It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week. They might welcome back to TV Reload. My name's 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 currently watching and gives you a better insight at our television industry and streaming services today. On the podcast, I have beck Zemech, who has gone from married at First Site to fired at First Site. The former bride with an A grade Television X Factor joined Channel nine season of Celebrity Apprentice
with her signature business smarts and her sassy remarks. This new season of Celebrity Apprentice is on four nights a week at seven thirty on Channel nine and it has Lord Sugar back in Australia doing what he does best, and that is terrors Australian celebrities. I love Celebrity Apprentice
and I think this show is brilliant. I like the way that the drama keeps building and I appreciate the fact that you might not necessarily know all the celebs like you may big named celebs like Nicole Kidman or Hugh Jackman. But the more you watch this series, the more you get to really know these people.
I also really.
Appreciate the support of the charities in this show, and Beck will explain why she chose her charity today. In our chat, we squashed some pretty big rumors. We go behind the scenes on how this show is made, and also we'll find out how Maths was quite different to Celebrity Apprentice. However, let's get started with today's guest. I'd like to welcome former Maths participant Beck to TV Reload.
When it comes to during the show minus, your thoughts were absolutely not I.
Set the rules, I asked the questions, and I make the final decision.
There was times where I was running off to Roman. You can from the star started lineup of Australian icons. I think, out of everyone, the producers must have found him the hardest to deal with.
They've all signed on to raise mind blowing money for deserving charity.
At the end of the day, I'd already had a villain edit. What's the I thing that can happen as they battle it out to become the next celepard or apprentice. I one hundred percent felt that it was her trying to relate me back to married at first sight payback.
How are you?
I'm fantastic. How are you?
I'm doing very well. Look, congratulations on your time on Celebrity Apprentice. I loved you on the show and was really looking forward to seeing more of you.
Thank you. I actually really enjoyed being on the show. It was such an incredible experience.
My first question that I really want to ask you is are the cast more ruthless this year than ever before?
I'd say no, because behind the scenes we are just one big, happy family, just an absolute, outstanding, amazing group of support. On camera, though, I think I think Lord Sugar is a bit sassy, more sassy than I thought he would ever be, and he does push a few buttons.
And you were all married at first sight, as I was well reading your resume, Mate, it might be five at first glance.
He's very good at that and it kind of explodes. So I think everyone was confident to go in there thinking, you know, game on, this is a competition, and no one really took it to hearts. So I think it's going to come across really ruthless, but in reality, it's not like that at all. So yeah, it would be interesting to see how it plays out.
So everyone is still on the Christmas list at this point.
Absolutely, everyone's on the Christmas List.
Well, I guess that's the question that everyone wants to know about this iteration of Celebrity Apprentice, is how scary is Lord Sugar in between shooting?
Well, he runs the show pretty much, so if he doesn't want to do a wide shot, we're not doing a wide shot, and we're happy with that, but obviously producers aren't. And I think out of everyone, the producers must have found him the hardest to deal with, maybe not wanting to do a certain scene or say something again, or especially with wide passes. He got very impatient in those.
And other than that, you know, I think he's a great guy, but you don't really know because he does hold his cards very close.
You can't exactly be handing out cupcakes and doing multiple shots and being really accommodating because that's off brand for who he is.
Yeah, that's right. He was definitely not accommodating for anyone as well. But I found him freaking hilarious. I loved it, and he had some really good one liners.
Did you take any ideas from Martha from last year? I must admit I thought Martha did very well last year, and I went into watching that series thinking I didn't really like Martha that much and then walked away loving her. So, yeah, did you hit her up for any ideas?
I didn't. Actually, I thought, you know, with TV and what plays out, it never is what it is, So I've learned that from previous TV shows, and I thought I'd just go into this, you know, knowing what can happen and how you know edits and things can work. So I just wanted to have a full experience, not knowing,
you know, what I was getting myself into. I didn't want to know any tips to like kind of help me out, to get me any further in kind of doing the dossiers and the challenges and things like that.
We want to talk about a big rumor that's been floating around for a while now.
How did Celebrity Apprentice come up?
There have been a few rumors of a quid pro quo situation, where did you agree to something in the final filming of merrit at First Sight in order to secure a spot on this show.
Oh, very interesting. Absolutely not, that's kind of that's quite an interesting.
That have you not heard that one before?
I haven't heard that one. There's a bit of a conspiracy theory that one no, so Married at First Site has absolutely nothing to do with this M Dolshine are the ones that make Married at First Site and then they send it to Channel nine and Warner Brothers do Celebrity Apprentice, so it's a completely different production company. However, the producers that decided to leave and go to Warner Brothers, a few of them were from Made at First Site. I think they married. I've had something to be like
Beck would be all bloody good at this show. They know me, you know, very well, from being on Made at First Site, and I think my name got put in the mix when it comes to during the show. My initial thoughts were absolutely not until I had a few conversations with a few people, like within the production company, and yeah, then I thought why not? Like this is different, this is enough ortunity to raise money for charity, Like I mean of bit selfish if I don't want to
go do something like that in my life. So yeah, that's how it came up. It really wasn't anything other than that.
You know, those rumors sound to me like they've surfaced from somebody else's retelling of your story. And so the rumor was you know that there was an edit or there was something that finished off your time or married at first sight. That was a little bit controversial that a lot of people felt at the time that you should have stood up and said, hey, that's not exactly how it happened, but you were silenced to get a spot on this show. So I think it's a really
good chat for us to have to tell the truth. Yeah.
Look, so with contracts, especially since probably your day on reality TV, like the contracts have been getting tighter and thicker and thicker and thicker and thicker to make sure that you do not speak like the first thing you do before you even get on TV, sign these contracts that pretty much say like you will not speak up
against absolutely anything on the show. And every year when something happens, if someone tries to speak up, they pretty much go back and go, oh, we didn't have that contract. Let's put it in. So I was married at first night, season what eight? So they've had eight years to perfect this contract now, So it's not about people not wanting to speak up. Like, let's make that clear. I think everyone wants to have their say about what happens, and I think because some people don't have that say, it
does mentally affect them heavily. I wouldn't say I didn't have my say. I did on a few podcasts and actually chat about what actually happened as soon as the show ended. And you'll probably be the same with you know, Celebrity Apprentice. You know, there's only so much you can say until you're off embargo, but it just takes so long, and they do that on purpose because the show's in and out. It's dead by then. People don't care. It's
old news. So yeah, you have to really just ride the wave and that's that's what that's what you have to do. Yeah, there's nothing out, No, unless you really want to get taken to call and go against Channel nine. I don't have the money to do that. If someone does, eventually, they probably wouldn't have put someone that rich on the show. So if you're rich and you wanted to get on married at first art, you probably might be.
You know, what's so funny is that this is like a common thing amongst the media circuit that the villains on reality television are actually the nicest to meet an interview.
And it's so true.
Like I've been doing interviewing and podcasting for a while now, and sometimes I'll be a little bit scared of people before chatting with them one on one, and then every single time without fail, I can list Ginaliano. Actually, let's not list people in case I get myself into trouble. But the villains aren't normally much nicer, And I wonder
whether or not you have a theory on that. What do you think the theory on being a villain on reality television is to then being the nicest people to be interviewed in the media.
Yeah. Look, I think when it comes to the villain edit, the way they're able to edit a villain is because you have said things that might be controversial or are open and honest. So it's not as if anything ever comes I guess from a bad place. I think it's more so you're not afraid to speak your mind. You're someone who's quite comfortable in your own skin, and when you then I guess, step out of that reality and
that TV show. You're still that person that is able to speak their mind and I think is comfortable in their skin, where I guess some of the other people, even though they come off really nice, then they're not and they're nervous and they're timid, and they find it hard to be in the public eye, Whereas I think villains are able to take it. I think they especially when they know that you can take it, that's when
they'll give it to you as well. So I don't know, you just get put between a rock and a hard place. Especially with the amount of hours of filming you do, you just really don't know how it's going to play out.
I'm curious whether celebrities on this sort of a show do they lean into their brand or do they try and create something new. And I'll give you the example of you know, Gamble, she kind of seemed to be leaning into her housewives brand. What's going on for you? Are you leaning into your merit at first sight brand? Or are you trying to create something new for frustrated to see.
I think Gamble is just like that. I think she's definitely a real housewife through and through on an offscreen She is absolutely just hilarious and no filter that is actually Gamble is the person, which is quite funny. She probably could have leaned a bit more into her business side of things, but I think I went in more so with who I am and what I'm not through business. I've been doing business since I think I got my first error manager role when I was nineteen, So business
has been a massive part of my life. And I went in then quite confident knowing that I knew quite a lot about these things. So when I got given tasks, I felt like I was back in school wanting to be, you know, the eight grade kind of child. And you know, that's kind of the way I grew up. I was in a very strict family where you know, straight a's don't fail, and I used to get I guess fulfillment for you know, winning, and I just kind of brought that back for me, and yeah, I just wanted to
see everyone achieve. I was even studying once to be a teacher. I just always have had this thing about me where I want everyone to learn and grow and do it as a team. And I just absolutely thrived being around in that environment. I loved it.
So then watching the show last night.
Did you think that we got to see that or do you think that we got to see beck from Married at First Sight?
Again? Like, what was your take home from watching the show last night?
Based on I think like a lot of things that have come through my social media and support networks and things like that. A lot of people were saying like, don't know why you got fired. You're not one to say you know, only a few words, like I think it doesn't really quite make sense for everyone at the moment, so maybe everyone needs to keep watching to see what happens down the track in the show, however, again can't control edits but the day goes not just for one day,
that's actually over two entire days, our golf days. So if you think about the boys doing it versus the girls and getting filmed for at least twenty hours each, that's already forty hours within itself without one hour must interviews each person. So there's no way you can possibly put in like what actually goes on in a day
at all. But I'm glad I got to live the experience and be there for those two days, and you know, see how all one plays and at the end of the day, no one deserves to get fired ever, you know, no one's done anything wrong or purposely wrong. Producers love to try make things go wrong, that's for sure. But yeah, no,
I feel that my ad verse even the episode. For example, they use Samantha Jade's audio to say I'm nasty in my opening ad before the show premieres, and then last night it was very clear that Samantha Jade had actually said that about Gamble. So it's just small things like that. You know that those small tits and checks of editing that I kind of can create whatever character you want.
You're kind of familiar with this kind of territory more so than anyone else on the shows. And I am loving chatting with you today about this because you were just coppying it on the chin. You're like, you know, I know what I'm in for, I know what's going to happen, and I'm okay with it.
Yeah.
I think going in, like, if you're ever going to do a second TV show, especially after something like Marde at first sight, it can never be as bad. No, I think this time's a bit different because I found purpose and meaning going onto the show. Obviously, raising money for charity is a very different ballgame. And at the end of the day, I already had a villain edit. What's the thing that can happen? You have another one, or you have a slightly better one. So arms all
for it. And I'm like a D grade celebrity. I got to hang out with some A grade celebs all day, all the time. I now know Benji Marshall like, who would not take an opportunity like that? It's pretty black, bloody awesome, you.
Know, talking about the boys on their side. You know, I've been lucky enough to see a couple of episodes, but so far, I want to know is Darren leaning into this villain role or is he unaware of how he's coming across. I mean, have you had to pull him aside and say, I've been on maths, You've got to be careful of this, or do you think he's owning it?
I think he's owning it. Darren is very confident within himself and he actually I don't think he has done like actual reality TV before, so I think he thinks his The thing is when you do like an Hour Master interview, if you make true Snyde comments and the rest are beautiful. They've only got time to show to Snyde comments, so they're probably the ones that are going to get shown. I think Darren is so good at heart. I've really valued Darren, even behind the scenes, and it
was part of the show. He really you know, I don't know, he just gave a new lease of life some days where it was just getting very dull. However, yeah, I don't think he thought through a few of his comments, unless again they've kind of pieced them together where he looks like a bit of an.
Asshole who's a threat at the moment. I would have to say probably Darren I.
Was hoping to take over Lord Sugar's position when he looked the part.
You know, you got cash, but I have a lord.
Though it's still good television. What do you think We're the most different aspects of filming Celebrity Apprentice over filming something like Meredith. So it's like, I mean, they're both Channel Line productions, they're both beautifully shot, you know, everyone looks so glamorous, but again they are still very different types of reality.
So this one is much more I guess structured. So you know that you're going to be waking up going into a task you have a cool time. They actually do your hair, makeup, wardrobe on Celebrity Apprentice, so that is a massive, massive win. You're able to actually mingle with the contestants off camera, which is fantastic as well.
Whereas in Made at First Sight you're pretty much living in a box and you're not really knowing what's coming up next until that very kind of day or second where it's like, okay, today, it's now your next commitment ceremony. It's not as if every Saturday is the commitment ceremony, you know, it's whenever we're going to have one. I guess.
With Celebrity Apprentice, you kind of already have the gist of how the day's going to play out, what you need to do, and then you'll go and do a master interview afterwards, so you actually get to sleep on it, reflect and then sit down whether the exact same outfit, and then do your master interviews the next day where you'll go through the entire day, whereas on marriede at First Site you will have emotions about something and then
get pulled aside and then get questioned and questioned and questioned, not knowing how long these questions are going to go for until you finally get pulled back into your little bubble of isolation with your partner. So I think the pretty much the biggest difference is like the support network, the communication, the I guess you're not taking away like
your ability to just go and talk to people. And you know, I know COVID does play a massive role in that when you're trying to film as well, but at least you are able to talk off screen, You're able to catch up with people, get to know these people.
I find that even though Selebly apprenticed didn't when in film for as long as Married at first sight, I know the cast so much better like personally because we actually were able to speak, rather than I'm married at first sight, where I still could say only no, you know five minutes of these people where we actually did speak quickly and or after the show kind of thing. It's very different.
You know, how long are those boardroom sessions because they are so punchy on television then they're so fast, but I'm sure they must take a while to film. How long are you sitting there in front of Lord Sugar?
Oh they take a whole day. But the great thing is compared to a dinner party where they wo'ld start it at nighttime and you would run till three am. They'll let us sleep in, start at nine o'clock, ten o'clock. Obviously, with Lord Sugar around, it will take as long as he wants it to take, but it's usually just a day. It's a day's worth. The crazy thing about it is the amount of camera angles they want to take from a boardroom. They need to move lights, which means everyone
has to accept the room. We have to walk into that room. Well, we have to actually walk into the foyer three four times, and then we walk into the room three four times, and then we exit the room three four times. It takes a long long time, especially because they want everyone serious face, so they'll actually bring a camera around for everyone's serious face. If anyone cracks it,
they pretty much have to start again. So we're just sitting there like, no one crack a smile, like, let's just get through this.
Yeah.
And then obviously when we're talking about how that the day unraveled, Lord Sugar will make sure he talks pretty much, well, yeah, he would make sure he talks absolutely everyone. Everyone needs to be able to have said something for them to be able to like kind of mold what happens down the track, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, you're seen there for a while. We get fed snacks though, like it's just great, you know, it's it's good fun, like
there's nothing watching it back. It's very punchy and brutal. However, there's a lot in between that's not because we're all in this loving family and he's even telling us like, stop being nice to each other. You're competing like me something, and we're like, oh, all right, okay, So yeah, no, it's very different.
You know.
It felt like Turia Pit summed up your math's personality in the boardroom assassination. Is that how you felt? Because when I went to television last night, I was like, is that how Beck was on this particular exercise or are you talking about Beck as a you know, as a brand, like as what Australia knows. How did you feel when it was being put in front of Lord Sugar?
I one hundred percent felt that it was her trying to relate me back to married at first sight. I never spoke to her about the show, so I'm not sure if she ever watched it. Or maybe she googled me to find out who I was, Like I knew I was going in as a D grade celebrity, Like I'm the first person to put my hand up and say that. I do feel like as soon as she met me, that's kind of how she took myself and Ronnie as well. We just come from reality TV and
that's it. We didn't have, you know, Olympic medals or a singing career. So I do think that that was reflected in the way she wanted to get to know myself and Ronnie. Why do you think I was sabotaging?
I feel like during the planning and during the day at times you were patronizing and condescending, and you would say one thing, but then you would flip one eight degrees on that the next minute.
Knives are coming out here, and this is better than married at first sight. This is good TV.
But in saying that they had nothing on me, I know how the game was working, and I worked my bloody ears off in that challenge. I was able to raise so much money and I was calling CEOs that I never met, saying like, hey, I'm on this show and I know you don't know me. But like give us some money. And I was just ruthless with trying to get true to get the money for her charity and win. There was even, you know, a moment at the end of our golf day where I stayed back.
I just wanted to make sure that we got all our figures right. And we even had a moment together just like burst into tisks, like you know, we just raised so much money, and I don't know, I was very hormonal. I was pregnant at the time and no one knew, so they made it a little bit harder. There was times where I think I was running off
to obviously go romt. I had you know, severe morning sickness at the time, and I think people thought maybe I was just game playing with producers at that stage, which is quite funny because that's what would normally have happened in maybe even on the show. But yeah, my situation was very different. So yeah, I don't know. Even when I heard it the first time, I think my
face does say a fair bit of it. I'm just sitting there like that doesn't make sense to me or anyone, and I don't think it's even going to make sense. Sort of Australia at this stage. But you know, there's no bad blood there at all. If that's how she fell, if that's what she wanted to say around my Math's character, then that's fine. But you know, this is our first task. This is where we've only just met. You have to form an opinion on something. I've coped it since math.
You know. That's the opinion people form of me until they know otherwise. So that's something that I have to obviously work on. It's a short end of the stick, but I'm used to it now and you know, just work through it until you get to the other side.
People used to say the most horrendous things about me online for years, and my mom was like, eventually, Ben, once you knock on the door of everyone in Australia, they will get to know you. They will know that you are not that person. But what you know But the twist of that is why bother?
You know what I mean?
Like, we know who we are, you know who you are, and the people that are in our lives that we care about are the ones that matter. Everybody else It's like, oh, well, what's that quote that Madonna always says? What other people say about you is none of your business.
Yeah, that's right, and I think it's so relevant. And you said that decades ago and here we are about the same thing. But I think you've done fantastic for yourself. You know, it's nearly a decade ago. I think you're on our screens and yeah you've been. Now it's half on that many doors and that many opportunities. And I
think that's the difference. Even even though it sucks to get a villain edit, you have two options no matter what your edit is, and that's to you know, I guess, come back and really try make something of yourself because you know who you are and you're true to yourself, or you just stick it in the bin and you think, you know, this is it, this is my life, this
is who I am. And it's a really hard road, Like it's not easy because there's so many people out there telling you who you are and it can really get into your head. It's about finding that support network around that pulls you out of that and tells you you know you are more than reality TV and you know you can do more than what you think you
can right now. And yeah, I think I wouldn't be where I am today and I wouldn't do another TV show if I didn't have that support around me telling me that you know you are more than that.
So oh, a good question to ask.
Who do you think from the latest series of Maths should go on Celebrity Apprentice next year, because in my opinion, after seeing you and Martha, I think that the translation is really good. So who do you think would be good?
Oh? I think Tomorrow would be good because I do think she's very business winded and I don't think maybe her character, like her narratives quite who she However, I would actually I think I'd love to see even someone like Olivia go on because d're in an environment where you are fighting for yourself. Yeah, it would be interesting to see someone that is extremely villainized like that, who's done something that is very controversial. I guess, yeah, go
on and try to be more than what is. But I find even her edit to be interesting because when the Chauffurst started, she was, you know, the next Michael and Martha, the Sweethearts of Australia, nothing wrong, So it's interesting how fast they were able to turn her around, because I thought she was going to give us nothing and somehow she gave us absolutely everything. So I think either Tomorrow or Lujah.
Interesting trajectories with both of those women. And I think, regardless as to what Australia's current opinion of them is, it will be interesting to see what this kind of an experience would do to their personalities and what it's going to want to earth.
So absolutely, I think the concept of the show, in particular where we are raising money for charity like actually happening and the amount of people that do get around and support it, it's wonderful.
Can we just do that? Now?
We should talk about your charity. Who was your charity and why did you pick them?
So?
I went with the Royal Hospital for Women's Foundation. They are a Sydney based charity where they look after thousands and thousands of women and babies every single year. I chose them because I'm currently pregnant myself and I think there is not enough I guess volume out there around prenatal and postnatal and all the things in between that women have to go through. I think everyone gets really excited about pregnancy and it's all about you know, when's it due?
What is that?
And everything's happy days, But there is a lot that we actually have to go through behind the scenes, and it's not always a happy ending down to you know, unfortunately steelburse and all the issues that could happen after, not just to the baby, but obviously to ourselves as well, including natal depressions. So yeah, I decided to go with them. They're trying to raise a lot of money at the
moment for their premature baby units. So they're newborn. I see you pretty much, and yeah, they're very close to my heart.
Congratulations on the pregnancy, which is exciting. Yay, thank you, and yeah, Sorr. I was going to ask, did the producers help you pick that charity or did you go straight in feeling like you already knew what you were going to pick.
Look, you pick three and they have to do a lot of background I guess research to make sure your charity isn't going to come up and all of a sudden, have you know, spent all their money and at a differn country on houses and things like that. It's not it wasn't my number one charity. I really did want to do something around suicide awareness. I have had an auntie and two close friends now commit suicide, so it
was definitely a topic I wanted to open up to. However, there was a few other charities that people did that were really aligned with that as well, So I guess there was enough broad variety out there for me to be happy to go with something like this because I do think it's an important topic. So they do help try to find something that's in line with that, and it works really well. We've been in line with being pregnant as well.
I think it suits.
What is something that I ask everyone who joins the podcast this last question? What is something from behind the scenes that we did not see that we will not see from your time on Celebrity Apprinters kind of a behind the scenes story.
Okay, one thing from last night's episode that didn't get shown is I obviously didn't agree with the themed ideas for the golf day. However, what actually goes down is the challenge is all about raising money. So I've been in business and I said that we need to monetize everything. We shouldn't be giving free entertainment, free food, free alcohol, Like,
where's the money aspect going to come in? Because we actually got told to invite all our A grade celebrity friends to come to this golf tournament to give money. So I said, like the thing that we should be focusing on because everyone was so excited about these themes and different themes at different holes, which means different mindsets and different caterers and different everything. And I just said, we don't have time for that. I really think let's
monetize everything. What could go wrong if we think about just doing one theme where we can go all right, to play golf today? You have to pay this much to be in a golf buggy. You have to pay this much. Like it's a no brainer in my eyes. And that was the idea that got shut down to actually try and raise more money on the things that we actually had. And three, I let the idea go. Obviously, I was like straight away like, no worries. If that's
not what you want to do, then let's not do it. However, in a money task, I was thinking, shut away. Has my idea being shut down because it was my idea? Or is my idea getting shut down because you don't see the value in my idea? So yeah, that's just one. That's just one thing that happened. Another thing is I got to actually have Luke Jacobs with me all day.
My job was to host him around the golf course so make sure everything was completely perfect for him, and I was trying to auction his watch, his hat, his underwear, anything he had on him. I was just like, come on, you've got deep pockets, Like, let's get this going. And then I kind of took my idea to the golf course where we weren't raising much money while we were walking around playing golf, so I grabbed the megaphone and
was like, all right, like, who wants to put ten dollars? Literally, just ten dollars on the fact that Luke's not going to be able to hit it past the lake? And then all of a sudden, we're getting a few vets, and then it started to get a bit exciting. So yeah, I kind of just stole the microphone from Gala and was like, all right, who wants to bet on this? Who wants to do this?
To do that?
And it turned actually really fun, and then we started doing that more and more throughout the day, just to get few extra small donations in to feel the thing. So I was having an absolute ball. I was loving it. It was awesome.
Well, it's always good to think about things outside the box, keep rolling with ideas, I think. So, I mean that's how I would have played the game.
Yeah. Well, I think if you ever only have one idea, you're in trouble. So yeah, no, I found it. I found it fun. And yeah, the money that was raised, regardless of like the outcome, you know, especially from Benji Marshall, Oh my god, he's just throwing it in. We're probably on an uphill battle knowing that we didn't have him money our team anyway from the start, but we gave it a good crack. And you know, all that money obviously gets to go to charity. So yeah, no, it's amazing.
Well, I am absolutely loving this series of celebrity apprinters. I hope that they bring you back. I don't know anything, but I've got my fingers crossed because I feel like I haven't got my beck fix.
Hopefully producers notice this as well.
But regardless, it's been an absolute privilege and a pleasure to chat with you today about your experience.
And I want to thank you for being on TV.
Really, thank you, thank you so much, and yes, keep watching more to come.