare eggs,
Speaker 2: spray painted two eggs. He's like, mate, you know you
Speaker 2: only tell me about.
Speaker 1: This like fucking job in television.
Speaker 2: But we had like forty people running around like it's
Speaker 2: the middle of the night in Spain. You know, there's
Speaker 2: no eggs in the villa. There's no eggs. Forty running
Speaker 2: around asking if the chicken. Like, you know, meanwhile, the
Speaker 2: audience is getting cold because there's a live audience. You know,
Speaker 2: the Islanders sit there sweating their asses off, you know,
Speaker 2: their makeups, running the false lashes. Like it was just
Speaker 2: mental that we're holding up the entire production for a
Speaker 2: cracked egg. Meantime, Trent has somehow going guy his glue gun.
Speaker 2: I think he ended up getting He's gluing this egg
Speaker 2: back together. He's looking for finy little bits of shell
Speaker 2: off the floor. He's ended up glue gunning the fifty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars egg back together, giving me a bit of
Speaker 2: a wipe, a bit of gold painted egg. But the
Speaker 2: other two and if you look closely, if you freeze
Speaker 2: frame that finale and zoom into their Claudia in Austin Wind,
Speaker 2: I think Claudia the fifty thousand dollars, I think, and
Speaker 2: zoom into that egg, you'll see it is the worst
Speaker 2: egg that's ever been on television.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that is absolutely amazing. I mean that
Speaker 1: guy would have been gluing that egg for his life.
Speaker 1: He'd be like, I got to be back here next year,
Speaker 1: Like I want to be hired again.
Speaker 2: It was one year when the Truth bike broke, and
Speaker 2: a few years ago in The Truth. But and I
Speaker 2: was screaming, screaming fifty again the talent's getting cover fixed
Speaker 2: that back at Truth it was like one of the
Speaker 2: pedals had come off or something, and you know the
Speaker 2: blind panic that people run around it trying to fix
Speaker 2: these ridiculous props that we use. There you go. It's
Speaker 2: hardly showed this stuff, but it's the reality of a
Speaker 2: working set.
Speaker 1: Alex. Honestly, every time delivered, they're always my most downloaded episodes,
Speaker 1: So I don't know why. I think it's without fail,
Speaker 1: it is my highest rating episode. So thank you for
Speaker 1: coming back and being amazing, and thank you for still
Speaker 1: for being my friend after eleven years.
Speaker 2: Let's do eleven more.