It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week. I'm right, welcome back guys to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television.
Yeah, great questions. The show's about the game. There's a lot of great television out there in Australia.
But I've also got to go behind the scenes with writers. The truth is, when I started writing it, it wasn't had nothing to do with the news and casting agents they.
Know from a casting point of view what they need.
And editors because that's what we do as editors where storytellers. Not to forget some incredible executive producers who are making some of the best TV in Australia. I have been on the program since the beginning and it's kind of in my DNA. So thanks for joining me each week and I hope the podcast continues to give you real insight into the magic of television. Today. On the podcast, I have the winner of I'm a Celebrity twenty twenty two.
It's Dylan Lewis. Dylan's been in our lives through radio and television for as long as I can remember he is a genuine who connects with audiences by being and please don't come for me when I say this, but his authentic self. It is absolutely hilarious that he's just one another reality show, but it's also really heartwarming to know that he's just as love now as he has always been. I feel like this is going to be a really big reminder to studio bosses and executives that
we need more Dylan Lewis in our lives. Today we'll be discussing the rumors about his casting on the show. He's passion for Lifeline, he's ambition moving forward, and I guarantee you a few good laughs and some thought provoking conversation as well. It's all very Dylan Lewis. Some of the conversation involves mental health issues, and if you are concerned that you or someone is struggling or you might be thinking about suicide, you can call Lifeline on thirteen
eleven fourteen. One of their trained crisis supporters will be there to listen and support you. So, without further ado, I'm going to bring Dylan Lewis into the chat. I hope you enjoy this episode, and I welcome the King of the Jungle to tvvyload.
I've never had this intense amount of interaction before.
You're King of the I'm a Celebrity Jungle.
It's hard too. It was too hard for me to share. I don't know if I am allowed to say those things.
Dylan, you really gave us so many highlights.
There's a bit of self editing that goes on. Dylan is a man.
Who walks to the beat of his own drum.
It's just easier to just be yourself.
Hey, Dylan, how are you.
I'm extremely well and very happy to see Benjamin. How are you doing.
I'm doing so well, and I just have to say congratulations on winning this series of I'm a Celebrity. Get me out of here.
I mean, what an experience, Thank you very much. I what an experience, indeed, And it's and it's a whirlwind, and that was it's been on no sleep and so it's like now I'm taking a breath and go, oh my god, this is happening. This is real.
It must be like a bit of a reunion of sorts for you, because being in the industry for so long, you know, sitting down with these people in radio or television, there are all people that have interviewed you before. Does it feel like a reunion?
Oh? Yes, I guess so. It's kind of nice. It's nice to be back, and it's been nice seeing people that have crossed paths within in the industry before. And then there's alt meeting all the new people who I was never going to cross paths with sport people. You know, I don't hang around the sports people very much, so having some sports friends is quite a novelty for me. But I think sometimes that's my favorite thing with an experience,
a surreal experience like this. It's ending up in places and in situations that you were never going to end up in normal life.
You were the bookie's favorite to win right from the start. Like, I don't know if you saw that online, but I want to know, did you put a bet on yourself? Like, did you have any money on yourself to win?
Yeah? I did not. I'm not a gambling man. I did notice somebody who was sending me the odds, and I really didn't understand it. I'm like, two dollars for me that why how come other people are getting fifteen dollars? That sounds huge better? And so I really don't get it. So I didn't put a bet on, but I know a couple of my friends did. I saw one of my friends this morning dropping the kids off at school, and he said, dude, I put fifteen on you and fifteen on David and I won eight dollars.
So don't quit your day job.
You know.
I heard a rumor that you were approached last year to do the show, and that you may have been a little bit disappointed to get the call, saying unfortunately, it's not going to happen last year. Now is that a true rumor?
Oh, I don't know if I am allowed to say those things. If it was a true story, I am glad it didn't happen last year. I'm so glad it happened this year. I love all the people on every season, most of them, but this season was a season full of people that they all have such big hearts and we all connected, and I think that translated really nicely through the television. Just the willingness to get to know each other and ask questions to learn more about each other,
and the amount of heart that was in camp. It was the year for me to be in it, and I'm really glad if that was a thing that happened last year. I'm glad it happened that I didn't do it last year.
I just wanted to know because I thought we'd have a laugh about it, because I wanted to know if we knew who got in your spot last year. So I wondered whether or not you like a voodoo doll that you put pins.
If it had happened, Benjamin, Yeah, I would. I imagine that someone like Ash might have taken my spot maybe.
And no pins were put into an Ash Williams doll. That's all we'll say.
No. I love Ashwilliams, his beautiful soul. So now I'm glad that he got to do it last year, and then I'm glad that I got to do it this year.
One hundred percent. I mean, I think that this is the universe saying that you're in the right place at the right time. And you know, you being in the industry for as long as you have been, you know that this happens all the time. You know, sometimes things don't work out and it can feel really painful at the time, but then you realize down the track that there was something else waiting for you.
Man, if only we had crystal balls. On crystal Ball, everything would be fine for those of us in this weird industry. But yeah, like you say, it is a bit of an odd industry, and especially due during the last couple of years during pandemic and trying to cope with all that in homeschooling, and I lost a lot of gigs because of the pandemic working in the arts.
So it is a bit of a weird industry and you need to have your finger in a few different pies if you're going to be able to try and keep earning a living in this industry, especially at the moment. So yeah, it did come at the right time. And I do thank the beautiful universe all the time for not just this opportunity, but I've had so many weird and strange and wonderful experiences through my career and my life that I'm grateful for so the universe and I
are quite tired at the moment. I love your universe.
I've been in your audience for your entire career, just right from the very start. And you know, when I did Big Brother in twenty twelve, I thought to myself, about two weeks into the competition, I thought, I'm playing this all wrong. I need to be more like Dylan Lewis, because you had one this season, you know, before me doing the show. You know, what is it about these programs in your mind that makes you resonate so clearly with audiences?
Well, that's a lovely in depth question, Benjamin. I like that one. I guess it's a little hard to answer because I'm me, but I think that might be the answer. And I think if anyone it finds themselves in this kind of situation, it's just easier to just be yourself than to try and put on an act, because you can't keep up an act twenty four to seven. And on these kind of shows, reality TV shows, the cameras are on you all the time, you know, and I'm
really conscious of that the whole time. I'm conscious of there's a bit of self editing that goes on, you know, And I'm not going to reveal every single thing about my life because it'll be seen, and I like to keep some things private. Other people go into the situations and forget the cameras are there, or don't care what they say, and it's inevitably going to be used. So look, I guess there is a little bit of gameplay. Maybe is the wrong word, because it's not. I don't play
these things like a game. I just go in there with the attitude of there's no point in acting because the act will drop within a few days, especially in something like the Jungle, where you're beaten down to a sad little shell of what you formerly were with no food. So if look, if there was anything that I've taken away from having one celebrity big brother twenty years ago and then being crowned King of the Jungle a couple of days ago, it's just I'll just keep on being me.
And you know, that's a lovely thing that I got out of this latest one, because I think I went in there going, oh god, you know what am I doing for my job next? I'm not sure. Is it going to be radio or Telly or will they write books? Or will I learn to poor beers or I'm not I'm not sure. I'd sort of lost my way a little bit during the pandemic, losing work and working in you know a few jobs that were kind of hectic for a while. So when I went in I was a little confused about what I am, what I am
what am I? Am? I A bun nip? Why am I? And then by the end of it, I had, honestly I found myself and I was just in there. I was just inside me waiting to find an opportunity to come out again. I remembered what I do this for. I remembered why I got into this industry in the first place. And that was a that was a really transformative moment for me to go, oh, there you are.
You know, in that film about Peter Pan called Hook with Robin Williams in it, and then the little kid comes up and stretches Robin Williams's face back to make him look young again. He goes, oh, there you are, there's the Pan. You are the Pan. It was that little moment of me stretching my own face back and say, oh my god, I don't I mean, it doesn't look that good when I do it.
But I just think that, you know, when I was watching the finale and watching you being crowned, I thought, you know, twenty years a part of winning these reality competitions. I just hope that it was reassuring for you that you now know that Australian audiences have never left and that they've always been there in your audience, loving Dylan Lewis, Ah, what.
A lovely thing to say, Benjamin, thank you. I did feel the love and I am feeling the love. And you know, when I did recovery back in the nineties, the Music Show or other music shows early in the two thousands, or Celebrity Big Brother, that was no social media, and so the feedback was just in public, like someone in the supermarket would say say, oh my god, I liked you on this, or my husband thought you were
a nod, but now he likes you. But now the feedback is so instant, isn't It's coming into my house, It's coming into my lounge room when I sit on my couch and I'm seeing these comments and ninety nine point nine percent of them really lovely, and so many people are sharing their stories with me, and it's a I've never had this intense amount of interaction before through social media, so it's a real eye opener for me. It's a little bit new to me, but it's been amazing.
It's been wonderful. My favorite comments back in the day were like what I just said, my husband thought you were a NOD, but now he likes you, and I've been getting them again. I got one the other day and said, my husband said, oh no, this guy's a wanko when I went on the telly, and then by episode two or three, he turned and decided that he didn't think I was that way, and he thought it was all right. I love those kind of comments.
It's amazing, though, because I mean, you're right about the instancy of being able to read these comments as it happens live. Because connecting to a really positive thing can be just as dangerous as connecting to something negative. You kind of have to attach yourself to it with a grain of salt, not to take yourself too seriously or not to believe everything that you read through your internet.
So correct, absolutely, but I still think for you, like I was online watching the responses, watching every episode of the show, and you're right, it was just so intensely positive.
When I started opening up and it was coming on, you know, opening up about bearing my soul and explain why I chose Lifeline for a charity and about losing my brother, the responses that were coming in were like, I'm a really empathetic person, and so I was reading every response on this on the first day when it happened, and the second day when it happened as well, and I was taking it all on board and really feeling so sad that something like trigger wanting suicide is so
prevalent in society, and especially in this day and age, people are having a rough time. It was upsetting me, and I felt so drained reading and taking on board all these people's stories and finding some words that I could try and give back to these people. And it was a constant. It was two days of it, and at the end of the two days, I realized, like you say, you've got to take it with some grains of salt, You've got to also protect yourself a little bit.
And so now I'm I'm trying to be a little bit more disciplined with how I handle the social media because every single comment matters to me, every single comment I read, and I want to find some words for comments that need words. Trying to find some discipline in this modern world of social media. This is it's a new skill that I'm learning. Wasn't born into that world
in the nineties. The only trolling we got in the nineties was old people writing actual letters and sending them to the ABC and complaining that the gardening Australia had been taken off and replaced with a man with metal in his face. Very different. Yeah, it's differently, you know.
I just I mean, not to go too deep with you, but in my life at the moment, it was really important to watch you tell that story about your brother on the show, and it was really powerful that the television network and ITV studios left that honesty and sort of that rawness since its proper form. I lost my brother in law to suicide in October last year, and so my whole world has been completely rattled to its
very core. And the weird thing was, I mean, you and I both have worked in radio on and off for years, and you know Lifeline is always an ad that you did. It was one of those ads that you know, you'd always be promoting Lifeline on the radio station, and so I use Lifelines so heavily through the loss of my brother in law, where I wasn't feeling like bad myself, but I just needed someone to talk to
and they were always there giving me advice. And I just hope that people have that reaction now people realize that doesn't need to be this big moment. It could just be a question that you have about your own mental health, and you can call these people and they will help you on both sides of the fence. You know, if you're worrying about someone else, so you're worrying about yourself. I can't thank you enough.
I am so sorry for your life, you beautiful man. That is horrible, and unfortunately I know how it feels. So thank you for sharing that, and thank you for understanding and giving weight to how important lifeline is. It really is what you said. It's people who are not only empathetic and only a voice at the other end of the line who will listen to you, but they're trained, and they know steps to take, and they know urgency
and when that's required. I think a big message and one that I've been trying to explain why I think it's so important. A big message I've been trying to say is please don't second guess yourself. Please don't think I'll leave it for a bit. I might call tomorrow. You know, if it's about yourself, or if it's about someone that you love or someone that you know and you're worried about them, don't leave it. Do it, because there is a worst possible scenario that can happen if
you do leave it. And that's what we're trying to avoid here, to be able to get this message out there and for you to be able to back it up with real life story. This is what this weird little platform of the media can do, isn't it. We can start the conversations, and that's what's happening. You know.
The feedback I'm getting is parents telling me that they're able to talk to their children because the conversation started from watching the show, or it's people letting me know that it that they decided to call Lifeline because they were reminded of Lifeline because of watching the show. And people now listening to this, you know, maybe it's going
to tweak with some of these people. And you know what, if we can, if we can get the message through to one person that needs it, then this has been a good, worthwhile experience.
Well, sharing stories, in my mind is always saving lives. That's what I always say to people. You know, we so often have things that happen to us and we think, oh, I can't share.
That absolutely of course, and it's hard too. It was too hard for me to share fifteen years. I'll talk about it with my very close friends. I talk about it with my family sometimes because it's so hard and painful, but never in public. And it took me fifteen years to be able to talk about it, and I'm glad that finally I have. And I don't regret taking that long to do it, because that's what I needed to
do on my journey. But you're so right. It's the conversation, the conversation about any kind of thing, whether it's suicide prevention or equality or anything that we're trying to still struggle with and evolve as humans, you know, towards being a more beautiful race of people. It's a good thing. It's a positive thing, and you're doing you're doing a good thing by talking about this right now.
Well, just try and step out of that and to finish the interview. I mean, it's a fairly heavy conversation. But to shed a little bit of light on it was that I could always remember from doing breakfast radio. I couldn't remember, I should say, from doing breakfast radio. I'd always get the numbers confused between the competition line
and the lifeline number. Remember once going down this conversation out of the radio station and saying to someone ring thirteen twelve sixteen, which was the competition line.
And oh bro, it's an honest mistake. However, a little bit shocking when you're ringing for some help and somebody says, I just put you on hald My god, it's true though it's thirteen eleven fourteen.
Yeah.
I just checked on my phone to make sure I got it right, because I know, thirteen years of working at a commercial radio station, I've still got the number in my head. Real strong.
I know how ridiculous, how ridiculous? Had you been asked to do any other reality shows over the twenty years in between these two, because I mean now we're terrified no one's going to ask you to do them because they just know you're going to win. But I I just want to know have you turned any down? Have you turned shows down like this? Over the twenty.
Years, There's been a couple of kind of reality shows, but they the more the more that the years go on,
the more these reality shows become. They've become a real formulaate kind of program where people are going in them knowing they can get careers off the back of them, and people are going in them with a game plan, And I guess the nature of the programs through the years has sort of come to a place where the real kind of bitchy ones and the ones where they're putting people together because they know there's going to be
some fighting, that's become quite prevalent. So going from Celebrity Big Brother in two thousand and two when Reality TV was new and no one knows, I knew what they do, were a naive and we're just playing. So now doing this one where I've seen the seasons and I've seen Tony Perrient getting bitten on the face five times, and I've seen people doing game plans on Survivor and you know, trying to get their politics in order and all this.
It's I'm not going to go and I'm not going to go and do anything that's that way in clime. The producers promised me that this season might feel a little bit different to other seasons. When we all found ourselves in the jungle and we met these people and it was so full of heart, I was so thankful. Yes, I think they're right. This isn't like one of the other bitchy kind of shows. This is a really different necessary thing at this time in history, going through the pandemic,
a lot of people are having a rough time. I think we just needed some heart and that's what this was. So I'm not going to go on a dating show. So you know, I'm selling and celebrating my twenty year anniversary of being married tomorrow. Congratulations, thank you, and it's you know, we've been together for twenty seven years or something like that. So yeah, I'm not going to do a dating show. I really don't feel like doing an thing where authority figures are going to stand really close
to my face and shout at me. I'm I'm not keen on that idea of either. But I think the only other one that I've been asked in the twenty years was Celebrity Circus. But that was not really a reality show. It was us living at a circus, learning to be circus performers, and then putting on a circus show. So that is both very nature, was going to be nothing like a dating show or a bitchy, scary show. So I haven't been asked to do that many shows.
I'm looking forward to being asked to do another show in twenty years, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the landscape will look like in twenty I only to do the maybe twenty years now, that's my thing, got it?
My favorite onever was like I think it was like two years after winning Big Brother, someone wrote to me and I proposed to my partner at the end of that show. I've been in a relationship, you know, my whole life. And I thought people knew that. And I kept getting people writing to me on social media saying, ben you'd be a great bachelor. You should be on the Bachelor. How is my partner that these people get single and go on the Bachelor?
No, thank you, well, Benjamin, you know it's a lot more lucrative to be single. Apparently.
Apparently. Now I want to ask you this other question. So Bo revealed after the show that he's snuck in a phone put it in Brooks guitar. I'm sure you've heard this story, but I want to know, was there any rules that you broke? You know, is there anything that you broke whilst being in the jungle.
Okay, for a start, I never saw that phone. If there was a phone there, I would have found that phone and I would have played Pokemon Go, because that was one of the biggest things I missed Ohry and I would have called my family and then played Pokemon Go.
I have never played Pokemon, but I hang the sec I just remember that Pokemon there's like a gym or whatever where there's a whole bunch of Pokemon or working out or whatever. I wondered whether or not there'd be any gym nasiums in the area.
Is that what it is?
Is that how they call it?
And when the show wrapped, we went back to the to the jungle the next day and I was allowed to take my phone then, of course, and so yes I did search and no, there's no handy gyms nearby. Who would have been useless anyway if the phone was indeed real. I don't know if Bob is tricking or if that got taken out of context, or if I just didn't see. But as far as did I break any rules, yes, I love breaking rules. I see a
rule and I smash it. I'm a rule breaker. So I did everything I could to try and make myself comfortable. I smuggled so much contraband in there. On the first day, we were pushed out of a helicopter, and if you look at the footage, you can see that I've got a really strangely shaped pop belly, and that is because there is so much chocolate shoved into my pockets that I'm thinking, I'm getting this, I'm getting this in there.
And so I had all these parachute things on me and a man strapped to my back, and it was all really tight and it was all going up in the junk area. But there was so much chocolate in there, and when I landed the cut, it all melted into the shape in my body and it was just covered in this fear sweat. I saved that. I saved some of that chocolate to the very end of the camp and like on one of the last days, I put the chocolate out.
Well, I'm assuming the producers must have thought you soiled yourself, and that's what all the melted chocolate was. You know, when they padded you down, you know, they were like, oh, he needs to he needs to go and jump in that lake thing to wash himself down.
If I'd saw myself, I wouldn't have jumped in the lagoon because it would have it would have harmed the wildlife in there. I didn't saw it myself, but it could have been a problem after some of the eating trials.
Absolutely, absolutely, you know, you have such a strong understanding of this strained media, you know, obviously being in it for so long. I wanted to know whether or not you offered David Sabritski the David, any advice on what he could do next, because you know, obviously audiences have just enjoyed his time in the jungle with your real celebrities. What do you think David should do coming out of the show.
I thought about that quite a lot while I was in there, because once we found out he was a non celebrity, I thought, well, now, ironically, he's a celebrity by being a non celebrity. He got famous for being not famous, and he should one hundred percent believe he'll be doing some amazing and magical things. He's such a wonderful energy, His heart is so beautiful, he's so kind, and you see him being flamboyant all the time, and
you know, and he's so entertaining and that's infectious. And it was in the jungle and it was a joy to get to know him and hang out with him. But when you you know when you get to know him a bit more, it's that heart and that kindness that shines through. And I think that like some of the challenges we did, he did he did a cooking thing with Poe getting electrocuted, and he was so bad
at cooking. I just thought, this is a show. This is if Poe and David were to do a show together of Poe trying to explain to David how to do some basic cooking stuff, because people would get something out of that. I'd get something out of that. It would be so entertaining watching him walking around in his eight inches in his eight inch daves stuff, bling around
attempting to help Hoe but being bad at it. He also does hosting as well, so I mean he hosts events and stuff, and so I think a lot more of that will happen. We'll be seeing more of David.
I know, I know, well, I'm sure that there'll be
something there for him. But I guess one of the last questions I have for you is, you know, beyond you know, coming out of a reality show and thinking, oh, this is going to be a reboot or a rebrand or something for Dylan Lewis, I want to know from the bottom of your heart, what you would want to do likes in sure, this might offer you another opportunity somewhere, but and you know, lots of people go, oh, I want to be the next Kyle and Jackie O, or I want to be on the Today Show, and everyone
has all these grandiose ideas, But like, from the bottom of your heart, what's something that you'd love to be able to be given some legs to give the opportunity to work.
Thank you for asking that, I think because I'm still thinking in that this has happened, and I'm in a really unusual position right now to be I don't know what the next thing is yet, I really don't. And I've got dreams and aspirations, and I've had dreams and plans and written pictures for shows for the decades now, but it always seems to come back to the same place of in an ideal world, I'd love to be
hosting a variety show. It's a night show with bands coming on, and it's pretty much the same as where I started, you know, doing recovery back in the day of having rock and roll chatting to bands. You know, A big twist on it because it's well, we're in the future now and we've got all this new technology, so it doesn't have to be look like recovery. But my passion for music remains the same, and my passion for meeting people and seeing people and loving people remains
the same. And doing that now it's going to have a very different feel to how it felt twenty five years ago. I did meet ahead of the network of Network ten the other day before the final and I said, Ah, we should talk. I've got an idea. It's a variety show set in space. And his eyes glazed over. He's like, oh God, is he being serious? Yes, I am being serious, said it in space. Let's make friends with Elon and
do a variety show in space. And now that sounds See when I say that loud, I think people think I'm a trip up. Let's start maybe with a variety show and then move from there.
Well, I think that you definitely have a thirst for storytelling, and I think that you also have a good ear for being able to listen as well, And I think that's probably what makes you a bit of a vehicle for audiences to be able to enjoy in a conversation. The way in which you sort of have it portrayed,
and there isn't anything on nighttime television in Australia. There is a wide opening for I mean, we have these we have international people that come to this country and we have no show to put them on, to do like on the couch interview, and it still blows. It blows my mind. And I think that the best people to do those sorts of jobs are people like yourself, which is you're incredibly funny and you're incredibly interesting, but
you also so highlight other people. And I think that's what is the magic of Dylan Law's.
That is the most beautiful thing. Thank you so much, because that's I think right at the core of my whole career. My job has always been help other people shine. So show other people's realness, get through the bit where they're acting to the camera, get through that bit where they think they need to say some stuff to please the record company, and get to the bit. And often you've got three minutes to do it, don't you know. You've got to meet them, make them happy, disarm them,
and get the gold and the golds in everyone. Everyone's got a story to tell.
My last question to ask you whi' to ask everyone who comes on the podcast is what is something from behind the scenes that were as an audience didn't see that you can share.
One year, I was lucky enough to host the Arias and it was at the Sydney Opera House and it was with Natalie Bassingtoas and Rebel Wilson, and it was all being filmed outdoors and it was a kind of a chaotic Arias, like people didn't know where to look, and it was like because it wasn't in the studio, it wasn't on the stage. It was outdoors and there were just cameras randomly everywhere. But I did the opening shot for the show from the top of the Opera House.
It took like forty five minutes to climb through the inside of the opera House all the way up to the top, and then you sort of strap yourself into this thing and you walk up this scary lit I hate heights and I'm going, oh, this is horrible. And then a helicopter came and it was ages away and it was filming me on the top and I said, oh, welcome, and this is the Arias. Yeah, And then the titles rolled and it all started, and then I'm like, all right,
I've got my next link to do. Now, in about ten minutes, we'll have a couple of bands, Rebel, I'll do something this that. So I'm trying to frantically get down off the roof, and it took me forty five minutes to get down because we got stuck halfway down. So I'm telling my parents, Hey, parents, I'm hosting the arias. You should watch the Arias and see me hosting the areas. And they tuned in and saw this shitty opening shot because the helicopter was so far away you couldn't even
tell it was me. And then forty five minutes I wasn't on it anymore because I was stuck in the bloody the roof of the opera house.
Boom.
That is hilarious.
Well, can I just say, my friend, it's been an absolute pleasure. You're a beautiful person, And congratulations on the wind and I'll be in your audience.
Oh my god, that is lovely. Thank you so much for having me on, Benjamin. I really appreciate your insight and your way of doing things. You do it right. You help me, You help me say some stories then that were hard to do so. Thank you Mane