Conor Curran & Konrad Bien-Stephens: The CHALLENGE AUSTRALIA

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week Deadline and welcome back to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris, and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents, plus the talent that we see on our screens. TV Reload reloads the shows that you are all currently watching and gives you a better insight into

So I was doing it for, you know, that little chunky queer boy that lives within me still, that was heavily bullied in school.

This could be the very last challenge and elimination.

Even me watching it back in some of my interviews, I did feel a lot, you know, I felt like I was quite flat and I'm bothered by Conrad size, like he's going to be a fierce competitor.

Either way. As a few people went into the house, they did actually chann on their partners and I didn't want to have that for myself.

In third place, for the men with an unbelievable effort. Connor, I guess the more annoying thing about this situation is nothing bad the people who are trying to find something. If you're letting go of the you're literally letting that treo hundred thousand dollars of the way, exactly.

I don't think it's villainous beating other people at the hard actual challenges.

So that's being a villain then sure, Hey.

Connor, congratulations on surviving the Challenge Australia.

Thank you so much.

It really feels I hate to use the day word, but this one's been an absolute journey we get.

To you know, everyone knows this. You can't say the journey word in reality TV. And the reason why was because on Australian Idol and Big Brother, which were like, you know, the mother and father of reality shows here in Australia, that's what every contestant would say every year, the journey, the journey.

Oh yeah, one hundred percent. It was drilled into your master Chef. But no, it's a look. I to make the top eight, like, I don't think anyone would have had me in their fantasy team to get there.

But I'm pretty happy to be there, Connor.

You were definitely not in my fantasy team. I don't know what it was it. I mean, I loved your master Chef, but I just didn't see you fitting into the show. But you were the biggest surprise of the season. Really, you really were. Okay, I said this to a friend of mine. You earned your paycheck. You know, you knew what you were there to do, and well done for showing up.

Yeah, no, kidd been I really everyone did the same thing when I was there. I think by the time I got to what was what episode eight last night, it was truly the first elimination where my name wasn't really even bantered around, And it was probably the first club night out that I actually enjoyed. And I think the Brooks just looked at me and just like, go have a good night.

You probably deserve it.

And I was like, it was nice to get there, and it was nice to know that I earned it, opposed to maybe just kind of like guiding and cruising my way through to the end.

You were kind of a bit villainous in this, and to me it felt like you leaned into your villainry.

Oh my villain era. Look, I think definitely the start of the season. I think when a big trunk of peeople are coming at you for a little reason as well, just particularly because you're weak, it did very much turn something in me. But I don't think it's villainous, you know, trying to protect myself. I don't think it's villainous beating other people at the hard actual challenges.

So if that's being a villain, then sure.

But how do you feel about how the way you came across? So was it unusual to see your edit or? I mean, I don't like to say the word edit because I don't think. I think producers do a very good job of playing people as they are. I really do. But were you happy with watching the show back?

Yeah?

I was actually pleasantly surprised. I think I was really proud of how I handed myself in the actual competition. And I think a lot of people don't see what happens. It is a twenty four to seven film show, and I think a lot of people should be sending some very lovely emails to production to thank them for their edits. But I feel like I came across exactly who I am, you know, on Mastership, it's all about love and positivity, and there's no real backstabbing, so you don't really get

Them from a competition, rightfully.

So I've always been a big belief that queer people on TV is just incredibly important. You're one of the first queer people I remember seeing on TV, and so for me to be there, I think it's very easy to make the queer person the bully. I think that's quite easy. I think it would shock a lot of people that it was actually very much the other way around, and that it was a big bunch of strong, cool kids coming for the little queer boy. And I make

Do you think that we've changed the way in which queer people are being seen on TV?

Like?

You are right? I think you know, we've been on a real journey. Back in the day of you work cast on a show you were were pretty much given a villain at it in a way. But do you think we're changing the way like because I felt like, you know, we didn't even you know, I mean, we got to see you talking about your queenness a little bit, but sort of feel like they jam it down our throat as much as what they used to or packages us as just the queer person. I think it's kind of changed.

It definitely has changed.

And you know, on my season of Master Chep, six of the twelve boys were gay, you know, so that already shows you that there is so many different faceted versions of queenness and how that works, and we're seeing so much of it now, which is incredible, And that was the reason I wanted to show, you know, I wanted to prove that you could be queer and you could be strong, and you could you didn't have to

Kind of community. So with even within my community, I'm a little ostracized on that level.

So I was doing it for, you know, that little chunky queer boy that lives within me still, that was heavily bullied in school, that was told he couldn't do it, you know.

So it was very personal for me to be.

There, and it was on another level, it was hopefully going to mean something to someone who is younger than me possibly watching.

What do you think this was like in comparison to Mastership? I mean, they are very different formatted shows. But like you know, now, having these two experiences being so different, you know, what were the major differences in making reality TV between these two shows.

Oh, they're very different.

Weirdly enough, I actually think, look, I'll be very honest in terms of Mars chef was just a very joyous experience. But I wasn't looking to get much out of this. I think I was a lot more determined in the challenge and it was something where I could probably surprise people as well. So that was a really exciting prospect. Living with a bunch of people who really represent society in a weird way, you know, that was quite difficult. In my day to day life. I have a bubble

Me that you know, you know why you're there, and you know why you're doing this.

And I will very happily admit it got better as time when on. Once I started the bubble around me in the house was really people that I would have in my life day to day.

I love following you for your cocktails. Just by the way, thank you. I love cocktails. I love cocktails, and I like to watch you make the cocktails. You always look very happy doing that. But yeah, look, I think that you If anyone's listening to this, follow you on Instagram because and I don't say that about anyone, but yeah, I do really appreciate following you online. What was I

Okay, I will tell you from a first hand account exactly what happened, because I was there and prefaces I love Jack. Jack is an absolute, delightful human being. But essentially, on the first night, I was in a non monogamous relationship at the time, and that was quite clear, and me and Conrad had great conversations about non monogomy in

I've got cold saughs I can't.

But then also, on the other hand, I was going to get with anyone and then have my partner have to watch it back despite being non monogamous.

So that's what happens.

The next day, we laughed about it and we had breakfast and life went on.

Okay, great, So that's been settled. So there's definitely no reality TV romance with you. Just the only reality TV romance apparently now is Emily and Ryan.

Well, yeah, I didn't want to, like, I know, I'm being non monogamous.

I was like, I can do whatever I want essentially with what we've spoken about, but I didn't think it was fair for my partner to watch it on TV, and you know, as a few people got went into the house, they did actually chand on their partners, Emily being one included, and I didn't want to have that for myself.

Well yeah, there was a lot of hookups in there. I mean, that was the one thing that was coming out of this show was that, you know a lot of people have got partners, but everyone's still hooking up. It's kind of like a work Christmas party that went for too long, you know what I mean.

It was.

It was the problem is you've got to do the clean up the next day and everyone's still over and you don't really want to speak to anyone, but there's no doors.

There's a houseful of no doors, which was annoying.

So so, yeah, do you have any outstanding beef with anyone since the show's been rapped?

I don't have time. Honestly.

I love my life so much and I look at it as a show. I took a massive bunch of friends out of it, and I'm too loved and I'm too happy in my own day to day life.

I love what I do. So there's I actually don't have time.

Well, what sort of training do you do? To go and do this sort of a show, did you, because I know Emily, did I know a few people you know rewatched or were able to get access to the challenge and versions of it from around the world. What sort of training did you do before going in there?

Okay, so I swear to you. I went over to London because I used to live in London.

So I went over for a month to see my mates, and I just was pretty much out every night partying, and then came home and then pretty much flew straight to Argentina. So I hadn't really done any training, and I had never seen the show either. I really went in completely blind, thinking, let's just see what happens.

Why did you do this show? Like as in I can't when they're scouring the type of people that they looked and the people that they found for this show. You know fair to say you know the type of people, your name doesn't really come straight to mind. So how did you get picked to do this show?

I was as shocked as you Ben.

There is a lovely producer called Sky who I think she just saw something in me, maybe something that I didn't see in myself, to be completely honest, and I had no idea what it was really going to be, but I thought, why not, you know, I if I didn't go on a MARCHI if my life would be the way it is now. So I always think you might as well just do everything that's offer to you, and so I really just kind of was like, let's

Memory based things.

So for me, I thought, if there was a chance that I could get to those puzzle games, I could do quite well.

I kind of thought to myself when I heard the casting and as I said, i'd seen your master shifts, I knew who you were for sure. I was like, I've also worked in restaurants and hospitality and a bit of drama goes down there, and I was thinking, oh, he's I think he's I think he's currently a restaurant manager. He understands politics and drama better than anyone, so maybe he's perfect for this.

I think also, I think maybe there was this idea that my social game could be really excellent, which, as it turns out, it was absolutely dreadful until about the halfway mark. But the good thing about me is is that once you do like me, you really do love me. And I don't think it was a coincidence that nine people came to my side halfway through the season and the you know so the social game did kick in and weirdly end up having a physical game.

I think I am one.

Of the better from what I've heard from people who watch a challenge, one of the better challenges, weirdly enough, because you can't really put a percentage on brain power or like wanting it and passion, which I think is something I have. And the game's about really really based around teamwork and what do you do in a kitchen and a restaurant.

It's all teamwork.

Me.

The teamwork part really came in.

I've got that written down. It's like my next question, you know you understand teamwork, and I think that that would have come in handy, and I think I think also, do you know what, It's funny you do reality shows and you think you're going to have a strategy, and it's not until really the halfway mark that you really relax into who you are anyway, do you know what I mean? I think that's I think that's fairly normal.

Yeah, it's funny you say that.

Actually, I think legitimately halfway through the process, I turned around and I started making past it every day just to calm down.

And everyone came.

Up to me and we're like, ah, and like, this is the person who you are? Like, I just became myself so much more. I think I very quickly became that like Bully day Kin in high school, wanting everyone to like me at the start, and then halfway through I just stopped caring and I actually did become myself. And it's funny you It does take a bit longer, I think for certain people to settle into environments are just not used to.

I think that's perfectly normal. You know, if this was the discovery channel. This was the National Geographics and you had you know, David Attenbro narrating it. I think that's what he would be saying, you know, right now, these people are bout shit crazy while they find their feet, you know, yes, very obviously, my David. I didn't even do the David appro voice because I would be terrible

I can speak from my experience.

So I actually shared a bedroom with Kieren and Conrad the whole time, but the three of us became really quite close, and I spoke.

To me trying to hug you at one point and call you Abby in the middle of the night, or that didn't happen.

I wish he did. I feel like I was jumping into his bed. Moores for like just for like spoon and touch, I'm the other guy. There's your there's your headline.

No, no, he was.

Me and him spoke a lot about it, particularly because of non monogamy and relationships and all that kind of stuff, and he was on his own journey with pan sexuality as well, so me and him had a heap of conversations about her and a lot of other things. But it wasn't as interesting as I think people will have. It was quite a boring. You know, they had ended it before he came in, and there wasn't a lot of juice or meat there, maybe because it was just very you know, everyday conversations.

To be honest, it was kind of done.

Yeah, it was.

And I think that's why the him and Megan thing was so nice because they were really upfront about it and there's not really much drama that you can really make from people who are just being honest about what's happening.

Well before you go. I mean, I think you were so good on this show. I mean you were the surprise of the season. That's how I started this podcast, and it's very true. I think you were the surprise of the season because I think you brought something very engaging. You know, whether people liked it or loved it or hated it or whatever, I still think that you were probably the person that were going to remember from this series the most. Anyway, everyone's joined the podcast and ask

I have never been more ready in my life. Ben, Please brilliant.

You don't have to go into too much detail either unless you want to. Sometimes you throw yourself under a bus when you try and give more information. But anyway, we're ready to go. Who was the nicest contestant in there?

To me, personally, it'd be a tug of war between Megan and brook j.

Who was the biggest villain?

Oh right?

Who was the messiest person to live with?

Probably me.

I've got this really bad habit of leaving floss around the house.

I've always flushing my teeth, so it's disgusting.

That's great.

I know you've.

Got to have a red flag in there somewhere, and that's mine.

I was interviewing someone last year on a different reality show and I was talking similar category and they, well, they really hated this one girl that they're on the show with because she kept picking off her fingernails and leaving them on the kitchen table, and I was like, that's disgusting, Like that would bother.

No, that's a level two when I say leave them everywhere, like leaving it around the bathroom near my bed, like it's still in my space.

Wouldn't end up in the kitchen.

It's gonna start to think of you less. Who was the funniest person in there?

Oh?

Christ I probably laughed the most with Kiaren and Conrad. We had like a little chef's bought chef kiss boys room and we laughed a lot.

There was a lot of laughing.

What's a chef's kiss?

So we kind of had this. They don't really show it.

They showed it once kind of, but like kind of this little side alliance of the three of us in the boys room, and it was kind of like the Chef's Kiss allions where with chef kiss after every time one of us would win.

Oh my god, that sounds sounds quite interesting. I'll have to ask you about that at another time after some drinks.

What ye want?

Who did you want to win? Like you not? What do you know now? But like as you left the competition, who did you want to win?

Brook J?

Me and brook J became best mates the day from day one, and it wasn't really showing that me and her were each other's number one right or die from the start and everything I did, I you know, I look, I'm still gonna try my best. I'm still going to absolutely try to win. But winning was never in my periphery. I wasn't there for the title. But once I started doing well, my main objective was not to just get myself to the end, but was to get brook J to the end, to get her the best.

Chance of winning.

When I was really down the first two weeks, she was the only one that was there for me the entire time. If you want to meet a better person, there's no better than brook J. And if anyone truly deserves a win and all that money like she honestly deserves the world, like what you see on TV is just even half as great as she is as a person.

Well, I want to say thank you so much for coming on the Pond and having a chat about the challenge Australia. I think you did a fantastic job and I look forward to seeing you you know, whatever reality TV show you turn up on next? Do you know what is there any other show that you have on your bucket list?

Look my partners badly for a little bit, he said, But I look, I've got a lift. I would love to do some Survivor the Mole amazing race, and then there's always like mars Chef All Stars would also be a dream.

Well, I'm in your audience, mate, so I'll be keen to watch. I'll binge watch all of those. I'll watch them all.

Thank you so much, Ben, It's been such a pleasure meeting you, and I loved you on your show, so the feeling is mutual.

Right, we're having a romance? Is it a gay mance?

No?

I don't even know what that is. We'll work it out. What an amazing opportunity to sit down with Connor, who you know definitely stirred up some trouble and made a name for himself on The Challenge Australia for its first season. Definitely some interesting insights from him about the TV Villain edit and stick around now for Conrad as we're going to talk about breakups with Abbie Chatfield and how he managed to go with the Challenge Australia. I hope you

Thank you, thank you so much. I mean, it would have been nice to have won it. But yeah, I came out alive, which is great.

Well, I don't necessarily know if your opponent last night came out alive. I'm still we'll have to get that in the news in the next couple of days. But he looked pretty destroyed.

Yeah.

Yeah, I picked him up and sort of dropped Troy on his head and there was a moment where I was kind of like, this is quite serious. Is paralyzing someone worth one hundred thousand dollars? And yeah, afterwards he was like, yeah, he should have just done it, man, And I was.

Like, I couldn't believe what I was watching, if I'm honest, like I was watching it and I was like, this is more brutal than anything I've ever seen before. But I just I don't know it. It's still made great television, Yeah, it was.

It was very full on. Troy's a good sport.

He lives and breathes the show, so he just wanted wanted me to go hard. And not hold back, and he did the same and it was quite fronting, I guess watching it back.

Yeah.

Well, I just want you to note that I'm actually really excited to talk to you today because you are my celebrity crush. I'm so bizarre because like, I'm not a weirdo by the way, so I'm not going to follow you around or make it awkward for you. But I loved you on that season of The Bachelorette. I don't know why. I just thought that you were one of the most handsome people I've ever seen on that show, and I loved your journey on that show. So it's quite surreal to thank.

You so much. Thank you so much. It's so nice. It's always that's so nice of you. Thank you.

Yeah. Well, now the awkwardness is out of the way, or it's just starting.

Not at all, not at all? Right up, look at you. Put a big smile on my face. Thank you.

Well, there you go. It's a good way to start the morning. Do you think that the people left in the competition are now the strongest players? Like, do you think that the challenge the way that it's formatted, means that we get left with the people who probably can endure the most or you know, what do you think about what it says about the people still left?

Yeah, look, I think going into it, I guess I was probably a little bit naive, even though I'd watched a lot of the US seasons.

I thought it was going to be a lot to do with the physical.

Aspect and the puzzles and braying sort of games, you know, But a huge part is also the social side of it, the social game you have to play within the house. So I think what you have left are the strongest players on all of those levels. You know, You've got people that are physically strong, like Kiki, she was getting courtizone shots in her ass every second challenge just to keep walking, you know. And Troy obviously winning four daily

So yeah, I think you have the strongest competitors left in there. For sure.

I still thought there has to be some luck about it. I mean, when you've got the algorithm relying on pairing people up, and the interesting thing about the competition was one person would always have a big target on their back, which means that it would gazump the other person that they were paired with, which would really have nothing to do with the strength. At the end of the day, you know, it was just a very unfair pairing at times.

None of us expected that or knew that was going to be a part of this, and it did definitely play into it. But I think again, if you have the social side of it, you've got alliances. As long as you don't lose, you know, you can still sort of save yourself. But yeah, you are right. I was very lucky to have avoided anything right until I guess last night. But sometimes you were unlucky if you were partnered with a person that everybody really wanted to get out for sure.

Interestingly enough, you know, like we've seen you on another reality show, so we kind of felt like we know you. And to me, you didn't seem as happy as when we first met you on the Bachelorette. You know, you didn't seem like, you didn't seem like yourself. What was going on for you? Was that a part of your strategy to kind of fly under the radar? Were you a little under the weather? Why were you a little bit sort of downplayed this time around.

I I was trying to sort of fly under the radar. I didn't really want to stand out as a big competitor in the game.

Yeah.

I'd also recently been through a breakup, so that always plays into things. When you're in an environment where you're sort of separated from your support network or your friends and family, and then you obviously got people that are trying to break you down. I definitely think that affected me, you know, halfway through it, I had to have a little bit of a mental health sort of check. I did some counseling because it was it was a lot

So it was quite a hard time for me in there.

And yeah, I guess even me watching it back in some of my interviews, I did feel a lot, you know, I felt like I was quite flat or came across differently, but yeah, all good now now of the house.

I also thought, you know, there was so much interest in you because you'd be going out with someone, you know, who was of a high profile, being Abby Chatfield for people who may not know listening to the podcast, but you know, I assumed that because there was so much interest from the general public to find out a little bit more about that relationship or what happened in that relationship.

Yeah, No, I didn't talk about it.

I mean, I'm being respectful of both you know, her and my own my own privacy. It's hard enough to sort of, I guess, be in the public eye and then have every part of your relationships dissected. So I didn't talk about it, and you know, I don't think myself or her or anyone anything in that respect.

You know.

So breakups happened, it was amicable, nothing, I guess. The more annoying thing about the situation is nothing bad happened that people who are trying to find something and you know that was that was it.

The thing for me was just that I was wondering, this had to be like a decision not to reveal the breakup straight away and let you go off and do the challenge Australia. Was that a conscious decision that the two of you had made to not sort of revealed to the public that you guys had separated and the reason why that's yeah, that was yeah, sorry goo, No, Yeah.

I guess that was something we spoke about. It's something I put forward, and in hindsight, I probably should We should have spoken about it beforehand, so there wasn't all of this crazy, you know, all these articles and speculation and rumors and people trying to say it was because of open relationships or something happened, or you know, it

Yeah.

Well, the original thing to get I think was the hookup with vegan and so people were like, oh, no, Conrad's cheated on Abby while they're in there. But you know, sources that I knew had told me that you guys weren't together. So I didn't think there was that That problem was me get frustrated by the fact that she might have been looped into a rumor that you guys had cheated on you know, someone.

No, I don't think so.

I mean, I can't speak on her behalf obviously, like I can't comment on how she felt. But you know, she'd also recently been through a breakup that hadn't been publicly you.

Know, put out there. You know, she hadn't spoken about it.

So I mean, again, we don't need to tell people about these things. It's not that we have we owe it to people to reveal our private lives.

I can't really, I can't really say how she feels about it.

Yeah, it's such a bizarre thing though. I think you know, the way in which we invest with people on television, especially with reality TV contestants, there seems to be like a sense of ownership, like we're owed something or you know, people want to know the intimate details where you don't have that expectation on seit of your Big A List.

I think it's a decision by the individual, do you know what I mean, in what path they want to take post show.

And I think some people love it.

I think some people love to tell everyone what they're doing, and they and they want.

To be in a headline or you know what I mean, and.

And others, you know, just want to continue on and do whatever. So it's interest, Like I do, like telling people what I'm getting up to and what's happening.

But sometimes, you.

Know, there's there's things that you want to keep private because it's it's you know, it's kind of.

You know, it's intimate, or it's it's personal.

You know, it's was there awkward moments between you and Brooke because as I said to you, I invested in that series with brookeret and so then I was like, oh gosh, this is good casting to put you guys together. And I knew that you guys hadn't seen each other since that final moment on that show. You know what was the tension like when you got together, do we able to smooth it over quickly? Or was there anything we didn't see?

Look, she's a great person. She represents you know, important communities, and I never really had any bad blood with Brook. I mean, it's funny when you're in that bubble of the bachelorette and this person's on a pedestal and it's like, you know, it's everything to get the next rows and stuff.

It's funny.

I saw her and I was like, the last time I saw you, you were putting me into a limousine without a rose and sending me home, you know, And at that moment, I was pretty pretty.

Down about it.

But there was nothing that had happened between us that had made me think there'd be any bad blood.

And never had anything to worry about, to be honest.

So when I saw her, it was fine, we're friends.

It seemed like that's what we wanted to see more of. People were like, you know, we saw so much challenge and then you know, when the fan base turned up, they were like, no, we had a checklist of things that we needed to see and that was one of them moments we wanted like basically a full sit down Oprah Winfrey special between the two of you, which we were robbed from.

So there's so much going on that.

I mean, there were a lot of sit down conversations and a lot of that stuff did happen.

So it's out there. We've got to push ten for it, I guess.

But yeah, we did have good chats and there's nothing you know, we wish you to tell to the best.

Well, I wish her the best. I don't know. I guess I can't again speak on her.

The selection of people that were chosen to be a part of the Challenge Australia was widely discussed, you know, like which reality TV contescence would be picked, and it did sort of seem like they picked the noisiest of personalities, were people who had the most amount of interest on them coming off the back of the show. Do you think that was the right choice to find as many noisy reality people still floating around on the zeichast.

I mean, yeah, I guess it's a good it's a good concoction of egos and attitudes and that's what makes a good show, right. You want the ones that have allowed us out there the most, And there was plenty of drama. It worked, It definitely worked.

I mean, what about the confrontation between you and Ryan, Like I was like.

I'm not a fan of Ryan Gallagher, and you know, I have no interest in sort of trying to repair any sort of friendship with him. He made a lot of comments that I thought were just disgusting, and he was trying to.

Push my buttons, and you know, and it was for no real reason.

He'd even made comments to me and other people that he didn't see me as a competitor in the game and he just didn't like me. So it was more of a personal thing and the stuff he was saying to other people as well. And I'm not proud of how I reacted in the end. I'm not conflict driven. I don't like confrontation. I don't like bullies. I don't like intimidation. And he just really he got to me. He was trying to He got to me, and I got upset, and I you know, I got confrontational.

And just the fact that he was sort of promoting, you know.

That he had no knuckles left in his hands from fighting and you know, trying to put me down by saying I'm wearing girls clothes, not that there's an issue with wearing girls clothes, you know, That's that's what pissed me off the most.

It was like, so what if I am wearing girl's clothes, you know, like, what's your issue?

And then also being like, you've never been in a fight in your arm, I'm not out there trying to say I'm the toughest person and I'm proud of being in fights. So at that point, I really just I wanted him to punch me in the face so that he could just go, you know, like I just wanted him to be instantly.

Yeah. So I was like, you know what, he just worked me out, and I was I was over him, and.

I I would be. There would be no hard feelings if I never saw him again.

But the thing that was that, you know, it kind of was after you about the things that most people love the most about you, and I could talk for myself, like I like the fact that you are a new aged male role model in a way, with some of the ways in which you've challenged certain norms that have been around for such a long time and have handled it so well. You know, it was interesting that it came after you for things that people admire you for.

I just don't respect that.

I mean, if someone wants to wear girls clothes, who cares? You know what I mean. If I want to be if I want to be vulnerable, if I want to.

Show emotion, I think that's that's strength.

I think that makes someone stronger to be to be vulnerable and speak about their emotions.

And just because you open a door for a woman.

Or pull out a chair for it when you sit down, doesn't make you a good guy, you know. And that was kind of like how He's like, I'm a good blow But anyway, so it was, yeah.

It is what it is. It is what it is. Someone told me that recently and they're like, Ben, you know, I often get cornered with people asking me really, you know, questions that make me feel uncomfortable, and so you just say, no, it is what it is and you just walk away. So that's yeah, save that.

Yeah, next time I come across Ryan, it is what it is.

And it's what it is. So many of the Bachelor contestants are left in the competition at you know, so far down the line, and it was interesting talking to Marli. Marley was like, you know, maybe if there was more Big Brother people in there, or maybe if there was more people from certain categories maybe that would have outweighed or that might have made it a little bit easier. Do you think it was because you're all from the

Well, I mean that's a social Like I said before, it's like that's the social gameplay right from what I'd seen in previous challenges in the US. Alliances were a big part of it, and so as soon as I got in there, I was like, great, there's lots of Bachelor people here. And I'm not taking credit for it, but I was like, this is a bit of a thing we could do.

You know that definitely helped. Yeah, having more of us.

There, but saying that, you know, you've got a Ninja Warrior, you've got a Master Chef, and you've got a person from the Survivor, so.

They're not too too bad.

There's still a good mix. Yeah.

Yeah, everyone who's joined the podcast, I've asked them these sort of five knee to no questions which you can do your best to duck and weave through. You can't say it is what it is to any of the answers to these, So are you ready to go?

Yes?

Already. The first question is who was the nicest contestant in there?

The nicest contestant in the Marley fair play?

A lot of people have said Mary, actually, I think it's now up to maybe three or four. He didn't pick himself, which is good, right, No, I can't now, I can't remember who Mary said. Actually Marley might have said you, actually, I know one or two people did. So anyway, that's great. If I don't have the answers, probably don't mislead you. Who was the biggest villain in there?

Right?

I think a lot of people. I think a lot of people said Ryan, who was the who is the messiest person to live with?

Messiest person to live with? A guy?

That would have had to have been like Johnny Ryan or Grant someone in that room, for sure.

I just had that. The producers thought that room smelt really bad, kept asking them.

Yeah, constantly trying to clean it up, and they had this issue with doing it.

I'm not quite sure.

It's just like you just got to put your stuff in your suitcase and make it look tidy.

But why do you want to live in the filth? Who was the girl? There was a girl in there as well, wasn't.

There Jessica Brody before she got eliminated. Jessica Brody was in there.

And then it was Emily Seabomb moved in there with Sugarneats as well, So.

Yeah, maybe it was Sugar. Sugar said to me that she had O c D and she just wanted to clean up and she wanted them to look after themselves stopping a pig.

Yeah, Sugar was a very structured routine driven.

You know, she's a boxer, so I can imagine it was doing her head in.

Who would you say was the funniest person to live in there with.

The funniest person to live in there with?

Johnny is really funny Johnny Easter and Brittany Hockley actually is quite funny in the like a sucker a mom sort of.

Have you been listening to her with Kyle on the Kyle and Jack Your Show?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I did, And there's summer show as well with Is that who she is?

Is that who you?

Is?

That your friend? You're listening to that? Going? That sounds like her?

She's great she's a powerhouse. She just won.

Didn't she win the Best Podcast Award or something like that. Yeah, yeah, she's she's great.

She's just killing it. I wasn't nominated, so just you know, feel good about saying yes to doing this podcast. You have to nominate yourself though.

That was the problem with did you want to do it?

They asked me to fill out the application to do it, and I just was like I started to do it and it felt so uncomfortable, like I don't.

Know, really, well, next time, next time doing it?

I know, I know because then I looked at the category of people. Anyway, we're going off on a tangent.

No one wants to.

Who do you want to win? You know where just before the finale you may no more. So let's just put that aside and just maybe look at it from the perspective of when you left the competition, who did you want to win?

Okay, So anyone in my lines I'd love to see win. I'd love to see Brittany or Keiky win. They're great girls. Kieran I have a deal with, so you know, if Kieran wins, I.

Get a little gift back on the side. I don't know if I'm meant to talk about that. But we had a.

Deal, and obviously I wouldn't mind if Troy won because I lost to Troy in my elimination, So it would kind of make me feel better if the winner of the whole thing was the one that knocked.

Me out, you know. So yeah, there you go. That's very broad anyone, but brook Day and gonna.

Okay, no offense to those people. Are you going to say no offense at all?

They're not in my line.

You could send Troy a box of band Aids for Christmas, just as a joke, I reckon, just as a joke.

Just yeah, yeah, that would be good.

Yeah, you're okay mate. Anyway, Look, you did a fantastic job on the show, and I really appreciate coming on the podcast. I look forward to continuing to like all your photos on Instagram and watching you on the next show that you turn up on a healthy level of st