It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast pat deep that line. Welcome back, guys to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Irra, says you may know, and this is your podcast to get all the insight goss on the popular shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are 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 that want to dive just that little bit deeper into the shows they're 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 found me. I love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a review or a comment
on your chosen podcast platform. This chat, I'm joined by Aunt Middleton, the host of Channel seven's new reality series Million Dollar Island, which launches this week on Australian screens. The series is extremely ambitious and has the most amount of reality TV contestants ever formed, competing for the cash prize of a million dollars does borrow a lot of
ideas from your favorite reality shows, kind of rolls them together. Sure, there are elements of Survivor and Big Brother which fans will notice, but there's also new ways in which these contestants get tested that makes this format new and exciting. Anthony Middleton is a British adventurer, writer, television personality and former UK Special Forces soldier. He is best known in Australia for his role as chief instructor on SAS and
it's very exciting to have him here today. On the podcast, I will find out why Ant said yes to this show and if it's excited to show a softer side Ant. We'll talk about why it wasn't hard for him to control one hundred contestants and what the pressure of one million dollars can do to a person. We will also unpack Ant's love of Australian television and if a role
on Home in a way would interest him. Plus, guys, we're going to get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes of Million Dollar Island, which starts on the twelfth of June and is on three nights a week Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays Plus will be available to catch up on seven Plus. Anyway, let's bring Anne into the podcast. And guys, I really hope you enjoyed this special preview of Million Dollar Island. Hi, and how are you?
Yes, Ben, I'm good, how are you?
I'm very excited because I really do enjoy a new format of a reality show, and this one is like nothing we've ever seen before. What did you say when they came to you with the idea of doing Million Dollar Island?
It was one of those where you tried to imagine it in your head. You know, one hundred people on the island. They've got ten thousand dollars on their wrists, so they're worth ten thousand dollars. The bracelets and the money have to stay on the island whilst people obviously leave or go or get eliminated or just leave off their own will. And then they have to battle it out every single day. So the survival element really intrigued me.
I thought, I love survival. Surviving on an island for a month by itself, as hardcore enough as it is, and then to add the battle element, you know, challenges every single day where it's a real challenges or survival challenges. On top of that survival, I thought to myself, this will be very interesting and also, you know I could help them along the way where necessary or where I could.
So I snapped it up straight away. I was like, let's do it.
Let let's implement some pain and suffering and you know, let's let's get it on. So it was no brainer for me when Channel seven aim and offered me the hosting role.
I thought it was really interesting because we're getting a much softer side of you than what we've seen on SAS and what we've known of you. Was that also a bit of a draw card to maybe, you know, take it down a couple of notches.
Yeah.
Absolutely, You know SAS is so unique. You know, it's a military show. It's a compressed sort of form of the UK selection process, and you know, you have to scream, you have to shout, you have to insert discipline as part of being in the military. But that's such a small part of who I am. You know, that's how I was taught and that's how I teach when it comes to military tactics, because you know, you embed it in their heads. You know, you make any mistakes on
the battlefield. It's life or death. So it's definitely just a small part of me. Who you see on Million Dollar Island is the majority of me is who I really am. You know, I'm a family man. You know, I love helping people. I love getting the best out of people. But ultimately you do see that on SAS, but in a brutal kind of way, where on Million Dollar Island you get to see.
You know, the real me more than more than you do on SAS.
So yeah, that was that was also a great way of just showing people a different side to me.
I also thought, you know, when it came to casting this role, I was like, we've got one hundred contestants. We need somebody who's going to be able to command a hundred people. I mean, how hard was it to get the cast to shut up and listen to you? At times?
That wasn't too hard actually, because when they first met me, you can imagine, you know, their eyes sort of widened just to say, you know, and were going to are we going to die on this island?
You know?
And it wasn't until I got them in the arena and I.
Sort of you know, introduced myself as this host and you know, I'm there as they're ultimately as their big as cheerleader.
I'm there to help them through.
I'm there to give them a few gems along the way in order to survive and make it through the challenges. So once I told them that I was there to help them through this process and to guide them through it, they.
Were really responsive to that.
They were all ears, they were really focused, and you know, as the days went by, they realized why I was there, you know, to really sort of help them through and to guide them through as much as I could without giving the game away.
So the respect was there, which was great. And also to be fair.
They did pin back their ears and listening, so I didn't have to bring sas and out at all.
It was just a million dollar island.
A bit of you know, Stockholm syndrome. They end up becoming obsessed with, you know, the people that are capturing them.
You know what, I think. I didn't capture them. I didn't them. You know, you you make me make me look bad.
You think like I've caught them and all of a sudden, I've just flung them on an islands. I wish I could do that, but no, I think they did actually come in with a bit of a.
Oh good lord, this is Sam Middleton and thinking that I'd do a bit of screaming and shouting, but no, it was completely opposite.
And it was nice as well, because you know, you could see that they were pleasantly surprised as well.
You know, especially when they're tired, they're.
Hungry, they're suffering, you know, they're weak into it, they know they've got three weeks left. They really looked they looked to me for for for guidance, and I could see it in their eyes. You know, very good at at figuring people, sussing people out, and I could tell sometimes that they really needed that sort of pit me up because they're having to survive for a month is hardcore enough as it is. To survive just for a month is hardcore. To battle every single day physically and
psychologically against each other. On top of that, yeah, it was. It was just a new format and a brutal, a brutal way of doing the show. So it was brutal enough for them, so they didn't need me to be to be like that.
I feel like, with one hundred million dollars on the line, that it's going to bring out either.
One hundred million, cop I said, million dollars.
One million? Oh my god, it's very early for me on a public holiday. I've managed to loose my mind. One hundred million would be good, but a million dollars would for anybody. I would say, is either going to bring out the best or the worst in people? Do you think it brings out the best in these contestants or do you think it's bringing out the worst of them?
Or do you know what?
We're naturally empathetic towards each other. You know, we naturally as humans, you know, want to help each other, want to be.
There for each other.
And that's the twist, that's the interesting dynamic because you know, on an island, to survive, you need each other, and then all of a sudden you throw a million bucks into the mix. You know, all of that goes out the window, especially when they get closer. I saw as I was getting closer and closer to the money, and towards the end of the game, let's call it, you could see the million dollars taken over. You could see,
you know, dollar signs in their eyes. You know, when they're waking up, you could see that they were hungry for the money and then cough talk about seeing you know, going from the best of humanity to the worst of humanity, and I suppose I don't like to call it the worst of humanity, but you know, their game plans really kicking, you know, when they see and smell when they can touch that million bucks, the game plan definitely definitely comes
into play. And yeah, you do see, you know, but again a lot of manipulation, a lot of vindictiveness, a lot of you know, a lot of strategies, shall we say, negative strategies in order to get their hands on the money.
Did you try it any of these challenges because a lot of these challenges look like a lot of fun. I mean some of them a bit, but I was wondering whether or not you'd be standing or on the sideline going I want to try that one.
Oh absolutely, you know, before they came into the arena, I was I was having to go on on on the ones that didn't need resetting as much. So yeah, that's what was great about the show as well, you know, I was I was sat on the sidelines and I really wanted to get involved, but it was really really good to sort of help help out as much as I could in order for them to succeed. It was ultimately that's what that's what you want people to do.
You want to succeed in life. But it was really hard because sometimes I'd be like, do it like this?
You really you know it's hard.
Just I'd be the same. I'd be like, I'm sorry with your home, that's not how you do it. Step aside.
Let me a big elbow coming in.
I'm going to ask you. You know a lot of these shows, there's like, you know all these you know, there's Love Island, there's f Boy Island, there's all these islands, and I found out that a lot of them are not actually on islands. Was this on an island? And where was it filmed?
Yeah?
You it is? How you see it again? That was really important for me.
When the channel Channel seven came up to me and said about the idea, I said that is it going to be authentic?
First of all? You know, is it going to be real?
What?
How is it going to work?
And this is why we want you to host it? And that was a big big part of me hosting it. So it was done on an island. It was it was an island in Malaysia, just off Langkawi and as you see it as it played out, So obviously there's an element of you know, rallying the troops together, which I do through a tannoy in order for them to make their way to the other side of the island where the arena is where they do their challenges. So there was a bit of command and control for a tannoy.
But how you see it is how it played out.
You know what I was thinking, because this is coming after Home and Away, A good cross promotion might have worked. What about something like that? Would you ever consider being on Home and Away or doing any act while you're here in Australia.
I'm a big fan of Home and Away.
I remember as a kid. You know, I've watched Home and Away all the time. And listen, yeah, I'll be honest to do a part in the Home and Away.
So listen, never say never, right, we.
Can do the crossover the other way. We get alf Stewart on the island.
No, listen, I couldn't do anything to Alfie. He commands too much respect. I remember Alfred as a child, like I.
Said, growing up, so listen, Yeah, that's that's.
One person I couldn't shout at, so I'd have to I'd have to leave.
It at that before you go. You know, we've got another season of Says that's coming up, and you know it's a huge show for you. One thing. Are you worried that now being on a softer side on this show, you then have to go back to this other version. Is that going to be a hard transition?
No, No, it's not. Actually, when I'm it's really not strange.
But when I do my stoes, I get into a certain headspace. You know, when I do SAS, I don't revert to a character. I don't get into character, go back to my military headspace of being an instructor, of being on operations, you know, and really taking it really seriously. So all I do is I go back to that headspace, get in the moment, and then everything just flows naturally.
So that's that's all I do. But Sas this season was brutal, and I'd say even more brutal, just because maybe because I'd filmed Million Dollar Island just before, so you know, the chief instructor in me was raring to get out. So as soon as I step I stepped foot with the new recruits on sas they got the good news, Do.
They get more and more used to the idea of it because it's now being on TV for a while and it's so popular, like the do these people that turn up on the show, do they sort of understand it a little bit more?
No, because everything we do just is so different. They come with a preconceived idea. That's where they fall down, you know, rather than coming.
Just with an empty mind and going, do you know what it is?
What it is, I'm just going to take it every hour as it comes. They come with this preconceived idea of how the show's run, and it trips them up every single time, every single time, because this is so unique to any sort of TV world that you know, you'd think that they we wouldn't be able to put them through what we put them through. So they always come with that preconceived idea that this is a TV show well ultimately for me and running a course in
military course. So no, they always they I think we always shot them from day one.
Well, you know, I've upgraded it to one hundred million dollar island, but I love it.
You put in the nine are you putting the other ninety nine million in are you ben?
I know it's so weird. I just looked up yesterday like what I was worth. I don't know if you've ever done that. I put it into Google, you know what am I worth? And it came up and said I was worth five million dollars.
Wow, have you worked that?
I was like, that's not true. I mean, I'm still coming to you more than thattment I could do with the money. I'll audition for the next series, just to meet you in the flesh. Everyone who joins the podcast gets this last question. What's something from behind the scenes, something from behind the scenes of what it was like to make this show. Can you give us a bit of a secret or something that happened along the way.
Because we were figuring it out, because it's a new format, we were we were literally, you know, figuring it out on the move.
I'm not joking you.
You know, I'd have a script that I'd revise the night before because I wanted to go on and make sure you know that I nawled everything, said, a script that I've advised on how the task would run and how how things would play out.
That just went out the window.
After you know, I'd literally go on to set, there's no word of going to set, and they'd be.
Like, has that got the new scripts? And I'm like, no, I haven't. I'm just gonna run with what I've got.
So but to be fair that, you know, the production we were working around the clock, but yeah, I was. I was going on on on into the arenas scriptless sometimes.
But that wasn't any fault of anyone there.
But it just changed all the time because it's such a new format and we're figuring it out on the move.
But it worked out in the end, it worked out really well.
But yeah, I was literally, you know, ripping up scripts before I was walking onto set.
So that was that was interesting, very interesting, and the first.
Good preparation for your home in away gig.
There you go.
We've just made up in our own heads. Can I just say how amazing it is to talk to you this morning. I'm a big fan. Good luck with this series. I'm really looking forward to it. And then you know, we'll catch up with you again when Says comes out later this year.
Brilliant look forward to it. Ben, Thanks very much for having me.
Thanks for the chat.