Speaker 1: Welcome back to TV Reload.
Speaker 2: This is my second last chat with the stars of
Speaker 2: I'm a Celebrity twenty twenty one, featuring the runner up himself,
Speaker 2: Grant Dania. Today's guest is basically TV Royalty, as Australian
Speaker 2: audiences have either grown up watching him or grown to
Speaker 2: love him. Clocking up more hours on television than Skippy
Speaker 2: the Kangaroo.
Speaker 1: He has brought so much joy to us.
Speaker 2: All from Sunrise to family Feud. This Gold Lugie winner
Speaker 2: is simply TV Magic. Viewers of I'm a Celebrity saw
Speaker 2: a raw and honor side to the TV host in
Speaker 2: the jungle, a rare insight into a family man who
Speaker 2: has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster
Speaker 2: ride at Luna Park. We have read the headlines, watched
Speaker 2: his shows and always wanted more, which this man delivered
Speaker 2: in spades. I'd like to welcome to the show this
Speaker 2: year's almost winner, Grant Dania.
Speaker 3: I don't attempt things unless I'm going to be amazing
Speaker 3: at it. David Animal your associates with Grand Dania. I've
Speaker 3: worked in Telly for twenty years for the Gold LOGI.
Speaker 1: This year it's Grand Dania.
Speaker 3: I'm a pretty sure person. I never thought i'd talk
Speaker 3: about TV in the form of self discovery, how survey said.
Speaker 3: I made a vow to myself that when I went
Speaker 3: in there, if someone asked me an uncomfortable question, you know,
Speaker 3: I'd try and answer it honestly.
Speaker 2: Congratulations Grant Daniel on coming second, What was the jungle
Speaker 2: experience like for you?
Speaker 3: Horrible, disgusting, putrid, hated it all, But weirdly, all I
Speaker 3: wanted to do when I was in there was leave,
Speaker 3: and then now that it's over, I kind of wanted
Speaker 3: to end. I don't know what's happened to me.
Speaker 2: Well, you certainly committed to your time in the jungle,
Speaker 2: and you know, casting agent Georgina Harrap said, Grant Daniel's
Speaker 2: always on, He's great television. Did you feel like you
Speaker 2: were always on in the jungle?
Speaker 3: Not always like I've worked in Telly for twenty years,
Speaker 3: and that's a pretty strong reflex for me to go
Speaker 3: into TV mode, you know what I mean, Like I've
Speaker 3: been doing it since I was sixteen. When I went
Speaker 3: in there. You're scared, You're anxious, you're afraid. You know
Speaker 3: it's going to be horrible. I'm a pretty shy person,
Speaker 3: so I kind of I turned on the TV mode
Speaker 3: when I got in there, and then probably for a week.
Speaker 3: It took me a while for that wall to drop
Speaker 3: when I realized that I don't have the energy to
Speaker 3: go four weeks pretending to be a TV person, So
Speaker 3: I just gave into it, really dropped the guard, and
Speaker 3: stuff just flowed. You know, I can't believe the things
Speaker 3: that I purged in there. It's quite remarkable. I thought
Speaker 3: it was just a TV show. I thought you just
Speaker 3: do this for the exposure, But there was so much
Speaker 3: more gold that happened by There's a lot of self
Speaker 3: discovery in there. I never thought I'd talk about TV
Speaker 3: in the form of self discovery. I just died enough
Speaker 3: of them to know that it's all pretty plastic. But
Speaker 3: here I am going, oh my god, I've come out
Speaker 3: a better person. Legit.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, at what point did they ask you
Speaker 2: to do this show? Because for years, actually I think
Speaker 2: you are the most speculated person to ever go into
Speaker 2: the jungle.
Speaker 1: At what point did they ask you to do it?
Speaker 2: And was there any rumors about the fact that, you know,
Speaker 2: Dancing with the Stars didn't happen, and so they just
Speaker 2: plopped you into the Jungle instead.
Speaker 3: I had nothing to do with Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 3: I just I'd said no for six years for a
Speaker 3: good reason, because I knew to be shit. I knew
Speaker 3: it to be terrible in there, and I didn't want
Speaker 3: to do it, and I knew it to be confronting.
Speaker 3: And I, you know what, I've made a lot of
Speaker 3: television in my life, but I've never made and I'm
Speaker 3: a bit bored, to be honest, because I've done a lot,
Speaker 3: but I've never made a kind of television like this.
Speaker 3: And I you know, I've got kids now, and I
Speaker 3: just wanted to show them the joy of trying. You know,
Speaker 3: you don't. I've got a terrible thing that I don't
Speaker 3: attempt things unless I'm going to be amazing at it.
Speaker 3: And I wanted to instill in my daughters the joy
Speaker 3: of trying. And yeah, they look at me really differently now,
Speaker 3: and that's that's actually incredibly special. I didn't expect that
Speaker 3: when you arrived.
Speaker 2: There was a few moments where I've watched you on
Speaker 2: television for for as long as I can remember, I've
Speaker 2: reviewed your career, so I could see something happening. Was
Speaker 2: there a slight look of concern? That you'd gone to
Speaker 2: the wrong event, like you were looking around at the cast,
Speaker 2: like am I at the wrong Christmas?
Speaker 3: I got in there and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: these are all high energy, high octane people, you know,
Speaker 3: bouncing off the red limit. Like I thought, I can't
Speaker 3: I can't be in here around the clock with these people.
Speaker 3: I've made the wrong decision. I thought I'd made the
Speaker 3: wrong decision for at least three of the four weeks,
Speaker 3: but slowly when I gave in to it. You know,
Speaker 3: and I am also someone who hosts television, so I'm
Speaker 3: used to being the puppet master, used to controlling the strings.
Speaker 3: Handing that power over is a very daunting experience. It's
Speaker 3: a bit scary.
Speaker 2: Did you worry that at some point that you might
Speaker 2: have been too honest? I mean, as a overshare on myself.
Speaker 2: I wondered how you felt watching it back. Did you think, oh,
Speaker 2: I've revealed too much?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I was pretty it was a bit of
Speaker 3: a pain in the ass to be around in the
Speaker 3: weeks leading up to it, because I was I was
Speaker 3: worried I cried too much and I'd said too much
Speaker 3: and I might have embarrassed my partner or my family.
Speaker 3: I knew my daughters were going to so I was
Speaker 3: a nervous wreck, not knowing what they were going to use,
Speaker 3: how they were going to edit it. You know, I've
Speaker 3: been in television long enough to know that, you know,
Speaker 3: they can build storylines artificially in post. And I didn't
Speaker 3: know if I was Maybe I was a dickhead in there,
Speaker 3: maybe I'd offended someone, maybe I was angry. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: had a lot of self doubt watching it back. It
Speaker 3: was uncomfortable with some of the things that I spoke about.
Speaker 3: But I made a vow to myself that when I
Speaker 3: went in there, if someone asked me an uncomfortable question,
Speaker 3: you know, I'd try and answer it honestly. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I just kind of I was bit tired of being
Speaker 3: this shiny, smiley game show host. I just thought, you
Speaker 3: know what, I kind of just stuff it just fucking be.
Speaker 2: You, and we loved it. I mean, that's the best
Speaker 2: thing about it. I think that's why people have wanted
Speaker 2: you to do it for so many years, is because
Speaker 2: we can see the man who's the host, but then
Speaker 2: we also want to know the man behind that. You know,
Speaker 2: a lot of speculation about Chezy, your wife and what
Speaker 2: she thought of the show. How did she react to
Speaker 2: some of these moments where I guess you was sharing
Speaker 2: not only personal stories for yourself, but I guess stories
Speaker 2: that reflected her as well.
Speaker 3: Well, that's the hard parts. I'm sharing stories that aren't
Speaker 3: just my stories. There's someone else's as well. So I
Speaker 3: felt guilty that I was sharing things without someone else's permission.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, I asked Chezi
Speaker 3: if I should do this, and she's heavily pregnant and
Speaker 3: it was her call, and she had a feeling that
Speaker 3: if she pushed me in there, that I might come
Speaker 3: out a slightly better version of myself. And she had
Speaker 3: that foresight. I didn't think, you know, that could possibly
Speaker 3: happen on a TV show, But she was right, and
Speaker 3: she knew. She knows I'm I'm pretty sensitive, to be honest,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't take much for the emotions to flow.
Speaker 3: So I am a little bit nervous because I don't
Speaker 3: know what you saying. I think she knew that they'd
Speaker 3: crack me, and they did.
Speaker 2: You know, what's really the eye opener for me was
Speaker 2: that I crave a drink when I don't necessarily know
Speaker 2: what to do with my access anxiety or energy. And
Speaker 2: I think in Australia, I'm not alone. Do you think
Speaker 2: in Australia we need to talk a little bit more
Speaker 2: openly about the way in which we use and drink alcohol.
Speaker 3: It's funny. I've been thinking about my relationship with alcohol
Speaker 3: probably for the last two years, and really deeply for
Speaker 3: the last month. And I didn't realize the effects alcohol
Speaker 3: or role it had in my life until I quarantined
Speaker 3: the week before I went into the jungle, and I
Speaker 3: had enormous amounts of nerves. I knew I wasn't going
Speaker 3: to be able to control the circumstances in there. I
Speaker 3: knew they were going to have their way with me,
Speaker 3: and I knew it would be emotional. So I drank
Speaker 3: everything and ate everything and went in about five kilo
Speaker 3: heavier in a week. And that's when I kind of discovered, Oh,
Speaker 3: I know why I drink. It's because I get anxious.
Speaker 3: I'm not comfortable around other people. I'm shy, so I
Speaker 3: like to lubricate myself to be comfortable because I don't know.
Speaker 3: There's parts of my personality that I'm not particularly that
Speaker 3: comfortable with. So I recognized, yeah, I recognized an issue
Speaker 3: that I gotta work on.
Speaker 2: You've worked with some of the most amazing people in
Speaker 2: your career once you entered the jungle, and up until
Speaker 2: this point, who's been some of your biggest champions.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have a career to this day if it
Speaker 3: wasn't for a news director in Prime TV Woggle Wogger,
Speaker 3: who as a sixteen year old kid, allowed me to
Speaker 3: come into his newsroom and carry the tripods and wash
Speaker 3: the news cars and hang around like a smelly pest.
Speaker 3: And I couldn't spell. I wasn't smart enough to go
Speaker 3: to university to get a journalism degree. And that guy
Speaker 3: let me hang around so long that he taught me
Speaker 3: to write like a journal talk like a journo, do
Speaker 3: stand ups to camera like a journo. And he saw
Speaker 3: something in me that I didn't even know I had
Speaker 3: in myself, and he allowed me to make thousands of mistakes.
Speaker 3: But he let me grow unchallenged. He didn'tized me. He
Speaker 3: didn't smash me or crush me like most news directors
Speaker 3: would because they're pretty harsh people. And that guy, Doug
Speaker 3: Hogan in Prime TV Wolga let me blossom. I thanked
Speaker 3: him in my gold Lady's speech, because I could have
Speaker 3: been a garbage collector.
Speaker 1: Couldn't we all? Actually, I think that's a calling. It's
Speaker 1: a calling for me right now.
Speaker 2: To be honest with you, A lot of people were
Speaker 2: saying that maybe the snake bite got abby over the
Speaker 2: line in the end. What did you think her strength
Speaker 2: was and why do you think that Australia voted for
Speaker 2: her in the end.
Speaker 3: Her story on the Bachelor was pretty hard for her,
Speaker 3: you know she you know, in her words, not mine,
Speaker 3: she was the most hated person in Australia according to her.
Speaker 3: After being on the Bachelor, she really received a lot
Speaker 3: of death threats. The whole country hated her. She finished second,
Speaker 3: she didn't win. That was heartbreaking and embarrassing for her.
Speaker 3: She confessed in the jungle, so to kind of to
Speaker 3: go back onto a reality TV show would have been
Speaker 3: pretty triggering and she thought, oh my god, you know,
Speaker 3: my life's going me turned upside down again. Yet she
Speaker 3: did it anyway, and you know, she had the whole
Speaker 3: ultimate outcome and the whole country fell back in love
Speaker 3: with her. The winner, I'm a celebrity, Get me out
Speaker 3: of here for twenty twenty one is pretty awesome redemption story. Really,
Speaker 3: if you want anyone to win, it's someone who's had
Speaker 3: a rough trot that now has an ultimate outcome like that.
Speaker 3: And now she's the queen, so that's pretty special.
Speaker 2: Has Abby offered you any advice on coming second in
Speaker 2: a reality show?
Speaker 3: Yes, coming second? Yeah, he's like being the shatter knoll
Speaker 3: of I'm a celebrity, to get me out of here.
Speaker 3: It's she No, she was bamboozled by the moment, mate.
Speaker 3: She I could see in her eyes that she didn't
Speaker 3: know what to make of it. I don't think this
Speaker 3: girl has perceived much love in her life. I think
Speaker 3: she's had a bit of a rough run. You know.
Speaker 3: I could see the little girl all in there, just
Speaker 3: overwhelmed by love, not knowing what to do with it
Speaker 3: because it was an unfamiliar sensation for her, but really
Speaker 3: wonderful to see someone finally the country just wrap their
Speaker 3: arms around her. And I think she really needed that,
Speaker 3: you know, I think she was there. She was a
Speaker 3: little broken after her last experience. Yeah, I'm so happy
Speaker 3: for it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you've already won a reality shows, so you
Speaker 2: can't can't win them all. As probably what your parents
Speaker 2: said to you when you're growing up.
Speaker 3: Present they look to be honest. I didn't come I'd
Speaker 3: kind of got what I needed out of it, which
Speaker 3: was a little bit of personal development going there. You know, fear.
Speaker 3: I had a bit of fear creeping into my life,
Speaker 3: which is fear is a limiting thing, you know, when
Speaker 3: you're afraid, fear steals joy from your life. And I
Speaker 3: wanted to go in there to kind of reset the
Speaker 3: bar and face a couple of fears and not let
Speaker 3: them kind of cast off the shackles a little bit.
Speaker 3: You know, I used to do crazy stuff all the time,
Speaker 3: you know, when I was a Sunrise weather man, and
Speaker 3: it's been a while since I've done stuff that's scared me.
Speaker 3: And I needed to do that again, and I got
Speaker 3: what I wanted out of the jungle. You know, I
Speaker 3: was the smiley game show guy for a long time
Speaker 3: and who was pretending to be perfect, but my life's
Speaker 3: not perfect. I've made thousands of mistakes, and you know,
Speaker 3: I cherish each one of those mistakes because they are
Speaker 3: a scar that has built the person who I am today.
Speaker 3: So I kind of didn't mind revealing a lot in
Speaker 3: there and opening up. And I've never been good at
Speaker 3: doing that, so it was nice to sort of learn
Speaker 3: how to yeah.
Speaker 2: And I guess that was the most beautiful thing from
Speaker 2: my point of view is that I actually sat on
Speaker 2: my lounge room and I, like the rest of Australia,
Speaker 2: I think I cried and laughed along with you throughout
Speaker 2: the experience. I felt such a visceral experience. And I've
Speaker 2: watched the show for all of its seven seasons, and
Speaker 2: I don't know, I just really related to watching you
Speaker 2: open yourself up and be really raw, and I think
Speaker 2: that's hard.
Speaker 3: It's hard when you are a match fit media professional,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. Like I've turned it on
Speaker 3: for years. I've been in the game for a long time,
Speaker 3: and it's a strong reflex of mind to go straight
Speaker 3: into presenter mode because that's my job and I do it,
Speaker 3: you know, daily. I tried to go in there because
Speaker 3: of my anxiety and nerves and fear. I went in
Speaker 3: there and I dressed myself up as a TV presenter
Speaker 3: and I carried that act on and then realized I
Speaker 3: can't hold this up forever. So it kind of fell down.
Speaker 3: And when the walls came down, the magical stuff started
Speaker 3: to happen and I was like, I don't really know
Speaker 3: who I am. I've just been a presenter my whole life.
Speaker 3: So I kind of just was like, if someone asked
Speaker 3: me something embarrassing and uncomfortable, I'll give them an honest
Speaker 3: answer as best I can. And I found real freedom
Speaker 3: in that if you can acknowledge it you've made a
Speaker 3: mistake in your life, you take the power out of
Speaker 3: that mistake and it no longer holds you prisoner, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And there was a lot of
Speaker 3: purging that went on for me in the jungle where
Speaker 3: stuff just flowed out and I had no control of it.
Speaker 3: I don't know where it came from and why, and
Speaker 3: I cried more than I've cried ever in my entire life.
Speaker 3: But you know sit I did some healing.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: It was brilliant to watch.
Speaker 2: I'm absolutely loving your podcast by the way, with your
Speaker 2: wife shares.
Speaker 1: It's so good, it's all true.
Speaker 2: I've actually got it in my number three of podcasts
Speaker 2: that I'm listening to. I think I really just like pleasure,
Speaker 2: the raw energy. So I think Australia loves you. I
Speaker 2: think that there's still so much of your story to
Speaker 2: be told. I hope that people can check out that
Speaker 2: podcast for starters because it's brilliant.
Speaker 1: Now that because you're the biggest.
Speaker 2: Name that we've been trying to get onto the show
Speaker 2: for so long and you've now done it, have you
Speaker 2: recommended it to anyone else?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Is there any of your mates in the industry that
Speaker 2: you think will turn up next year?
Speaker 3: Sarah Harris from Studio ten said, you know, should I
Speaker 3: do the show? A week ago? I said, hell, no,
Speaker 3: are you kidding? It's the worst thing you'll ever do?
Speaker 3: But now I'll actually go. You know what do it?
Speaker 3: Something special happens in there and I can't explain it
Speaker 3: and doesn't make sense to anyone who watches it because
Speaker 3: they only see it for an hour and a half
Speaker 3: each night, they don't know how hard and how owing
Speaker 3: it is. But special stuff happens to you in there.
Speaker 2: Well, Sarah Harris would be amazing, so with Amanda Keller.
Speaker 2: There's so many of your mates that I think would
Speaker 2: be great in the jungle. Thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 2: You've been so generous and thank you.
Speaker 3: Ben an absolute pleajer mate is a wonderful chat