Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week. I'm right, welcome back
Speaker 1: guys to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris, and on
Speaker 1: this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest
Speaker 1: players in television.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great questions. The show's about the game. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of great television out there in Australia.
Speaker 1: But I've also got to go behind the scenes with writers.
Speaker 1: The truth is, when I started writing it, it wasn't
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the news and casting agents.
Speaker 2: They know from a casting point of view what they need.
Speaker 1: And editors because that's what we do as editors where storytellers.
Speaker 1: Not to forget some incredible executive producers who are making
Speaker 1: some of the best TV in Australia. I have been
Speaker 1: on the program since the beginning and it's kind of
Speaker 1: in my DNA. So thanks for joining me each week
Speaker 1: and I hope the podcast continues to give you real
Speaker 1: insight into the magic of television today. On the podcast,
Speaker 1: I returned to Talk Television for twenty twenty two and
Speaker 1: I thought a lot about who to relaunch the show with,
Speaker 1: and of course I thought of Alex Maverdikers, who is
Speaker 1: not only an executive producer I've worked with, but someone
Speaker 1: who is currently at the top of their game. He
Speaker 1: has started the year for his seventh time with the
Speaker 1: Australian staple I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here,
Speaker 1: which is again won the hearts of its audience with
Speaker 1: his mantra, which we will get into shortly. Alex is smart,
Speaker 1: funny and is very generous with his insights into television.
Speaker 1: I honestly love catching up with him, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: that you will too. This season of I'm a Celebrity
Speaker 1: will have its season finale on Sunday night at seven
Speaker 1: thirty on Channel ten, and today we will unpack the
Speaker 1: whole series and also ask him all the questions that
Speaker 1: most producers would never answer, from bo Ryan's exit to
Speaker 1: how he made a nobody a celebrity, plus what he
Speaker 1: thinks of the all stars concept and if we will
Speaker 1: see that happen in the jungle. However, let's get started
Speaker 1: on today's episode. I'd like to welcome Alex Maverdagus to
Speaker 1: the first edition of TV Reload for twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: I just think the audience loves real Everything about this
Speaker 2: show is horrendous, A lot of untruth, so I can
Speaker 2: tell you what definitely is not true.
Speaker 1: I'm completely out of my depth here.
Speaker 2: In all honesty, we could probably shown more of it
Speaker 2: and keep you think that's on the show, I've never
Speaker 2: seen it. Control them all with the heart and their
Speaker 2: mouth as much.
Speaker 3: Who will quit?
Speaker 2: The hardest thing with I'm a celebrity is going to
Speaker 2: be that we're running out celebrities. I'm a celebrity. Australian's
Speaker 2: love an underdog. He could easily win it.
Speaker 1: Hi, Alex, how are you mate?
Speaker 2: Good to hear from you again? Am I the first
Speaker 2: person that's done this twice?
Speaker 1: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: You just run out of people to ask or am
Speaker 2: I special?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: To be honest, I launched the podcast last year with
Speaker 1: you and it was the highest downloaded podcast for the
Speaker 1: year and had people stopping me in the street and
Speaker 1: asking me about things that you said. So it would
Speaker 1: be remiss of me not to have you back.
Speaker 2: You're a good fluffer mate, that's good fluffing will done.
Speaker 1: If anyone would know about my bullshit skills, it's you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's a compliment.
Speaker 2: Well, look at one you were one. You were massive
Speaker 2: reality show, so you must have done something right.
Speaker 1: Well, let's get into this. You make two massive shows
Speaker 1: a year, one for Channel nine and one for Network ten,
Speaker 1: amongst other projects. I'm sure, what do you enjoy about
Speaker 1: Channel ten when you come back each year for I'm
Speaker 1: a Celebrity.
Speaker 2: As in the network? I mean, look, I'm a celebrities
Speaker 2: lot coming home for me. You know, I've done seven
Speaker 2: seasons for now and obviously you know there was something
Speaker 2: really special about coming to Africa every year. That hasn't
Speaker 2: be impossible for the last two years. But I think
Speaker 2: we've done a pretty bloody good job of getting a
Speaker 2: decent product to wear. Obviously, it's not the way we
Speaker 2: would like to make. The show that I'm Celebrity is
Speaker 2: supposed to be a twenty four hour turnaround show, like
Speaker 2: you know, like Classic Big Brother, like Love Ireland. But
Speaker 2: you know, this, this fun pandemic that keeps rolling around us,
Speaker 2: keeps changing the game. Going back to the question, look
Speaker 2: ten are a great network to work for, I have
Speaker 2: to say, I mean, look, all the networks have got
Speaker 2: their pros and their cons are great. With on the
Speaker 2: Celebrity Stephen Tate, who I've worked with many many years,
Speaker 2: knows the show so intimately and so well, we just
Speaker 2: go straight into shortcut talk. We don't need to we
Speaker 2: don't need to play games around each other. If we
Speaker 2: know an ideas crap, we'll just tell each other our
Speaker 2: ideas are crap. And if we know it's good, we
Speaker 2: know it's good. And I seem to be able to
Speaker 2: push the envelope more and more with Beverly mccavey, who's
Speaker 2: you know, the boss of Channel tens. Every year we
Speaker 2: go into the boardroom and I'd pitch something a little
Speaker 2: bit more full on than the year before, and she
Speaker 2: started to say yes, now, so you know who knew
Speaker 2: that she would let me call something in a scrotal
Speaker 2: recall or end the challenge with my nuts are fully loaded.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think I'm just going to lead that.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've gone over.
Speaker 3: But you know what I'm gonna that's I'm done.
Speaker 1: That's my nuts are fully loaded.
Speaker 2: Just you know, some of the stuff that somebody en
Speaker 2: so I'm pushing nowadays are would have been rejected straight
Speaker 2: up three or four years ago, but now somehow they're
Speaker 2: slipping through it. So so good on them.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine you being intimidated by anyone. But I
Speaker 1: want to know. Are you intimidated by Bev McGarvey, you know,
Speaker 1: the big boss at Network ten.
Speaker 2: Oh look, look you're always intimidated in the boardroom setting.
Speaker 2: Bev is fantastic. She's just such a straight shooter. She
Speaker 2: will cut you down immediately if if she doesn't like,
Speaker 2: you know, you'll put someone's picture on the table, of
Speaker 2: someone that you might want in the cast, and she'll
Speaker 2: just be like nah, or you know, haven't heard of them,
Speaker 2: or you know, just immediately, no, straight away if they've
Speaker 2: got any chance. And that enables you to, you know,
Speaker 2: to decide how far to push it or how not.
Speaker 2: She's she's very much a straight shooter. No, not intimidated.
Speaker 2: That intimidated is the wrong word. Always had a lot
Speaker 2: of respect for Bev, as I have all of the networks,
Speaker 2: you know, you have to have a lot of respect
Speaker 2: for them. But it's always been a really collaborative room
Speaker 2: whenever we're dealing with I'm a celebrit because it's you know,
Speaker 2: it's a fun show and if it's made any other way,
Speaker 2: it won't work.
Speaker 1: Were there any notes that you took into the series
Speaker 1: from Network ten or say, you know, from the bosses
Speaker 1: at ITV? Studios such as you know what to look
Speaker 1: for from some of your contestants, or you know what
Speaker 1: did you need to focus on more for this season.
Speaker 2: We've had a pretty good run on I'm a celebrity
Speaker 2: for the last few years. I'm going I'm going to
Speaker 2: go back all the way to series four now, just
Speaker 2: for context, we're in series eight now. Series four was
Speaker 2: not very good. And now I don't know whether that
Speaker 2: was the celebrities that we chose. None of them were terrible.
Speaker 2: You know, we had some great celebrities Spieno Lachlan who
Speaker 2: won it. We had Shannon Noll, We had you know,
Speaker 2: Anthony Mundine, Danny Green, Pete rose Thorn. You know, we
Speaker 2: had some really good names. But it just didn't click.
Speaker 2: And for whatever reason, it just didn't feel warm and fuzzy.
Speaker 2: Whether it was a comic year as well. You know,
Speaker 2: it might have been too many sportsmen, it might have
Speaker 2: been not you know, they they just didn't like each
Speaker 2: other as much as previous years. But that that was
Speaker 2: a real turning point year and I feel like we
Speaker 2: scraped through by the skin of our teeth that year.
Speaker 2: It almost didn't come back. And I'm sure Bev and
Speaker 2: Steven wouldn't mind me, wouldn't mind me saying that, you know,
Speaker 2: it didn't rate amazingly well, but look good on ten.
Speaker 2: They took a chance and we came back in series
Speaker 2: five and it was, you know, an absolute belter. You know,
Speaker 2: that was the Richard Reid series in South Africa. And
Speaker 2: from that series on we decided, I mean certainly it
Speaker 2: was a thing that I adopted and you know, and
Speaker 2: we all kind of well, luckily everyone agreed with me.
Speaker 2: We were going to make it like the Cast of
Speaker 2: Friends from then on in I'm a celebrity. To get
Speaker 2: me out of here works really well when you love
Speaker 2: all of the characters and you care about who goes
Speaker 2: home and you just want to have your fun hour,
Speaker 2: hour and a half with them every single night of
Speaker 2: the week, and it's like it's like you're joining in
Speaker 2: the fun. So we really cast five for fun and
Speaker 2: Richard was the kind of the ants and he won.
Speaker 2: Then we had the Miguel Meistra year, which again was
Speaker 2: again just a lovely group of humans. Last year this
Speaker 2: season at Abby Chatfield won you know, with Grant DNA
Speaker 2: and you know, Tony Perrin and everyone else. Lovely group
Speaker 2: of humans and this year. We've just followed through and
Speaker 2: this is going to sound really really wanky, and I
Speaker 2: don't know if I've said this you in our first podcast,
Speaker 2: but you know we it's the three h's, it's heart,
Speaker 2: humor and heroes and if the series has that, it
Speaker 2: will always it will always work. And as you know,
Speaker 2: everything I do in TV is I try to make
Speaker 2: as funny as possible. When I was in charge of
Speaker 2: Big Brother, we would we would try and make our
Speaker 2: tasks very funny, and then the challenges that we would
Speaker 2: give people to do in the Big Brother House very funny.
Speaker 2: I'm a celebrity naturally. A funny show Love Ireland completely
Speaker 2: made with tongue in cheek. So I've always come from
Speaker 2: the place that funny wins and if it's funny then
Speaker 2: it will succeed. And that's obviously why they putting me
Speaker 2: on these shows, because they want them to be funny.
Speaker 2: They won't put me on anything that isn't supposed to
Speaker 2: be funny anymore. I don't think else to do it.
Speaker 1: It's true, It is so true. And something that I've
Speaker 1: noticed as well is that you seem to leave the
Speaker 1: camera on your contestants for longer letting the audience truly
Speaker 1: get to know your talent, and it seems to be
Speaker 1: a part of your brand. Is that a conscious decision that.
Speaker 2: You make one hundred percent the conscious decision? You know. Luckily,
Speaker 2: I work in formats that give us the ability to
Speaker 2: do that. I don't like the reality shows that are
Speaker 2: cut within and into their life. I don't like them,
Speaker 2: you know, at all. And you know which ones I'm
Speaker 2: talking about where they literally use a grab and you know,
Speaker 2: let's be honest, it's it's it's frank and grabbed. You know,
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, it's not a real grab. It's
Speaker 2: not so you are literally not looking at a real person.
Speaker 2: I love on my shows to show the real people,
Speaker 2: whether that be Love Island or I'm a Celebrity or
Speaker 2: Big Brother going back in the day. I just think
Speaker 2: the audience love real. I just love real And as
Speaker 2: I said, 'unfortunate that I have the formats that gives
Speaker 2: us time to breathe. A lot of people would argue
Speaker 2: that the shows are too long, and some definitely are.
Speaker 2: You know, that's obviously a part of the business of television,
Speaker 2: but it does give you the ability to hear people out.
Speaker 2: I'm going to use Steve Price as an example and
Speaker 2: when he did The Jungle. Now, Steve Price is a
Speaker 2: very polarizing figure, as you know, and a lot of
Speaker 2: people would completely disagree with a lot of things he
Speaker 2: says in his politics. But before he did The Jungle,
Speaker 2: Steve was only ever heard in soundbites, whether it was
Speaker 2: on the Project or on Q and A or you
Speaker 2: know whatever. You would literally hear one line at a
Speaker 2: time from Steve and it only it took him coming
Speaker 2: on time a celebrity, get me out of here. We
Speaker 2: could actually hear him debating things with Nazim Hussein or
Speaker 2: whoever else he was talking to, and he actually went, ah, okay,
Speaker 2: I might still not disagree with them, but at least
Speaker 2: im now I get his point, or I naturally now
Speaker 2: do agree with him. And it is that the sort
Speaker 2: of show that gives people the ability to do that.
Speaker 2: I like to think that we really show the real
Speaker 2: side of the celebrities. Look at Divina Rankin in this series.
Speaker 2: You know, Devena was the bitch from Help, you know,
Speaker 2: after Maths. It took her coming into the Jungle and
Speaker 2: you know, jumping off a bloody tower and hanging out
Speaker 2: with some other nice people to show that it's actually,
Speaker 2: you know, a real human and in fact not a
Speaker 2: bit at all.
Speaker 1: And it's and it's becoming harder and harder to keep
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. I mean, there was a moment
Speaker 1: that the television commentary website TV Tonight highlighted and that
Speaker 1: we get to see genuine conversation in this format, which
Speaker 1: is becoming rare and rarer amongst you know, the reality
Speaker 1: TV space. Is there ever a pressure to say hurry
Speaker 1: things up or to make things faster paced?
Speaker 2: No, no, no one. I'm a celebrity again credit to
Speaker 2: Channel ten. You know, of course you've got the opener,
Speaker 2: which is Tonight you know, boom boom, boom, boom boom,
Speaker 2: and it's you know, fast grabs and big paste. But
Speaker 2: you know, the feel of I'm a Celebrity is, you know,
Speaker 2: you're in the jungle with them, You're living in this
Speaker 2: experience with them. So of course we have to edit
Speaker 2: within an inch of its life because it's twenty four
Speaker 2: hours cut down to ninety minutes. But no, there's not
Speaker 2: really been any pressure on you know, that conversation that
Speaker 2: you're referring to that David Knox wrote about between Nathan
Speaker 2: Buckley and Derek Kicktt was you know fantastic.
Speaker 3: That's part of history. You can't deny that, you can't
Speaker 3: hide from it.
Speaker 4: So do you think how do we move forward if
Speaker 4: we're getting taught in schools and if.
Speaker 3: It's going to be taught in schools. But also the
Speaker 3: government has to acknowledge and say, yeah, we know that
Speaker 3: we stuffed up and we made the mistake and we
Speaker 3: had all this policy in places with the genocide and
Speaker 3: try to wipe out the aven your people, and it's
Speaker 3: a long way to go.
Speaker 5: It's a long way.
Speaker 2: In all honesty, we could have probably shown more of it. It's,
Speaker 2: you know, an important conversation. Those are the sort of
Speaker 2: conversations that we that we welcome on the show. The
Speaker 2: hardest thing with our a celebrity is going to be
Speaker 2: that we're running out celebrities. That's I mean, that's the truth.
Speaker 2: And we were eight seasons in how good are you
Speaker 2: at Maths? Right? Seasons in let's say fourteen celebrities a series?
Speaker 2: What's that that's going to be there's got to be
Speaker 2: one hundred celebrities that we've used.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, Math's not probably my forte but I would
Speaker 1: say that you've probably burned through one hundred celebrities by now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, well I reckon one hundred celebrities we've used
Speaker 2: and you know, and now you've got sas and you
Speaker 2: know Celebrity Printers and you know Master Chieft of the
Speaker 2: Celebrity Series and Survivor and talk about doing celebrities and
Speaker 2: you know Big Brother Vip and you know, god knows
Speaker 2: what else is selibrity lego masters. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: in a a in a country where there's already a
Speaker 2: pretty shallow celebrity pool, we've now got four or five
Speaker 2: celebrity shows all vying for this for the same people.
Speaker 2: It's not easy, but I like to think that we've
Speaker 2: we've got it right, like we've got it right the
Speaker 2: certain the last four years in a row, and we'll
Speaker 2: get it right again next year because we know that
Speaker 2: it is all about those characters. If you don't like
Speaker 2: those characters, you will not watch a show. If you
Speaker 2: like them, you will. It is as simple as that.
Speaker 1: You know, with the actual challenges, trials, you know, et cetera.
Speaker 1: You know they're becoming more elaborate. What is one that
Speaker 1: you would never do? What's one that you would say
Speaker 1: I'm a celebrity. Get me out of here.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Although I mean I wouldn't do any
Speaker 2: of them. I'm the biggest pussy in the world. I
Speaker 2: ate a scorpion wants just to show that I was
Speaker 2: part of the team. That was my first year as
Speaker 2: an EP. I decided to show the you know, the
Speaker 2: team that I was one of the people, and I
Speaker 2: ate a scorpion when we were testing on the eating trials.
Speaker 2: I'll never do that again. But oh god, no, the
Speaker 2: skydiving and the bungee jumping and you know, they're getting
Speaker 2: covered in the ship and I'm sorry, but the celebrities
Speaker 2: have paid a decent amount of money to do the show.
Speaker 2: That's not my job. Someone else can do it. There's
Speaker 2: not a chance I'd do it. So yeah, So there's.
Speaker 1: Not one challenge that is still giving you nightmares all
Speaker 1: these years later. I mean, I've watched the show every series,
Speaker 1: and while the challenges get more and more elaborate each year,
Speaker 1: there was this one that you did back in Africa,
Speaker 1: which was like on this cliff top and I remember
Speaker 1: thinking at home, you can't do this to people.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you a story about that day. So that's
Speaker 2: that trial was called Trouble Bath and for anyone listening,
Speaker 2: basically what we ended up doing was put them in
Speaker 2: a bath tub and they went down a kind of
Speaker 2: a ramp and they thought that they were going to
Speaker 2: go off the edge of this cliff. But what in
Speaker 2: fact happens the bath stopped and tipped a little bit,
Speaker 2: and then you just kind of laughed at their reaction,
Speaker 2: but it was still terrifying because this cliff Africa, it's
Speaker 2: called Maurice Corp. It's like thirteen hundred meters off the ground,
Speaker 2: like it is a proper mountain, and they're all shit
Speaker 2: their pants and it was all hilarious. And now the
Speaker 2: actual story about that day is that a fog rolled
Speaker 2: in and we were unable to do what we were
Speaker 2: supposed to do, which was that they were actually going
Speaker 2: to be harnessed to a helicopter, So they were going
Speaker 2: to the bath was going to run down the track
Speaker 2: and tip them, and they were actually going to go
Speaker 2: off the edge of the cliff. But they were but
Speaker 2: they were picked up and attached to a helicopter which
Speaker 2: was then going to lift them and drop them a
Speaker 2: couple hundred meters down down the road. So it was
Speaker 2: actually more full on than that it ended up being.
Speaker 2: But the fog ended up killing that idea. But hey,
Speaker 2: it worked and how you remember it. So it was
Speaker 2: obviously a bloody con travel. Yes, I wouldn't have done
Speaker 2: that one that I've never seen it control them all
Speaker 2: with their heart and their mouth as much was two
Speaker 2: years ago. So it was Miguel Mith, Warhurst, Tom Williams,
Speaker 2: and I want to say, Ryan Gallagher and Charlotte Crosby
Speaker 2: and they were jumping out of a helicopter attached to
Speaker 2: a bungee cord and then literally getting dangled upside down
Speaker 2: and delivered a few one hundred meters down the road.
Speaker 2: So Charlotte said no, Charlotte said I'm slip to get
Speaker 2: me out of it straight away, and she didn't do it.
Speaker 2: I think Miguel went first, and we were all watching
Speaker 2: from the control and honestly, my heart was pounding. We'd
Speaker 2: never done bungee and helicopters before, and you know, all
Speaker 2: these horrible thoughts go through your head. And then Miguel's
Speaker 2: got safely on the ground. But then it was Myth.
Speaker 2: Because everyone loves Myth Warhurst. It was like, please, can
Speaker 2: we not kill Myth Warhurst. Luckily we didn't. You know,
Speaker 2: obviously all the trials are incredibly safely, like they just
Speaker 2: go through so many pairs of hands of safety and
Speaker 2: everyone got on the ground safety. But bloody hell, that
Speaker 2: was a like that. That was a twenty five cigarette
Speaker 2: and three hours day.
Speaker 1: Is it also tempting with pre records to take advantage
Speaker 1: of controlling some of those elements or heightening the situation
Speaker 1: with production to make the show look more elaborate?
Speaker 2: That that looked budgetary constraint, Skinner, Look, I'm a celebrit,
Speaker 2: get me out of here as a twenty four hour
Speaker 2: turn around show, and truth be told, whether it's pre
Speaker 2: recorded or twenty four hour turnaround, the budget is the same.
Speaker 2: So the answer to that is no, based on purely
Speaker 2: on mommy just so you know and everybody knows. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's pre recorded and you know it might have been
Speaker 2: in the camp a couple of months ago. But we
Speaker 2: make the show in exactly the same way. The celebrities
Speaker 2: are in the camp every day and we make an
Speaker 2: episode every single day. That's why it looks and feels
Speaker 2: the same as it does when it's in South Africa.
Speaker 2: They still give themselves twenty four hours to cut an
Speaker 2: episode by In fact, it's less than that and deliver
Speaker 2: an episode, and that's why it looks and feels the same,
Speaker 2: So there is no less pressure. In fact, there's even
Speaker 2: more pressure to deliver a pre recorded season than alive one.
Speaker 1: It is funny though, because on some of these shows
Speaker 1: these days that are pre recorded, they take advantage of saying,
Speaker 1: you know, climbing through the air vents, which of course
Speaker 1: would never happen. And I kind of thought, you know,
Speaker 1: with you this year that you may have staged a
Speaker 1: part of Poe's entrance where she sort of fell through
Speaker 1: the ground and ended up in this bunker. But that
Speaker 1: I thought surely was stage. But then I was told that,
Speaker 1: you know, that was all real, and Poe really had
Speaker 1: no idea what was going to happen, and she absolusolutely
Speaker 1: slipped into this bunker.
Speaker 2: That's correct. Poe and and Joey all had no idea
Speaker 2: what they were sliding down into. So yes, that's correct.
Speaker 2: So look, there are some very elaborate builds. We have,
Speaker 2: you know, the best art team in the world, I
Speaker 2: think on hon a celebrity, get me out of here
Speaker 2: to turn around those trials and those you know, those
Speaker 2: production values on a daily basis is quite exceptional. I mean,
Speaker 2: we're talking the stuff of movies here every day. So look,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm completely spoiled with the team I've got
Speaker 2: on the show. I just obviously can't do it album.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing team.
Speaker 1: We sort of touched on this a little bit earlier,
Speaker 1: but most reality shows need some sort of conflict to survive,
Speaker 1: and I think I'm a celebrity of people say it's
Speaker 1: very kombay r. I personally do like a bit of conflict,
Speaker 1: But is that too off brand for what you know
Speaker 1: you're supposed to do with I'm a celebrity. Get me
Speaker 1: out of here.
Speaker 2: Well, look I disagree. I don't believe it. Doesn't it conflict.
Speaker 2: I come from the school of thought that if conflict happens, great,
Speaker 2: we'll take it, and obviously it will go on the show,
Speaker 2: but you can't force it. I will never on our
Speaker 2: shows deliberately hit people against each other or try and
Speaker 2: play a production trick to make someone angry with somebody else.
Speaker 2: I'm a celebrity and you know, and love on to
Speaker 2: a certain extent, all the love on it's kind of
Speaker 2: different because you know they are competing for love interest,
Speaker 2: So there is you know, conflict will happen every time,
Speaker 2: but again not forced by us. It will just happen.
Speaker 2: But I'm a celebrity getting out of here.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: We had a little spat the other night between Nathan
Speaker 2: Buckley and Joey and Joey you know, licked the wooden spoon.
Speaker 2: There was a little thing between Dipper and Abby last
Speaker 2: year where you know, Dipper questioned the house small Abby
Speaker 2: swimmers were said he wouldn't let it go out like
Speaker 2: that if he was a daughter.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: So those natural conversations are fantastic. Do I go out
Speaker 2: like that?
Speaker 5: But why did determine what we wear?
Speaker 2: Well, it's like your your shaking attention and asking for
Speaker 2: you know, that's what said.
Speaker 4: To be like five times in here, and that's what
Speaker 4: that differ. It's me not that I'm thinking like, oh
Speaker 4: I should cover up.
Speaker 7: It's just like I don't want that that idea to
Speaker 7: be pushed.
Speaker 2: But you know, I imagine how staged and how shit
Speaker 2: it would look if we were you know, in their
Speaker 2: ears saying you know, you should definitely have a go
Speaker 2: at blah blah, because he's been saying this about you
Speaker 2: that's not what we make, it's not what we do.
Speaker 2: So look, I would take issue with anyone saying, yes,
Speaker 2: a successful show has to have conflict. I think that
Speaker 2: we have proved over the last three or four years
Speaker 2: that that is not correct. And I think you know,
Speaker 2: other shows have done it. Well, you know Lego Master's
Speaker 2: Master Chef. You know, they're a bit more stunty than
Speaker 2: I'm a celebrity, but they come from the same school
Speaker 2: of thought I think, which is you don't need to
Speaker 2: have manufactured fighting to have a successful brand.
Speaker 1: This we touched on on the podcast last year. But
Speaker 1: you know, now it's the second season that's been filmed
Speaker 1: here in Australia. Do you know if the show has
Speaker 1: now made a permanent move away from Africa, like, will
Speaker 1: you ever go back there?
Speaker 2: Well, no, our plan will always be to go back
Speaker 2: to Africa. Look, I don't know, We're still on air
Speaker 2: with season and eight at the moment, I don't know
Speaker 2: where the conversations will go with season nine. It would
Speaker 2: be a conversation between my boss, David mottin Beverly mcgarvet
Speaker 2: at the network. It all comes down to money generally,
Speaker 2: you know, generally, let's be honest, it's a lot cheaper
Speaker 2: to shoot in South Africa and we can make a
Speaker 2: lot more TV over there for the dollar. The show
Speaker 2: has worked in Australia. We found a creative solution with
Speaker 2: the massive ejections and you know all that all of
Speaker 2: that business to fill the hours and two and to
Speaker 2: get a descent series away. And you know, as we've
Speaker 2: spoken about, the last two series have definitely worked and
Speaker 2: a lot of people actually prefer the Australian version. But
Speaker 2: I would say that the plan would be to return
Speaker 2: to South Africa next year if if the pandemic allows
Speaker 2: us to do.
Speaker 1: This is something that I really want to know. So
Speaker 1: how did you manage to keep the celebrities names out
Speaker 1: of the media this year? I usually get the entire
Speaker 1: cast list lead to me somehow, and I did know
Speaker 1: that bo Ryan was doing it, and I also was
Speaker 1: told that he walks from the show, but ultimately I
Speaker 1: had to watch the launch to find out who is
Speaker 1: in the so called jungle. How did you do it?
Speaker 2: Trust? I think, you know, I think we've got to
Speaker 2: the stage now where we can honestly say to the
Speaker 2: celebrities and it is true, this show will rate better
Speaker 2: if no one knows who you are on day one,
Speaker 2: and that is a fact. I'm a celebrity trades on
Speaker 2: Mystery of day one. And if you know a million
Speaker 2: people turn up on day one to see who the
Speaker 2: celebrities are, then obviously you are often running and you
Speaker 2: know you've got the foundations of a very successful series.
Speaker 2: So I, myself and Rema say that to every celebrity,
Speaker 2: please do not tell anybody, and I mean anybody. Of course,
Speaker 2: they've got to tell the families and their agents know
Speaker 2: because their agent's obviously broken the deal for them. Other
Speaker 2: than that, there is literally no reason for anybody to know.
Speaker 2: And in previous years, you know, I have no doubt
Speaker 2: that people have spoken out to school. There's no question
Speaker 2: because it's just been so many leagues. But you know,
Speaker 2: it was easy with Joey because he's not in Australia.
Speaker 2: It was bloody easy with David because he's not even
Speaker 2: a celebrity. You know.
Speaker 1: I spoke to David Sabritski the day before just because
Speaker 1: I'd seen this photo on Facebook, you know, for a
Speaker 1: friend's New Year's Eve party, and it was at that residence,
Speaker 1: you know, where David lives, and you know David wrote back,
Speaker 1: didn't say anything, you know, blah blah blah, but even
Speaker 1: you know, well as a friend of mine, I managed
Speaker 1: to have no idea. And so I'm watching it on television,
Speaker 1: you know, with the rest of Australia on launch night,
Speaker 1: and I had to rub my eyes because for people
Speaker 1: you know listening to this podcast, you know, David Sabritski
Speaker 1: is Layla Sabritski's brother who I did Big Brother with
Speaker 1: back in twenty twelve, so you know, I knew the
Speaker 1: family pretty well. I've known David since he was fifteen
Speaker 1: years of age, so I couldn't believe that I didn't
Speaker 1: know this was going to happen. I mean, I talked
Speaker 1: to Laila all the time, and obviously she didn't mention it,
Speaker 1: and she's pretty good at keeping secret, so there's probably
Speaker 1: no shock. But I was just shocked that I knew
Speaker 1: someone so well who managed to take part in the
Speaker 1: series and keep it a complete secret.
Speaker 2: We put the fear of God in them, like literally,
Speaker 2: the fear of God in them. The poor the poor boy,
Speaker 2: I'll talk you through the day when we told him
Speaker 2: about this idea. So just so everyone listening knows, David
Speaker 2: was a stand in last year in Australia, we put
Speaker 2: him in again. You know, obviously I put Leila on
Speaker 2: Big Brother the same year that you went in it,
Speaker 2: and so I knew the family very kind of loosely.
Speaker 2: Sky a brilliant producer, My ex partner knows David through
Speaker 2: some standing work. She offered him up as a stand
Speaker 2: in for the Jungle. He went in. He made everybody
Speaker 2: laugh so much. And I'd been knocking around this fake
Speaker 2: celebrity idea for three years and three years ago Bev
Speaker 2: said no, and two years ago Bev said no. And
Speaker 2: this year we finally went in with David attached as
Speaker 2: the fake celebrity, and we showed a little video of
Speaker 2: him in the ball Ordrome and I said, come on, Bev,
Speaker 2: this is the year. You know remember the Logan Twins,
Speaker 2: Remember you know that that kind of the thing that
Speaker 2: make gets Australia talking. It needs it needs something fun
Speaker 2: for the first week, and this is the man to
Speaker 2: pull it off. Luckily she agreed, I'm definitely not a celebrity, but.
Speaker 5: He will be with you as his comer.
Speaker 3: He will become.
Speaker 5: The David.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so Rumor and I went to and so
Speaker 2: he lives with this, he lives with his boyfriend. Enough,
Speaker 2: I'm sure he won't mind me saying he lives in
Speaker 2: his boyfriend with his boyfriend at the Versace You know
Speaker 2: this bend, don't he? Of course? Of course, the bloody
Speaker 2: VERSACEI hotel. We walked in and we've sat down, and
Speaker 2: he has no idea what we want, no idea. I
Speaker 2: think he thought that we'd come to talk to him
Speaker 2: about some you know, being a standing again and doing
Speaker 2: something like that. And we sat down and we said, right,
Speaker 2: what we're about to tell you is going to change
Speaker 2: your life. And what we're about to tell you you're
Speaker 2: not going to be able to tell anybody else until
Speaker 2: February next year, or till January next year, because this
Speaker 2: was we're going back to probably June twenty twenty one.
Speaker 6: And we've never seen a kid with wider eyes. And
Speaker 6: I said, I think, I said, we want to make
Speaker 6: you celebrity. We want to put you in the jungle.
Speaker 6: We want to give you a fake persona, and we
Speaker 6: don't even know what it was yet. Rima had the
Speaker 6: Reema came up with the shoe designer idea, it's brilliant.
Speaker 2: We want to give you a fake persona and he
Speaker 2: was just nodding along, and it's like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 1: I can see his face, like as you tell that story,
Speaker 1: I can see David's face.
Speaker 2: And his partner Stevie away to the coffee shop so
Speaker 2: he couldn't hear it, and he was just like, I
Speaker 2: have to tell Stevie. I have to tell Stevie, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, he's my partner. And glas I said, right,
Speaker 2: you can tell Stevie, you can't tell anybody else. So
Speaker 2: then Stevie came up, we told him as well, and
Speaker 2: we left them and their heads were just It was
Speaker 2: the perfect man for the job. And it was lucky,
Speaker 2: you know, it worked. I was lucky enough to be
Speaker 2: a dream world for the Logan twins and how that
Speaker 2: played out and Farmer Dave, which had never gone away
Speaker 2: with nowadays telling someone to pretend they're not gay, but
Speaker 2: for that one as well, and it felt just as
Speaker 2: exciting as that, just knowing that it could all fall
Speaker 2: apart at any moment. It was a very very exciting
Speaker 2: first five days of the shoot, very exciting.
Speaker 4: I personally think I'm good at bullshit in but this
Speaker 4: is going to be the ultimate tack. I'm going to
Speaker 4: have to lie about my manager that I've never had
Speaker 4: events that I've never been to. It is going to
Speaker 4: be so hard, but I am ready to take on
Speaker 4: this persona. I am the David.
Speaker 1: It's showtime, bitches. It was just so exciting for so
Speaker 1: many any of our circle of friends who knew David,
Speaker 1: We're all texting like mad of course, and I texted David,
Speaker 1: you know, while this was all unfolding, and he was
Speaker 1: the only one answering his phone because obviously at this
Speaker 1: point he was throwing a massive party for himself.
Speaker 2: That is, he forgot about the time difference. He threw
Speaker 2: the wild party in Queensland and by the time the
Speaker 2: show launched up here there was a food already been
Speaker 2: on TV for an hour, so he completely fucked it
Speaker 2: up already knew.
Speaker 1: Just brilliant and he also nailed the brief. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that David is and always has been a
Speaker 1: celebrity in my mind. You just need to follow him
Speaker 1: on social media to know that he's been living this
Speaker 1: life like the life of a celebrity for years and
Speaker 1: now the rest of Australia has just seemed to have,
Speaker 1: you know, caught up Big Top.
Speaker 2: And we will go to every opening around.
Speaker 1: Now Poe has come out saying that this is the
Speaker 1: eighth time that you've asked her to do the show.
Speaker 1: Who has been asked the most in the history of
Speaker 1: the show. Has she got? She got the record for
Speaker 1: the most amount of times you've ever asked a celebrity.
Speaker 2: We asked Sophie Monk every single year until she got
Speaker 2: the Love Ole and Gig and there obviously we could
Speaker 2: no longer ask her because she was on our other show.
Speaker 2: So we asked Sophie at least at least six times
Speaker 2: every single year. Who's the other ones that we've asked
Speaker 2: every I mean, George Columbaris, We've asked every year. You
Speaker 2: know all that the Master Chef judges, certain Americans that
Speaker 2: always say, know Ralph Macchio and you know John Claud
Speaker 2: van Dam and they always we always go back and
Speaker 2: ask them. I'm not even going to talk about Gretel Colleen.
Speaker 1: Gretel Colleen, I actually wanted to do Big Brother VI
Speaker 1: p I. I just know she would never do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, imagine it Son your Krueger and Gretel Colleen
Speaker 1: on the same stage in the same format.
Speaker 2: She would she certainly would never make this this version
Speaker 2: of Big Brother, or certainly not appear on it. There's
Speaker 2: just no way she would just never ever do it.
Speaker 7: Ye call it what you like, but my journey he's over.
Speaker 7: I love you guys, and honestly, to get me out
Speaker 7: of here.
Speaker 1: We have to talk about this. Why did Bo Ryan
Speaker 1: leave the jungle? There is a lot of commentary in
Speaker 1: the media. Is there something that we're missing? There seems
Speaker 1: to be more to the story of you ask me.
Speaker 1: I was told what happened when it happened, and was
Speaker 1: told he may have walked because he was bored. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that that's probably not true. But how much can
Speaker 1: we talk about this?
Speaker 2: A lot of untruth? So I can tell you what
Speaker 2: definitely is not true is that definitely was nothing between
Speaker 2: him and Nathan about money. They certainly never told each
Speaker 2: other how much I were getting paid. There's no way
Speaker 2: Bow got paid nothing. I can tell you that much.
Speaker 2: And you know, the Nathan bucket feed might be a
Speaker 2: bit inflated as well, but there was certainly no rift
Speaker 2: between them. I was starving, That's the fact of the matter.
Speaker 2: Bo was absolutely starving, hungry, him and Joey. You know,
Speaker 2: the guys who kind of worked out the most struggled
Speaker 2: the most. And let's not forget Nathan fainted. You know,
Speaker 2: he was so you know, so hungry, and his body
Speaker 2: was so stafved of. You know, his bloodshed were so low,
Speaker 2: et cetera. Like it's really full on the showd your head.
Speaker 1: I don't know where I went.
Speaker 2: Then, thank you, celebrities. We've got medical responding, we've got security.
Speaker 1: Looking after it.
Speaker 2: We'll manage it from here and we'll keep you informed.
Speaker 1: That's how we go.
Speaker 2: You know, yes, we are the funny fluffy show, and
Speaker 2: you know we're not survivor to the extent the survivor is.
Speaker 2: But it's bloody hard. You know, they only have rice
Speaker 2: and beans. They are completely under our control and they
Speaker 2: have no contact outside world. You remember how difficult Big
Speaker 2: Brother was for the ten weeks or whatever. You're in
Speaker 2: the house where you just have to give yourself up
Speaker 2: to the experience. But you know, at least you had
Speaker 2: sort of food and slept in a bed. You know,
Speaker 2: these guys sleeping in camp beds. I think it just
Speaker 2: all got a bit much for him. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 2: you have to ask both what the real story is
Speaker 2: it's somewhere in between him, I think, being starving, hungry,
Speaker 2: missing his family, and just thinking he'd achieved everything he
Speaker 2: you know, he needed to needed to achieve in there.
Speaker 1: How hard is it to hear the bo didn't trust
Speaker 1: the producers and wanted to leave, which he said on
Speaker 1: national radio. Finally a producer met with you. How how
Speaker 1: did they What did they say to you?
Speaker 7: They just said, producers, I don't trust them.
Speaker 1: Don't trust them.
Speaker 2: You want to, like, do.
Speaker 1: You take that kind of stuff personally?
Speaker 2: I take that line with a massive pinch of salt,
Speaker 2: because Babo and myself been ripping on you know, WhatsApp
Speaker 2: thread every night in the show, and he's still all,
Speaker 2: you know, having a laugh for us and blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: I think that's just Bo being Bo.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, that's what I thought it happened as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just think I can almost I didn't hear
Speaker 2: the Carl and Jackie all the fits in Whipper interview,
Speaker 2: but I can just hear his tone of voice saying,
Speaker 2: you know, I hate that bloody show. You know, I
Speaker 2: don't trust those bloody producers. I think it's pinch of
Speaker 2: salt type stuff.
Speaker 1: Do you actually forfeit your money, Like if you walk
Speaker 1: off the show. I've been told in the UK that's
Speaker 1: what happens. Is that true?
Speaker 2: Yes, it is to a certain extent. You lose a
Speaker 2: percentage of your fee if you don't if you aren't
Speaker 2: eliminated by the public or you know, via the elimination.
Speaker 2: So yes, that is true. Tomic lost a shitload of money. Look,
Speaker 2: the networks network does the contracts. They'll never tell you
Speaker 2: if you ask them, so don't even bother asking them.
Speaker 2: But yes, it is definitely true that if you if
Speaker 2: you walk you you have to give some cash back.
Speaker 1: Something I've been sitting on for a while and I'd
Speaker 1: love your take on it. And reality shows these days
Speaker 1: have sort of cannibalized their brand by trying to control
Speaker 1: the talent. And you know, while the show is on
Speaker 1: a social media restrictions who they can be interviewed by,
Speaker 1: what they can tell people. Do you think that we're
Speaker 1: seeing a decrease now in the popularity of these contestants
Speaker 1: after the show because of these limitations. I mean, some contestants,
Speaker 1: by the time that they can take control over the
Speaker 1: ownership of their social media, no one really cares who
Speaker 1: they are.
Speaker 2: Well look, I think a lot of formats that would
Speaker 2: be the intention. They want to control. They want to
Speaker 2: control the narrative. We asked all of our celebrities to
Speaker 2: only cheer lead the show whilst it's on air. After that,
Speaker 2: as far as I know, there's very very few restrictions.
Speaker 2: And answer your question, yes, I do. I do think.
Speaker 2: I do think it's probably gone too far. But you know,
Speaker 2: and again I'm not talking about my shows, but I'm
Speaker 2: going to go right back to the start of this chat.
Speaker 2: There is a lot of shows on TV that are
Speaker 2: essentially showing things that people don't actually say. So why
Speaker 2: would they want the people on Instagram and saying, hang
Speaker 2: on a minute, I didn't say that, or this scene
Speaker 2: is bullshit, or I never said that, or I don't
Speaker 2: actually fancy him, or why are they using that music
Speaker 2: under me? Because I don't actually think that way. They're
Speaker 2: telling the viewer that I'm something I'm not. So that's
Speaker 2: why it happens, because they don't want the past questioning
Speaker 2: the cut. Whereas because on Love Island, I'm a celeb
Speaker 2: to get me out of here, and you know, again,
Speaker 2: going back to the days of your Big Brother and
Speaker 2: even before that, I feel like we don't have anything
Speaker 2: to hide on on our shows because we show exactly
Speaker 2: what happens. Yes, of course we take some editorial license sometimes,
Speaker 2: but we certainly don't ever put words in people's mouths.
Speaker 2: Like I say to everyone who goes into love landho
Speaker 2: there every year, and I mean it. I will never
Speaker 2: tell you who to couple up with. I'll never tell
Speaker 2: you who to kiss. I'll never tell you what to say.
Speaker 2: I'll never tell you what to think. I'll never tell
Speaker 2: you who to dump. And I'm in it and I
Speaker 2: don't and I don't you know what I do say
Speaker 2: to them, and I say the same thing. The slabs are.
Speaker 2: The more you're involved in, the more you're going to
Speaker 2: be on the show, and the better the show is
Speaker 2: going to be. If you're lying around in your bunk
Speaker 2: at two o'clock on a Tuesday and no one's saying
Speaker 2: and then bloody say something. If there's an argument going
Speaker 2: on and you've got an opinion, get involved in it.
Speaker 2: If there's something funny happening and you think you can
Speaker 2: add to the humor, get involved in it. And it's
Speaker 2: a pretty bloody simple briefing. It's just get in the
Speaker 2: middle of everything and get involved.
Speaker 1: Well, for me, it dilutes the aspirational quality. I think
Speaker 1: that there's less people wanting to go on these shows
Speaker 1: because back in the day reality TV, you could turn
Speaker 1: yourself into a star, like where nowadays the girls go
Speaker 1: on these dating shows. You know they're lucky to pick
Speaker 1: up a couple of thousand followers.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, a little bit. I'll tell you what flies
Speaker 2: in the face of that is that we had so
Speaker 2: many bloody applications for Love Island. I can't give you
Speaker 2: a number, but honestly, we could have cast fifteen villas.
Speaker 2: We had that many amazing hot people that could talk
Speaker 2: amazingly well and what's interesting, I'm going to go from
Speaker 2: the tangent here, but we had so many good eighteen,
Speaker 2: nineteen and twenty year old supply for life holand none
Speaker 2: of which got in because we felt that they were
Speaker 2: too young for the you know, for the mix, the
Speaker 2: core mix of people. So either we're going to have
Speaker 2: the best Love Island in the universe next year, in
Speaker 2: the year after, in the year after that when they
Speaker 2: come of age, or there needs to be like a
Speaker 2: younger reality show because these people have grown up making content,
Speaker 2: you know, inst the stories and you know, TikTok and
Speaker 2: all of that. And what we're finding now is that
Speaker 2: people are so much more creative and so much more
Speaker 2: confident on camera than they used to be. You know,
Speaker 2: used to have to some of those old Big Brother
Speaker 2: auditions used to you wanted to jump down people's throats
Speaker 2: and bloody put the words in their mouth for them.
Speaker 2: But you know now some of those Love Island kids
Speaker 2: came in about eighteen year old girls who come in
Speaker 2: and they're just like, you know, talking in grabs. We
Speaker 2: need to make like a teenage show or something, you know,
Speaker 2: like they're just so much better than they used to be.
Speaker 1: It's so true. I was talking to Brian Walsh on
Speaker 1: this podcast, you know, who works at Foxtowl, and was
Speaker 1: saying there needs to be an Australian version of The
Speaker 1: Only Ways Essex because there's a gap in the market
Speaker 1: from eighteen to twenty year olds who would be genius
Speaker 1: on a format like this.
Speaker 2: But look, going back to your point, we kind of
Speaker 2: let our Love Island is off the leash when the
Speaker 2: show's over. I don't know, and you follow whatever.
Speaker 1: But maybe that's why people still want to go on
Speaker 1: Love Island and I'm a celebrity. You aren't cannibalizing them.
Speaker 1: You've allowed them to be human, You've shown them for
Speaker 1: who they are, and they still can be in control
Speaker 1: of their story. That isn't happening on some of the
Speaker 1: other bigger shows.
Speaker 2: And look, you know those shows are successful. So I'm
Speaker 2: not saying that I'm doing it right and everyone else
Speaker 2: is doing it wrong. It's just it's just, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm so lucky the shows that I make, you know,
Speaker 2: I really am lucky that I love them both. And
Speaker 2: the way I like to run them is just show
Speaker 2: what happens. It's pretty bloody simple.
Speaker 1: Last year, Abby Chadfield really shocked Australia. I'm going to say,
Speaker 1: by beating Grant Daniel, what does that tell you about
Speaker 1: who's going to win this year?
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's interesting, because well look let's go through them.
Speaker 2: You know, Emily Sebomb Olympic gold medalist, loved right, she's
Speaker 2: as ozsie as could easily win. David the Logan Twins effect.
Speaker 2: We know the Logan Twins one big brother. He was
Speaker 2: there for the first week cele Australian's love and underdog.
Speaker 2: He could easily win it. Nathan Buckley I'm just going
Speaker 2: to make the point that Dane Swan came to third
Speaker 2: in our show and barely said a word like that's
Speaker 2: how rampant the Collingwood Faithful are. Buckley could could easily
Speaker 2: easily win the show. Dylan is the book. He's favorite.
Speaker 2: You know, he's been in the in every scene. Everyone
Speaker 2: thinks he's hilarious. If social media has been to be believed,
Speaker 2: Dylan will win Brook has been the revelation of the series.
Speaker 2: She is so infectiously so loved. Her song that she
Speaker 2: you know that was on the show the other day
Speaker 2: went to number one in the charts, like can you
Speaker 2: believe that? Like straight to number one the charts got
Speaker 2: released on straight number one, So there's are telling things.
Speaker 2: She's going to be right up there. And Joey Essex
Speaker 2: has international star quality and star power and you know
Speaker 2: is a king of reality television. So it's the most
Speaker 2: competitive reality finale I've ever been involved with. Any of
Speaker 2: those six could win. If you're looking at the Abbey effects,
Speaker 2: then you've got to look at David because you know,
Speaker 2: Abby Abby had such a passionate social following, and David
Speaker 2: is very much someone who lives his life, you know,
Speaker 2: on socials, certainly more than Emily, you know, Buckley Dylan
Speaker 2: Brook were not so much Joey, but certainly more than
Speaker 2: those other four. He could easily win something.
Speaker 1: I also want to know what is something that you're
Speaker 1: going to do differently for the I'm a Celebrity finale
Speaker 1: that is different to any other finale.
Speaker 2: We're still we're still we're still writing it as we speak.
Speaker 2: So I can tell you that if you if you
Speaker 2: are eager eyed, you may you may see some past
Speaker 2: winners make an appearance.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about that, you know, when they bring back
Speaker 1: the winners. To be honest with you, is that just
Speaker 1: the way of you teasing us with an All Stars version?
Speaker 1: Is that something that could? Is that something that could happen?
Speaker 1: Could we see and All Stars I'm a celebrity, Get
Speaker 1: me out.
Speaker 2: Of here, we'll see. Look, do you know what All
Speaker 2: Stars on a Celebrity could easily happen? And we've talked
Speaker 2: about it many many times. I think we won't see
Speaker 2: how All Stars Big Brother goes, you know, like it
Speaker 2: was always always talked about, the All Stars seasons never work,
Speaker 2: very very few of them do work. So good luck
Speaker 2: to be b Let's see how they go, and we
Speaker 2: might do it All Stars one as well.
Speaker 1: Well, that's actually a good segue. You're still kind of
Speaker 1: thought of as the godfather of Big Brother Australia, working
Speaker 1: on the series from as far back as Series two
Speaker 1: on Channel ten, So it would be remiss of me
Speaker 1: not to ask you this, what is your gun instinct?
Speaker 1: On All Stars? On an All Stars version of Big
Speaker 1: Brother which is coming to Channel seven this year, how
Speaker 1: do you think it's going to go?
Speaker 2: So they'll be wanting it to be better than VIP.
Speaker 2: I think they've got the talent now. I mean, who
Speaker 2: do we know that's in there?
Speaker 1: Farmer, Dave Farmer, Dave, Tim Dormer, Leila Sabritzky, Reggie Trevor through.
Speaker 2: Tully Estelle's Merlin is in he? Merlin's in, isn't he?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 2: Oh He's not okay anyway. So look, there's some there's
Speaker 2: some bloody good names there, most of which were on
Speaker 2: the Channel nine series. I note. Look Lisa and Keeley.
Speaker 2: I love the two EPs, Lisa Fard and Kelly Sontag.
Speaker 2: I love them, you know, like they worked me on
Speaker 2: for years and years and years, and I wish them
Speaker 2: nothing but the best. Is it's going to be hard,
Speaker 2: because I said, All Stars series are really hard, but
Speaker 2: they've got the talent in there. If they're as good
Speaker 2: as they were in their actual series, and it'll be great.
Speaker 2: My look, Reggie's going to win. We all know it.
Speaker 2: Spoiler alert. In fact, I'm going to call it now
Speaker 2: and say, if play this back in a few months time,
Speaker 2: Reggie will because you'll win. There going to go on. Look,
Speaker 2: I hope it works for them. We'll see. Honestly, I
Speaker 2: really really really don't know. We always pulled short of
Speaker 2: doing a an All the Stars Big Brother. We never
Speaker 2: fancied it. So it's a brave thing that they're doing.
Speaker 2: So we will see at All Stars, I'm a sleb.
Speaker 2: We could look, we could do that easily with us,
Speaker 2: I said before. We've got one hundred celebrities that have
Speaker 2: been on the show. It's some absolute crackers. I feel
Speaker 2: like we could easily do a quick run All Stars
Speaker 2: on a celebrity and I think it would work really well.
Speaker 2: And it's something we have talked to Chen about a
Speaker 2: couple of times. So we'll see an interesting year of
Speaker 2: television ahead, very interesting year.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 1: As we finish up. I have a question I ask
Speaker 1: all my guests, and as you know, last year, your
Speaker 1: answer went viral. What is something from behind the scenes
Speaker 1: that we're as an audience did not see?
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll tell you about a mistake I made which
Speaker 2: nearly brought the entire production down. So it was one
Speaker 2: of the eliminations. It was an ejection, and I think
Speaker 2: it was the night that Maria went, I think, or
Speaker 2: maybe the night Nathan. No, it's not Maria went. I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure I'd have to remember this, but I'm pretty
Speaker 2: sure it was Maria, Emily, and Nathan Buckley on the
Speaker 2: three chairs. Certainly Maria and Buckley. I can't remember who
Speaker 2: the other person was. I think it was. I think
Speaker 2: it was Emily, and we call them. So I'm the
Speaker 2: only one who knows, you know, how many eels or
Speaker 2: how many scorpios flashes. I'm not the only one who knows,
Speaker 2: because obviously the critic guy knows, and everyone who's looking
Speaker 2: into things to count them. But you know, I've got
Speaker 2: the number written down in front of me, right, It's
Speaker 2: one hundred percent real, no bullshit. I've got the number
Speaker 2: of eels or things written down in front of me.
Speaker 2: So they all do their guesses and then they all
Speaker 2: sit down on the chairs and then we have a
Speaker 2: very many stockdown while I have a safety briefing. You know,
Speaker 2: if you get ejected, you know you need to tuck
Speaker 2: up your knees and try and land like this, you know,
Speaker 2: because they have to have the safety briefing, and so
Speaker 2: they all get the same briefing, so no one knows
Speaker 2: who's going to get ejected. And then I call it
Speaker 2: by chair number. So if you're looking camera left to right,
Speaker 2: Nathan Buckley is in chair one, Emily is in chair two,
Speaker 2: and Maria is in chair three. Now I've obviously done
Speaker 2: the maths with the eels or the scorpions or whatever
Speaker 2: it was that night, and it's Maria that's going home.
Speaker 2: What I should have called through to everybody is chair three,
Speaker 2: Chair three, Chair three. I called chair one, share one,
Speaker 2: chair one. So as far as the entire crew are concerned,
Speaker 2: Nathan Buckley is going in the swamp and it's going
Speaker 2: to happen in a matter of seconds. And I don't
Speaker 2: know what stopped me. I don't know what stopped me,
Speaker 2: but literally christ and Julia have started talking and Julia's
Speaker 2: hand is over the red bun and I called, I've
Speaker 2: got a key on my panel, which is all coms,
Speaker 2: and I just went stop, stop and called the whole
Speaker 2: crew to stop, and thank god I did, because something
Speaker 2: in my head just went, something's not right. And then
Speaker 2: I went, what share did I call? And They've gone
Speaker 2: one and I've gone nuh it's chair three.
Speaker 5: We were two seconds away from ejecting the wrong person,
Speaker 5: which would have been a massive disaster because it would
Speaker 5: have called the whole thing into question, and of course
Speaker 5: Nathan would have had got dried off and put through
Speaker 5: You know, God knows what we would have done, had
Speaker 5: to get all of his clothes off.
Speaker 2: Rinse them, wait for them to dry. That means that
Speaker 2: they would have known one of the girls would known
Speaker 2: that one of them is going. It would have been
Speaker 2: an absolute disaster. So I don't know how what happened
Speaker 2: in my brain that night, but nearly ruined the entire show.
Speaker 1: But then it's like in your own breath, Well, mate,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you didn't cook your own goose because
Speaker 1: you do such a great job on this show and
Speaker 1: I hope we get to see you at the helm
Speaker 1: of this for many years to come. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming back on to TV reload my first
Speaker 1: repeat offender. Thank you again, amazing.
Speaker 2: Thanks Mane. I hope everyone enjoys the Fanatic tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: If you're listening to this on Saturday, it's you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of people have put a lot of efford
Speaker 2: into it, and it's a series we're very proud of
Speaker 2: and we want to bring it home at a bank.
Speaker 2: God knows who's going to win as well.
Speaker 1: I actually can't wait.