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