Welcome to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris and on this podcast I'll be going behind the scenes with the biggest players in television today. On the podcast, I have executive producer Alex Mavertaikas, who has been making some of the biggest and best reality shows in Australia. He successfully rebooted Big Brother for Channel nine and twenty twelve. In twenty sixteen, he took over as the EP on Channel ten's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
He also brought Love Island to Australia in twenty eighteen for Channel nine. Up next, he'll take on the Cube with Andy Lee for Channel ten in twenty twenty one. So let's get started with some exclusive content as we find out how these shows get made.
What I tried to bring to Big Brother. It's time to go what's fun and funny.
I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out?
I think it's what I've brought to one a Celebrity.
Tonight we are recoupling.
One of Love on as well. Actually, some one unfortunately is going to be dumb from the Island. We take the piss out of ourselves and I think the audience appreciate that.
I want to start the show by saying to you, thank you for casting me my big brother all those years ago. That's a pleasure paid off for me, which was great, so.
Paid off for us as well, if I remember correctly.
I love hearing stuff like that. So big brother, Love Island, celebrity, get me out of here. You have launched, rebooted, and revitalized some of the biggest shows. What can you say that you do that is a part of the Alex Maverdicker's brand.
Funny Funny wins every single time. I think. Look, it's so hard to say because when you comedian says you know, oh you know, I'm funny, the first thing people says is all make me laugh, and I have no ability to make you laugh right here and right now. But I do think I'm quite funny. I think it's what I've brought to I'm a celebrity. With the casting, with the trials that we do. We don't play it as
straight as the Brits. We try and make everything funny, and I'm pretty sure it's what have done for Love Island as well, because you know, Loveland is actually a love quest and it is all three of those shows, certainly under my watch, were very real, all three of them as honest as reality TV gets. You know, there really is no script in as you know, we never tell you what to say. But they've all got a
very rich vein of humor in them. And you know, I've always believed that if you can make people laugh at seven thirty or eight thirty or whatever time the shows are on, yeah, just to be funny and you know, and be honest with your audience as well. Everything is so over dramatized in this day and age, you know, and I think certainly with our celebrity we take the piss out of ourselves and I think the audience appreciate that. You know, it's the one show that we I love
Onland as well. Actually we are very self mocking.
Do you think that, you know, the heads of the studios think we'll get Oles to do this because that's what he's going to bring. He's going to bring family friendly fun.
That is what I bring. I'm very one dimensional character. Yeah, you know, there's no smoke and mirrors. You know what you're going to get if you're booking Alex as the EP, You're going to get stupid humor.
Well, this isn't one of my questions. But one of the things that I remember about Big Brother and the casting was that once it was over, we were finally allowed to talk about, you know, the casting process and how it all was. You could swap your stories, and I honestly think that everyone had somehow fallen in love with you, which obviously is the power of a good producer.
And I guess you have to create this friendship, you know, with people to that level so they trust you, and then once the show goes, that just has to exist.
I guess, well, you said the key word is trust. Yeah, I'm very lucky because I've never had to make very manufactured reality, and it could have gone a very different way. I don't hold anything against any of the people that I know very very well that have to work on a lot of the other shows that are clearly more structured,
clearly more manipulated. But I've been very, very lucky in that I can look the housemates that I've had, the Islanders that I've had, and the celebrities that I've had under my watch and those shows, and I've been able to say to all of them, you can trust me, and they can because we don't frank and grab. We don't play people as the baddies or the goodies on those twenty four hour turnaround shows, which let's not forget all three of them. Big Brother Under my Watch was
a twenty four hour show turn around show. Loveland is celebrities. We don't have time to play demonic music under somebody to you know, make them the baddie.
We don't have grab what they call frank and grab Frank frank you know which reality TV shows. Now people are coming to terms with the fact that, you know, it is a very different style of show once you're manipulating the audience.
We have a WhatsApp group me and some of the other producers, and you know, you watch the reality sho on TV and you just go frank and grab, frank and grabbing, because you know, whenever you're not watching someone's.
Lips, yeah, you can get them to just pretty.
Much as are. It's frank and grabbed. But anyway, luckily we've never had to do that, and we don't have time. Christ I'd love to have the time to manipulate some of the storylines, but when you're cutting a show overnight, the only editorial control you've got is okay. There's two bend scenes today. Both are very funny. We're not going to have ben in twice in one segment. Which one should we chuck out? Yeah, that is the editing process.
You know, we are right at the cusp of the next time a celebrity get me out of here, and I know you're going to tell me that you can't tell me really anything, can't tell you anything. You know, we're friends and we've sort of spoken offline about that sort of stuff. He said that it is a fantastic series and that you've captured a lot that you probably wouldn't have been able to capture if it was turning around quickly, which is great. So everyone is prepared for
this to be a good series. But you'll go back to Africa, you'll go back to doing it live.
Oh yeah, I'm a Celebrities is a twenty four hour turnaround show. It's only the circumstances of the universe as to why it's not been done this way this time. It's a hard one because so let's use the British om celebrity as an example. They filmed their version in a castle and they managed to keep their twenty four
hour turnaround. But what that meant for them was that at Deck would host the show at nine o'clock at night, whatever time it was in the UK live to air, they do their trial at eleven o'clock midnight, sure, and the celebrities will be up till five six o'clock in the morning to make the content for tomorrow's show and then they'd sleep all day. Now they can get away with that because they're in a castle which has got
lights and stuff. We can't do that because we're in jungle, so the entire show would be, you know, in the dark. So when COVID hit and it was clear we couldn't go to Africa, we talked. We had all sorts of crazy ideas, all sorts of mental stuff you know where you know where we could should and have we get away with it. But one thing you can't get away
with this is a time zone. Clearly, we had shoot it in Australia and it's worked and you see, you'll see on January third that I'm pretty confident it's going to work.
You're always pretty confident, do you know what you don't want to sound?
I know because if we launched a four hundred thousand and then this goes to airing to look like a dick.
So I don't think you should be worried about that, because if you look at the ratings that you've always delivered on opening nights, and before I got here, I went back and had to look at the launches of your first Big Brother Love Ireland and your first time a celebrity launch night is your thing, and I guess with the nature of all shows, you're obviously going to have a dip. But I think that you're just probably nervous thinking are we going to keep these a secret?
You're always well, well, let's put that to one side for a second, but always nervous about the launch, and you always think, is this the year when it's going to get down the toilet? It doesn't matter how good it is. Free tow are television ratings are eroding January third, there's a lot of people still away on holiday. Sure the sun will be shining. It's very likely in all
the major cities across Australia. I was shitting my pants last year on the fifth of January when they launched on Celebrity Season six, and when the ratings came back and you know it did I think nine hundred and ninety thousand or something and well over a million when they added up everything else, the sense of euphour. It was incredible because it was a game of that paid off. So with doubling down, hopefully it works again. There's very little competition at that time of the year. You know,
it's if you don't like sport, you're with us. But yes, going back to your point about launch show, yes, I'm very much I've always had a very very set methodology on how to make a strip to reality show launch obviously as hard as possible, strong as possible, with a you know, either a twist or something interesting to drag people through that episode, because generally those episodes are ninety
minutes already one hundred and twenty minutes. You've got to drag people through, you've got to make them fall in love with the cast. And actually episodes two and three in my mind as important as the launch because if you don't lose more than let's say, twenty five percent of your audience into night two, you generally got a
hit show. If you look at all of the arms celebs, you go episode one and clearly goes down, then it goes down a bit more, then it goes down a bit more, and then you generally get a bounce on either the first week Thursday or the second week Sunday.
And that's all dictated by those ensecutive second and third episode being strong.
Exactly right, because if you can make them fall in love with the cast, then you've got them, and then you care if people go. It's the same methodolog you're used on Big Brother and the same way usual love zol. If you care where the celebrities are housemates get evicted, eliminated, dumped, then you come and watch and if you don't care, then you won't. But you've got to launch strong. That that's the whole ball game.
So, talent agents, studio bosses, publicity managers, where does the most amount of celebrity contestant requests come from? Because I know that I ask you every year and you say go away, yeah, and that's fine, But I can imagine there is a lot of requests. And I think I even heard a rumor that you might have done something over two hundred zooms to make sure the cast was right this year. You know, how are these people coming to you?
I should have a zoom T shirt. If there's a celebrity in Australia but you haven't been on a zoom with, Yeah, I haven't been on a zoom with well, you know, let's let go. I'm going to say as tactors account, let's say from B listed downwards, if the celebrity in Australia I haven't had a zoom with, then I'd be very surprised.
Does that mean that you're like a complete slot for that?
And I've spoken to people who their mothers, they know who they are. You know, let's not forget the casting from a slab is it's a tongue in cheek show. We put Justin Lacko on the show who Was? Did one half a series of Love on on a digital channel on Channel nine and the freedom are audience that you know, the broad Channel ten audience went who an hour later they're like, we love him.
One hundred percent. I mean that's but what you do with Lorena Flour. There's been lots of people that maybe other networks hadn't seen a lot of them.
Even Charlotte Crosby. We put Charlotte Crosby in and I couldn't believe it because you know, she's got you know, eleven million followers or whatever it is, and is world famous reality star and all you read on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram is who's this? Every single year we're going to cop the same shit, Yeah, every single year. Yeah, they're not real celebrities.
No, when we get it, you just have to laugh at that kind of stuff because they obviously don't understand the brand. But also more importantly, they aren't the people to watch the show.
Well they're not, but look, having said that, we always want a certain level of fame and certainly our show is more famous than the British show would say they're they're casting methodold who has always been two household names and you know.
And the rest have to be batshit crazy.
Well well you know I've slept with awayn Rooney basically. But again it absolutely works in their twentieth year, you know, it absolutely works. So we've kind of changed our casting tactics after I think the series two or Series three, where we you know, we would clearly go for the most famous people we could get.
There was a waste of money. I mean, yes, the ratings are there, like you can pay Shane Warn a million dollars, but at the same time, the ratings didn't really get affected too much to then go and get your Sam Dastra.
Shane Warn actually wasn't a waste of money. I'll tell you why because Series one was just you know, a bomb. Slipper was on the cusp. You know, it just about did enough, sure just about did enough for people to be talking about it. It needed a prestige name for series two to drag people back into the format, and we put Warning in on episode two. So going back to what I was saying the minute and go, we
teased him through the launch. We put him in episode two, and I think launched a one point one million and episode two today on hundred ninety or nine hundred thousand or something. And then you're of from running. There's a million dollars right there. It's just paid for himself, you know as well.
I think what you do is you format your cast really well. I think that you always managed to pick, whether it's intentional, your your stereotype characters. You know, your heroes and your villains. I mean they are always PG heroes and villains on your show, of course, but how do you whittle it down like say you do two hundred zooms and then you you've got to sit down. Do you sit down with like Stephen Tate and Bev McGarvey and try and pitch them or.
Yep, it's very very collaborative, is exactly. It's Bevlyn McGarvey, It's Daniel Monaghan, Stephen Tate from ten Side. There's also a casting person we had Georgie Harrop this season who was on ten Sides. So that's four from Channel ten from it TV. This David Mott who's my boss, Beth Heart who's our head of content, Ben Olm who's head of Factual in Reality, myself, my Coey p Rema. I mean, you know that's nine or ten names I've reamed off.
It's not a simple process. I'm the one who does most of the calls and most of the first line chats. But then, I mean we would have had sixty seventy names seriously in the mix for this year, and that is not an exaggeration.
At the very end, Like, how do you get it down to that time?
Well, I mean there's absolutely everything you would expect that you have to do in casting any show. We've got to check off diversity. Well, you know, we've got to check off fame, We've got to check off funny, we've got to check off headlines things. But then there's something that you can't there's no subcategory for the X factor is. It's such a horrible, horrible cliche. But when you talk
to somebody, you just know. And I love having people on I'm a Celebrity that are tried and tested reality talent Lorena Justin Ash Pollard for people that have done the show.
So COVID was a big player in the industry. How did it all play out when planning this series? I mean, at some point did it nearly not happen?
Oh? One hundred percent. I mean, let's rewind to I'm talking to you and you now in my kitchen on the Gold Coast. I have basically not left the Gold Coast since February twenty twenty. I landed from Johannesburg on February the eighth from doing I'm a Celebrity Series six, ready to do another full year in Sydney, you know, with Love Island and some development stuff I'm going on and you know, getting ready for the next IIC. I have not been to Sydney in twenty twenty, which is
absolute madness. I'm Platinum Virgin, Platinum quantus. I live on planes. I have not been anywhere. We just filmed on a celebrity in my Woolen bar, which is forty five minutes from where we're talking now.
Yeah, we don't want to tell them where you live.
That's practically the furthest away I've been from home since February twenty twenty. I mean, yes, it was. It was very worrying. I mean, you know, we were fighting hard for Africa for you know, a nanosecond. It looked like we might be able to happen, and then of course it just exploded and it was like, okay, Africa's off the table. How we're going to how we're going.
To do this? Can I ask, though, what other locations were.
Considered serious incident? None? Nothing else except that I absolutely did a blanket ideas brain dump. And we did talk about a castle by the way, before the Brits decided. We talked about, you know, is there a castle in Australia somewhere? You know. We talked about caravan parks. Yeah, We've talked about dilapidated old kind of factories. We talked about prisons. You know, abandoned prisons. We had all sorts of you know.
That what would have been you would have got that headline though I'm a celebrity and warehouse, which is what happened with Big Brother and a warehouse and you want to avoid that.
Yeah, I think.
People are really excited about it being here in Australia. I really do think there's a coup for that. I heard today from a source from England that they won't be coming back to Australia. They're very happy with the way the production happened.
Well, it rated, Look, it absolutely rated. Whether that was because everyone was in lockdown or not. Look, I don't know about that. My gut feeling is that they will come back, but based that on nothing like I've got no evidence of that. I'm spoken to anyone about it. But you know, their whole show for nineteen years, the whole stick has been the Aussie bush and bugs and stuff, you know. And I think it'd be terrible for Australia if they didn't come back, because obviously it's such a
bit of money spinner for that area. But yes, COVID was shit for a lot of television.
Can we talk about pre recorded TV? Shows, So like reality TV now for you, you were forced into that, but Big Brother had already done it before COVID. So look, a lot of reality TV shows are following the format
of the contestants eliminate themselves. Do you think that that is realistically the way forward and not your decision because I know you don't want to do it that way, But are you thinking that you're going to get stronghold into doing that because of the production cost being cheaper and it being an easier series to produce financially.
Absolutely absolutely makes sense. It depends what sort of show you want to make. We took nominations and off the table from a celebrity straight away because okay, so let's talk about you know, Old Big Brother versus New Big Brother, and I'm not I'm not going to be drawn into any comparisons. But apart from the fact that Old Big Brother, you couldn't talk about nominations. Yeah, so that basically meant that what you got was talking about your life and talking about other people's lives and.
Taking the strategy out funny stories.
So there was no strategy because that you can't really play a game because you can't discuss nominations. Yes, you know, you can internalize and go, I think Ben's going to nominate Michael and therefore w and nominate Michael two and all that stuff, but.
Never nominated mine.
Yes, it was a game, but it was you know, really it was an entertainment show with the kind of the subplot of the game because you can't talk about nominations, and of course New Big Brother is you know, it's all about nominations, and that's that's the key point actually, you know, more prevalent than it pre recorded versus twenty four hour turnaround is you can't talk about nominations, you can talk about nominations. That is a completely different show
in my mind. So we took strategy talk off the table for IC straight away for this series, right because we didn't want them talking about strategy, because the joy of I'm a Celebrity is heart, heroes and humor one hundred. We want celebrity gossip, we want funny pranks, we want that is the show, and the audience choose the winner. Now, luckily we've been able to come up with a solution to that thing. The audience will of course still choose
the winner. And I think we as you'll see in January a very fair and fun way, you know, to eliminate contestants.
But then I have to ask you this question. Producing so many of these series and having a sort of a tenacity to pick, you know, what audience would do versus what the internal decisions would be. Would you say that the final few, whether or not it's three or four or whatever ever I'm speculating at the moment, do you think it's the same as what Australia would have picked in.
The end, maybe five or six of them? Maybe, look's impossible to say. Look, it's really difficult because on a reality show like Big Brother h I'm a celebrity, lot love old as the audience sitting on a couch, you want to be in charge of who is there at the end, and you want to be in charge of who wins. Circumstances of the universe have taken that ability
away from us this year and it's a shame. But as I said, I think we've kind of a really fun and fair way of doing it, and I think we've got a fantastic group of finalists X number of finalists, And look, I like to think that Australia will be understanding of why it's made like it is, and I still think it's a lot of fun.
With the format, we can't really give away too much, but I still need to ask you this question because you're very good with this sort of stuff where it comes down to teams, you know, rich house, poorhouse, or a divided wall. Are we going to see a stunt with the celebrities entering in a way we've never seen before.
Yes, it's not rocket science, though, I think I'm a
Celebrity is a very very simple show. The trials producers every day come to me and pitch these ideas, you know, and they're brilliant producers, but you know, they come to me and go, right, let's play this trial where they've got to go up here and then the other one goes down here, and then they've got to find these blocks and they've got to put them in here, and they've got to do this, and then they've got to go around the corner and then they've got to do that.
And I'm like, no, let's just get them to go from there to there. Yeah, you know, I'm a Celebrity is so simple. The walk in strategy that we've got this year is different to something we've ever seen before.
Can we talk about the rumors that these celebrities are going in teams?
Yes, it's what's what's happening? I mean, look, you know about being drawn on specifics. Separating celebrities into smaller groups is the best way to showcase them on a launch episode of a strip reality show because you meet them gradually. So let's argument sake, say they're split into two teams of five, which they're not. I'm just gonna use that as an example. You meet Team one, everybody will get their airtime because there's only five people, and then in
segment four you meet another five. So not only is that drag the audience through to segment four because they still want to find out who the other five celebs are, but it also gives everybody their airtime, so by segment nine,
you feel like you know who ten people are. Whereas the worst part of Old Big Brother, and I'm going way back to two thousand and one, two three, four five here is the doors would open and this cavalry charge of housemates would just pour into the house, and we're in the control and going who do we follow? What conversation do we isolate. You know, yes, you might have sixty cameras, but you can only record so many things that want, so you just have to go with the loudest person in the.
Room, which was never the best content, never the best content.
And I'm thinking back on it now, you know, hindsight's obviously a great thing. Why the hell did we do it like that? Why didn't we put you in one at a time, or two at a time or three at a time. I can't remember how we did it in the Secret series. I know that you came in on day two or three, if I remember correct.
Yeah, you managed to come in and tell me in my hotel room that I wasn't going in on launch night. I tried to give you my face of I'm okay with that, and I could see it in your face, and you were like, this guy's going to crack the And then I got put in at one o'clock in the morning on a Wednesday night on day three.
But I worked.
But in now, knowing what I know about reality television, I kind of think it was a compliment because I was a bigger personality in some ways than other people.
How did we do it that year?
You put pretty much everyone in on first night, and then you put four more boys in the next two nights. So put two in the next night and two in the next and my bio video like my VT, what do you call them? There's a back story, your backstory. Mine was the most outrageous. Everyone else was really lovely, like, oh, work at a car yard, I love horses, and I go, and then you have me go. I'm the bitchiest person
you'll ever meet. And basically the bedding odds were for me to win the show were at zero.
Oh yeah, and I remember you survived the first elimination by the skin of your teeth.
I've heard people tell me that story, not you, but I've heard people tell me that it was down to something like ninety votes or something particular.
So look, I can't remember the specific numbers, but it was certainly it was you versus Bradley.
And Ryan was hot, so I wasn't hot. Ryan was hot, and Bradley was really like a character. So I remember thinking that day, the only way I'm going to get out of this is to stunt something. So I don't even think I've ever spoken to about it, but I set up a stunt to make sure that my hair was butchered, so I butchered my I got tried to get George because I thought he was that he would be the worst to cut my hair, and he actually cut my hair and it made it look better, and
I was like, oh my god. So then I rigged Stacy, and I don't think you know this, but I took the blade off that razor, so when she went to cut my hair, I knew it would butcher my hair. And so that whole response you saw was pre planned, and my response to it was so dramatic but fun. Had that had really happened to me, I would have cracked the shits, but instead I was in on the joke.
That's very clever, except for the fact that when I went over and finally saw myself in the mirror, I realized I truly looked like simple Jack.
And do you know what the interesting thing about hair? Hair cups of shaves are on twenty four hour television as a completely complete stitch you up, because it means you can't use any content from prior to that in the next days.
Did I do that to here? I'm sorry, I can't. I just remember that my brother said to me it was like, had it not have happened, I would have gone home. So look, let's talk about some of the leaks, because you know, at the end of the day, this is an executive producer's worst nightmare that people are going to find out who's in there. How do you stop people like the uh, you know, the stunts getting in there, like maybe they'll come from the sky, or maybe they'll
get a hike or the driver drives them in. You know, how do you stop those people from leaking them?
Well, yeah, look you can't. You've got to take it on trust. I mean everyone signs an NDA, sure, right, so yes, if you found out who has been leaking, yes you could go legal on their ass, of course. But we talked about trust before, sure, and we talked about trust with the cast. Well, I believe we have an even bigger trust with the crew. I surround myself on whatevery show idea with people that I trust implicitly and that are way better than I am at stuff
because it makes me look good. And that comes right down to the drivers and the runners and the caterers and the unit. And you know, you always stand up at the start of the series and you say this show will ripe better if no one knows who this whole cast is. Of course, there's going to be some leaks, of course there are. Some of them will be correct, some of them will be wrong. You have got to wear that it might be the celebrity's fault. Celebrities have
got to tell their agents. Their agents might tell their wives. The wives might tell their hairdressers. There's your leak. Who are going to blame for that? You can't do anything about it, you know.
Yeah, but then you also send out so many red herrings. Thanks.
You know.
I'm sitting across the table from you, But you know I sit at home, like Angela Lansbury from Murdersery Road, trying to put all the pieces together, and I send you I think it's this person every year, and you're like, you never have confirmed any of them. I think sometimes I think I am good enough to read through the lines, but then I'm always wrong, so I realize I'm not.
Look, I'm very protective with the cast. I'll never tell. I'll never tell anybody. My partner doesn't know who the cast are.
Just are you joking?
That just has no idea because he knows not to ask well, I will not tell anyone. And you know, do you know what, it's not the worst thing in the world of four or five names leak, but if you thirteen fourteen names leak, it's not ideal. Because I'm celebrity trades on who are the celebrities? And it's worked six times out of six. We've never had a bad launch figure and the promo campaign is always who's going into the African jungle? This year is just going into
Australian jungle. It works, so we would be mad to confirm or deny any names. Some of the rooms I've heard of right, some of the rooms I've heard of wrong. Yeah.
I was debating with Evie Jones yesterday. I was like, I swear that the ratings will be fine without you know, if people know that, will know who they are, and Evie was like no, She's like, you know it is. It does come down to the fact that we want to tune in and watch and find out her.
It'd be interesting to see how the Celebrity Apprentice launches. Sure you know.
It's again not launching it up against yours. You won't even know it'll happen after.
Oh no, no, be happening way after, like, you know, we don't have any reality competition in early January. I think, you know, thank god, thank god, a renowned chef's going the younger.
He's gonna cook up a stark Wait till he finds out what we're cooking up there here. I don't want to talk about whether it did or it didn't happen. The one thing I wanted to ask you about this, because it's just never really been confirmed, is did you think that Pete Evans, with all that controversy, would be a good contestant, Like, let's not talk about whether it did or I didn't.
Well, look, there's absolute zero confirmation that Pete Evans was ever anything to do with I'm a celebrity, So I'm commentating. I'm commenting on this from the perspective of someone who reads Facebook and Twitter. Yeah, from a headline grabbing point of view. The hack producer in me says, one hundred percent put him in.
But then did you change your mind by thinking, you know, let's talk about it in the future. Maybe you're working on a different show that celebrity based. You know, do you see something controversial like that and is that a game changer?
Okay, well, let's talk about sas sure, because when I saw that they had Chappelle Krby booked, I said straight away, this is going to launch massive and it's going to be a success. And then I read the social comments which was, I'm never going to watch a show. She's a criminal, she's not a celebrity. How day you Channel seven get this shit off the air? And of course, you know, launches at eight hundred and something thousand and has a very successful series. But no, look, there's there's
a certain level of controversy. I think if someone just doubt, like I'd never have Katie Hopkins on the show in Australia.
I love Katie Hopkins, like I hate it and I love it.
She's great talent, yeah, great talent, but it just wouldn't wash in Australia, do you know what I mean? Like Perry's Hilton. We put in the jungle thinking, you know that he would bring a lot of celebrity gossip, which he did, thinking that he would be a different person to the person that went into the English Big Brother House. You know, in hindsight, probably wasn't the right fit for an Australian audience, you know, but it.
Was a good way to test whether or not those sorts of names could bring something. One of my favorite things about the whole show is how many people gossip about how much the clebs get paid. And it's so funny because a friend of mine who did the show said, Ben, I can guarantee or I've never told anyone how much I got paid, And anyone that does this show would
never tell anyone either. The celebrities who do it will tell you it was twice as much, and the people that loathe them all told them it was two dollars fifty correct.
So I don't know what you do all of them. It's not even in my mind at all. You know. I know that clearly they've got a certain number of a certain dollar value in the kitty, and that's how much they have got to spend on the cast of that year. But hand on heart, I don't know what that dollar value is. I couldn't tell you what anybody has been paid that's done on a celebrity unless they've
told me face to face. And I don't care because to me, whether it's been an atomical Shane Warren, who were clearly at the massively high end or at social media influencer or someone like that who is at the low end. All I care about who's going to give us the best content. I couldn't care less whether you're Kylie Minogu or Kylie Jones.
You know, have you asked Kylie to do the show before?
I probably everybody not personally.
She was spinning around and ran away. A lot of people know who you are as a producer. If you can pass on a piece of advice to people who are wanting to step into your space creating content, what sort of advice do you have? I mean stepping away from just saying I need it to be funny.
Yep, you've just said the C word, which is the word. So forget television because it's content now. Love Island is your classic example, doesn't rate very highly on television, but millions of people I've watched Australian Love Land, like millions, and that first series of Love Island now I think is up to nearly a billion YouTube views or something like that. That is such a good insanity.
If anyone's listening to this right now, and I know you are, and you didn't see the first season of Love Island, even though you say you don't watch reality TV. It was addictive, was it was crack cocaine?
Yeah, it was a pretty good series. And New York was fantastic placemake television. Okay, So look the advice is don't get hung up on the TV thing. Yes, of course. Look, I hope that free rate television is around for many many years to come and re TV certainly it is not going to die anytime soon. But you know, with streaming online digital short form stuff for social media, that's clearly the way forward. So content for anyone coming up.
Content could be doing a ninety minute strip reality show, or could be doing a ninety second clip for Facebook, and you might end up making more money out of the ninety second clip. So just be very focused on you know what you're best at. If your funny, go for funny. If you're serious, go for serious. If you're massive into sport, go for sport, and just go single minded at what you are good at, and be very very driven and be prepared to work very hard and
to hear no a lot. It's a really brutal industry.
Absolutely, it's a brutal.
Industry, and you've got to have a very very thick skin I don't know how.
You did it, Like you've launched Big Brother and then you managed to get Love Island, I'm a celebrity. And then when we talk about your new show next year, yep.
So I'm doing this show called The Cube with Andy Lee in filming in January or Go to War shortly after that. That's exciting.
What is that show? I know it's in a format that.
Basically it's games in a cube in a glass cube, so it's you know, big money on offer. You go in and you do games, which on the surface it looked relatively simple. Yeah, you know, catching a red ping pong ball in sorry, catching a white ping pong ball when there's a million red ping pong balls pouring out of a tube and you've only got one ball to catch, but it's white and all the rest of us so simple, you know, But when it's fifty grand on the line
or something, it suddenly becomes very difficult. And Andy's the perfect choice as host. So I'm going down to do that in Sydney in January, and that's very exciting because the closest thing I've ever done to a game show is Friday Not Live, I'm Big Brother, which I can't believe we did that live. Still baffles me how the hell we survived doing that.
But what a great show though. You know the fan base that goes out there for the style of I mean, Friday Night Games was really had a cult following and people still talk about that show.
Yeah.
I think people like to be able to I think they feel involved. I think what this show sounds like to me is it's the opportunity to think, what would I do in that?
Do you know what? That's exactly the best thing about the Cube is it it doesn't matter what shape, size, age you are an anybody can go in there, like everyone sat in a pub and flicked beer coasters, you know, at glasses and stuff like that, you know, and it's it's like that. It's very it's a very accessible show for everybody in this you know, go back to Fried not Live. But God, that was madness that we were doing games. No one does games live like I love games.
I love trials on MOLB, I love tasks on Big Brother, I love the challenges and on love arnand don't do them live. That was a fucking stupid idea, always thinking, but somehow it worked. God blessed Mike Goldman and Fitzy and brief for just talking non stop post We've tried to set those games up.
They were so good, a brilliant. Well, it's a fantastic career and you probably want just a quarterway through or halfway through, depending on how many cigarettes and coachs you have.
Yeah, I'd like to think I'm probably passed halfway now. But long, long, mate, continue of love. I've been very, very lucky, and that you know, I loved doing Big Brother. It was a real you know event in the show will be forever ever in my heart. Love Island is just you know, a riot and so much fun and just and.
You move every show that you do pretty much close to home, so Love Island will be on the Gold Coast.
But well we're hoping, you know, wen't found a villa yet, but we're looking. And I'm a celebrity. It's just, you know, I couldn't pick a more perfect show for me because it just is so self deprecating and that is that's me in a nutshell, you know, like I like to take the piece on of myself.
One hundred percent. That's like that. I think that's the charm. Last question I have for you something to end on a funny note. You know, when you're sitting around the table and you're talking, you know, dinner conversation, what's your go to funny story. After working on I'm a Celebrity, I Will, I will.
How can I tell this story without putting the person in it? So there was a series where a celebrity told a story in camp about a girl that he had been with, and he talked about, it's so hard to tell this story. Everyone's gonna who I'm talking about. No, a celebrity in camp talked about a girl that he had been with, and he talked about specifics in terms of what he had been doing on that day, what time of the year it was, you know, blah blah.
He then came running up to the tok toki straight after that conversation and was in the tok talky saying, it's okay for you to use that scene, but please don't say the time or the place, because I've just realized I was still married at the time. Basically, he just outed himself. So we then had to, you know, because again trust us, because why would we throw them
under the bus. So we then had to go back and look at the scene and go, okay, if you take that but out, it takes out any kind of time stamping and now we can run.
The scene as if you get dictated by these celebrities.
Clearly we were in charge of what you know goeswere once that once they go in. But yeah, if someone goes in and tells the really a story which is going to negatively affect their career, why would we run it? Because we want them more to be heroes. But you know, they're all playing for charity. And as I said before, the more you love them, Ben, the show is going.
To rate anyway. Thank you so much for your time. I hope people really enjoyed getting to know you a little bit more from behind the scenes and some of your motivations. And can they check it? Can they follow you on Twitter? I'm following you and I just am always surprised that you don't have more followers.
I Forgot've got nearly five thousand. That's pretty exciting. I don't even know what Twitter handle is well, is it one at Alex Mathrodocas.
I guess Look, I follow you a lot, but I don't know your Twitter hand.
I don't know what it is. I think I'm at Alex Mathrodocers.
I'll pop it at the end of the interview anyway, Cheers, Thanks so much for your time.
Thanks Bene,