It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week.
They're line Welcome back to TV Reload.
My name is Benjamin Norris, and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents, plus the talent that we see on our screens. TV Reload reloads the shows that we are all currently watching and gives you a better insight into our television industry
and our streaming services today. On the podcast, I have two of the latest eliminated contestants from Channel ten's new reality series The Challenge Australia. It is Olympic medalist Emily Sebom and Big Brother twenty twenty winner Marley Biendelo. Marley is the basketball loving, social game playing Big Brother winner who wild audiences with his first reality TV experience. He doesn't take himself too seriously and I think he was
a really great addition to The Challenge first series. Emily is the Olympic gold medalist who was last seen on armas Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, and her addition to this series was epic with an ability to do challenges like nobody else. But unfortunately, she did pick a few enemies up along the way and gave us some
pretty tense moments between her and her competitors. I will ask Emily about her current relationship with Ryan, I'll ask Marley who from the Big Brother universe he expected to see, and I will also get the dirt from their former rivalries. As I asked them, they need to know questions that will no doubt have them squirming in their seats. However, let's get started with today's guests. I'd like to welcome Marley and Emily from The Challenge Australia to TV Reload.
I went into that not knowing a single person in there previously.
On the Challenge.
You can't judge people on where they came.
From, strength, teamwork, resilience.
Funny you asked that, because you know I wouldn't have thought that before coming into here.
What just happened right there?
We tried to congratulate them and then just walk off. I was a big stand of the show, so when I got to call up the show, I was having that down for it.
Emily, Marley, tonight wasn't your night?
Guys. Yeah, I'm very out of the reality TV scene in world.
I'd say, hey, Maley, congratulations on surviving the Challenge Australia.
Ben, thank you very much. Barely I did, but I hey, I made it. I made it through.
How did the Challenge Australia compare to Big Brother?
Honestly, I I think and how I describe it when people ask me, I think it was a breeze compared to Big Brother. Now, I don't know if that's because I had that experience prior to going into the Challenge as being in a very similar game in Big Brother all that Big Brother was just an absolute nutcase, crazy social experiment like the Truman Show, and this was a lot different than that, So maybe that's why it was easier.
But I just I feel like Big Brother, we were constantly playing the game always, whereas being in the Challenge, I think there were times where we could rest relax and they allowed us to like just chill out outside and take naps, Like in Big Brother, you can't take naps, you know what I mean. So I feel like the challenges were like crazy in Big Brother. They were also crazy in the Challenge, But I just feel like all in all, it was an easier experience, which was cool.
I enjoyed that it was a lot more laid back for me.
I kept watching it and thinking, you know, you had so much experience with the new format of Big Brother and those challenges, and some of the challenges were quite reminiscent of some of the challenges you may have done in Big Brother back in the day, So I thought, you know, you had maybe more experience or actually got a head start on these people, you know how it all happens.
Definitely, that's exactly right, and I felt like that was an advantage going into the game. I also felt like that would have put a target on my back going in because people would have realized that I played a game very similar to this prior and actually won that game, I guess. So I was like, oh, this might not be the best for me coming in, but I knew that that was going to be an advantage coming in, and that's I think why then I felt like it was such a breeze to me compared to Big Brother.
Did you also think that there would be other Big Brother housemates in there, because as your name was being rumored, there was like Tim Dormer and Tully and a few other names being rumored. So were you surprised to see that you were the only Big Brother person in there?
God, Yes, I was, And I was hoping there was someone else in there. Then I had no one. I went into that not knowing a single person in there. Literally never spoken a word to anyone in that house. Ben, So I was like, dude, I'm the only one here, and I'm coming up against all these people that have been on The Bachelor together or married at First Side or you know this and that survivor, and you know, and I'm the only one in there.
Was the alliances was unfair. That's what I've kept thinking. I was like, Paul Marley, if you were in there and Big Brother people, you'd know this from when you go to functions. You go to functions and all the Big Brother people stick together like glue, very much like the way the Bachelor contestants.
Were doing that.
You needed that absolutely.
I did hear that Dormer and Tully were on the list of people that they were casting, but when they found out they both were in relationships, they pulled them out.
But then you're still with the same girlfriend hunt you.
Yeah, that's right. I sure, am, yeah, still with her and actually, funnily enough, I think they were interested in having Lenn potentially be on the challenge, so maybe down the line we might be on there together at some point. Yeah, which would be awesome. I would have loved to have gone in there with her. So yeah, yeah, that is interesting to hear. I didn't I didn't actually know that.
Maybe you'll get married and then your children will be on the challenge and see it.
You know, it's just a long Yeah.
Was there anyone though? From yours?
I feel like we need the juice on this, because, like, if you could choose two people from the Channel seven iteration of Big Brothers, so not you know, not the previous ones, but maybe someone from your season, maybe a Daniel Grange. I don't know, is there someone that can you give me two names?
Yeah? So wait, do you want me to pick one person from my season as well?
Yeah? Just pick one from your season and one.
From the one from the one before. Hey yeah, good, good, Okay. I would have loved to have gone in there. I think Katie from my season would have been awesome on the challenge. I think she would have crushed it. Yeah, get along with Katie yeah, her, Oh, Jess, they're the same to me, Her, Jess. We're gonna put them in as a pair, okay together a Katie or Jess one of them would be great. And then oh yeah, Dan from the season before would have been hilarious. Even Matt.
I love Matt. That would have been great. Mad good time, you know, Yeah, he's such an awesome guy. I would have loved Madden there with me. That would have been perfect if I if I had Madden there with me, I would have been chilling.
You know that we're What we're talking about, essentially, though, is what they need to do, and that is a all stars version of the Channel seven series, because I think that would be I think we need another series to happen, which you know we know is on the way, and then they need to do like a collection of five from you know, all the seasons that we've seen on seven.
That would be great. And all of those people agreed, Okay, great, Well we've talked.
About that stuff, so we can get that out of the way. You know, did the type of show, you know, does the type of show that the contestants come from say much about who they are in the show, Like, did you notice that, Oh that's behavior from a Bachelor contestant. Oh that's behavior from a survivor. Can you tell someone's personality based on the show they come from?
That's so funny you asked that because you know, I wouldn't have thought that before coming into here, But yes you can, And I think that's why from the jump as well. For example, I got really close with Troy and Brooke j from the jump, I knew. I knew Brooke came from Survivor, a very similar show to be Brother. Yeah, and you know she she not only was just an amazing human being overall, but she understood how to play a game. And that's kind of why and where we
connected within that game. And then there was the other end of the house where there was this you know, Bachelor crew or people coming from Love Island, And yes, you could tell that they were from those shows.
Yeah, I thought you. I'm agree, but.
Yeah, no, you're spot on. You're spot on, Ben.
Yeah, And I also curious to know, like you know, for you, you're not someone who's really known as having outrageous things said about them in the media, like you're pretty squeaky clean. But I love to ask people what's the most outrageous thing they've read about them, you know, in the news?
Have?
And I tried to look, because you always looked for something like that online, and I honestly couldn't find anything that was untrue.
Everything that anyone was writing about it was pretty accurate. You haven't robbed a bottle shop or done anything, dad, But what's the most outrageous thing you've read about yourself online? That's not true?
That's that's so good. I honestly, I haven't really seen much either then, And I'm not gonna lie. I don't even look into it too much. I really I couldn't care too much about what people were to write up about me, and I honestly I haven't seen anything outrageous myself. Maybe you and I can make something up, you and I can put something out there, you know, then we can maybe we can both say that we rubbed a bottle shop together, and we need that.
I mean.
The funny thing about being in a reality show with a collection of reality show contestants you know already been through the process, is that they are the type of people have Google alerts on themselves because you know, but you're not like that at all. I know this not at all the very little that I've had interactions with you. You're just not the sort of person that's going to be sitting there googling your name at home, you know what I mean.
No, I'm so not in that And even though I've been into reality TV shows now, I'm still so not in that world. And hence why I didn't freaking know anyone coming into this, Like I just came in not only on my own so that was a disadvantage, but also didn't even know anybody coming into this game. So yeah, I'm very out of the reality TV scene and world. I'd say that, But.
You also make good television, which is why. I remember when they were casting one of the seasons of SAS, I knew the casting woman, and I rang and said, you have to put Marley on this show. You're awesome, And I just still think that's a possibility. We've still got to get you into SAS because I think that's a show that you would crush more than this.
I don't know why.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I'm such a competitive band and that's where you know where and why I wanted to do the challenge, but also why I was so disappointed. I didn't, you know, get all the way to the final and just missed out there at the end. Because I'm just such a competitor. I just want to do anything to win, and I will almost do anything to win in a competitive sense. And yeah, no, definitely any competitive based show. I am definitely open ears and down Fred.
What about Emily studying this show?
Though? I was wondering whether you studied the show, because you know, The Challenge is a show that's been happening around the world. They have different iterations of it. Did you go and watch those to sort of bone.
Up like she did?
Absolutely?
I did.
I definitely did. I It's funny. Actually, so my girlfriend when I came out of Big Brother, she was such as she's American, she has watched the Challenge since she's been little. So when I came out of Big Brother, yeah, her and all her teammates like, you got to do the Challenge next, You got to do the Challenge next.
So it's so funny, this full circle moment that almost a year later I got asked to be on the Challenge and from that point I started watching the American seasons and I was freaking like, yo, this is wild right, like insane. And I had a little moment in the actual game where we were in water at twelve am
at night, this random Argentinian lake. It was freaking freezing, and I was having flashbacks to one of the American episodes where this guy had like he was getting hypothermia and he like couldn't be like an ambulance had to come, and I was like, oh my god, this is happening to me.
I love that it's a possibility for You're like, in real life, how do you not watch that show? You would have been like, there's no way that these producers would allow me to get hypothermia exactly exactly. Then you're freaking out telling everyone's no, we are going to get the hypothermia, and the ambulance are on their way.
I absolutely love it. I think it's great.
You know, in comparison to the versions that you've now because you've seen the Australian version, you've watched it back hopefully, but how did our version compare to the American version?
Look, it was it was. I think they went went easy on us for the first season, which I think they had to. It's at the sure season them doing something like this in Australia and they did. You know we're We're on at seven thirty on Channel ten. It's a family friendly slot there compared to America, which is a nine thirty slot on MTV. It was a lot less brutal. I think the challenges were a lot less brutal.
I don't know if that was to do with them just trying to ease people into it and us as a cast into it, or maybe it was a you know, a funding thing as well. You know, this is the first time they did this, so they can't have crazy extravagant things like us jumping out of fricking aeroplanes and stuff like they do the American season. That's what I came in and expected to do. So I think it was.
Yeah, yeah, it was still hanging off a.
Bit almost exactly we're still doing stuff like that, But I think, yeah, it was. It was a lot easier than the American seasons. But I think it's just going to get better and you know, continue to get more brutal depending on who they cast.
It'll go from there.
Everyone that's joining the podcast from the Challenge Australia that I've had on of us and these five need to know questions. You don't need to go into too much detail unless you want to throw yourself right under that bus.
But yeah, well are you ready to go? We'll got top five questions.
Okay me, I'm ready to go.
Who was the nicest contestant in there?
Brook J? Brook J was the nicest?
Definitely just a side note. Two people said you by the way, Two people so far.
Have said that's so sweet, very sweet.
No one said you to the next question was who was the biggest villain in there?
Biggest villain would have been, Oh, that's a tough one man. Biggest villain, I honestly think it could have been here, and to be honest, because I feel like he'd do anything to get to the end of this thing, so I feel like he. I think by popular demand, it might be cont Connor, but I think Karen in my eyes because I was kind of aligned with Connor, so maybe kids Karen.
Kind of looks like he could be like a modern age Disney villain, you know what I mean, like.
Absolutely yeah, and looked he plays the part well, you know what I mean, great guy, But I just I know that he would do anything.
From living with these people. Who was the messiest.
Oh, Troy, my freaking roommate, Troy. I honestly he was. And his nickname is dirt for a reason then, because he is the dirtiest kid. Like, honestly, he would I would make him shower. I'm like, Troy, dude, get in the shower, like he hadn't showered all day and like broke, get in the shower. But he would make my bed every morning then, which I loved. He's a great guy. I love Troy. That's my boy. He was my best friend in Man.
Yeah, romance was. It was very cute.
But you know those people that grow up bouldering. You know what bouldering is, you know, the climbing up the walls. Yeah, they they don't really care about smell. And I know that because I.
Regard for hygiene. And he did smell. I'm not gonna lie. Then he did, And you know what, I started to become accustomed taught myself. I just took it on board.
This is what you get with him amongst his own clan. That's totally fine. They all smelt. Anyway, We're going on, who is the funniest person in there?
Oh, that's so good. Okay, the funniest person in there. Kieran was up there. God, he was hilarious. Conrad was honestly really funny. And I'm gonna I'm gonna get a sleeper here. I don't know if many people have said this, but Megan was so funny. She's freaking hilarious, and the stories that she tells. She's got such a dry humor. I think mean's actually up there. She's funny. She's so funny. I love Megan.
I have heard that from a lot of people that she's very dry, very funny.
She is so dry and so just just funny.
We needed to see more of that, and then, you know, not what you know now, because obviously you would know more, you know, because things have been recorded, things have happened. But when you left the competition, who did you want to win?
I wanted to win obviously, obviously my if I wasn't going to win, and I was saying it the whole way through there. I wanted Troy to take this thing out on the guys end, and I wanted Brook Brook Jay also to take this thing out as well. So when I left the game, I was like, if Troy and Brooke win this, I am so so happy, and I hope that they do take this thing out because I absolutely love them. They're all my closest in there and I and I think especially Troy, I feel like
he is a He's a challenge, you know, enthusiast. He's watched every single season. He was so with it and he worked so hard as well, just like myself, and I really wanted him to win this thing, and I know he needs the money and I would love him to take it out.
Did you give him any tips on, you know, coming into Sudden fortune?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I would talk. We would talk every night about that. You know what, what what it would look like if we won, and you know what what you know how that how all that goes, and how life changes if you do win. We just have such great chats about the game and about outside of the game as well. And that's why, you know, I almost knew about his whole life. And I would love nothing more than to see Troy take this thing out and win it because he could do so much with the money.
For sure.
Well, mate, I am so happy that I got to have this chat with you. There was a list of people when the names came out when we got the first teaser of all the names.
I was like, wait to talk.
I don't know how well you would go whether you were in it, to you come out of the start or to the end.
I was like, can't wait to talk to Marley.
Thank you so much for being so generous with your time and sharing your experience and good luck, and says we'll talk next.
Yes, yes, that's right. Then, thank you so much. The next time it will be with sas we'll see. But thank you so much. You're a pleasure to talk to as always, and I hope that you have an amazing day mate, You're the best.
Absolutely love chatting with Mary as I always do. Here is a very worthy and wonderful big Brother winner and it was great to see him on the challenge. But stick around now as I will get the chance to talk to Emily cbomb. She is in the car and has some pretty bad reception at times, but I get to ask her about Ryan and the new relationship, and at the end of the day, just that's kind of all that really matters. Hey, stick around for Emily and
I hope you enjoy this chat. Hi, Emily, congratulations on surviving the challenge. Australia.
I don't know if I survived. I mean I lasted as long as I could, but I didn't make it all the way to the end, which I had hoped for.
No, you survived the Challenge Australia, because the way I watched the show, I felt like I related the most to you. The whole way through. I felt like you were maybe a.
Little bit it seemed like you were older than these people or I don't know, and putting myself in your shoes, I think it might have been a fairly hectic experience.
Definitely, definitely was a hectic experience. I mean, I can only play the game as I am as a person, and I play an upfront, honest, tell it how it is game, and some people don't like that. More than okay, I'm I'm happy to not be liked by people. You can't be liked by everyone. But I had an amazing time and I became friends with some amazing people that I absolutely adore, So I'm really happy with my experience.
Also, my good friend David Subritski mentioned to me before You Know You did this show, he mentioned that you suffer from sometimes resting bitch face, and so He's like, people don't necessarily understand her all the time. She's a wonderful person, but she's one suffers from resting bitch face.
Yeah, it's more the fact that I can't hide how I feel in my face. So if, like, if I feel something, you'll just by looking at my face, you'll know either I'm annoyed or I'm pissed off or like, whatever it is, I show up but in my face very quickly. I can't hide that. And I mean I'm not trying to hide anything, Like I went on that show being like, I am an honest, upfront person. People are either going to like it or I'm not going to like it. But that's how I'm going to play
my game. I'm going to play the game as me as a person, And I mean it got me to where I was, so I mean, I did it right.
You did so well.
But you know that is the recipe for the best reality TV contestants is if you wear your heart on your sleeve, then you are a producer's dream because they can always cut to you and you can narrate the situation. You are expressing exactly what everyone else is feeling. And that's a beautiful thing to see.
Yeah, I mean I couldn't be anyone else other than myself, and I wouldn't want to try and put on an app So I went in there and I was like, I'm going to be the same person that I'm going to be outside of this show. I'm going to do,
you know, whatever I can. Obviously, I have that athlete side of me, that's super competitive, focused side of me that you know, wants to win all the time, and I have that and I took that into the challenge as well, and then outside of that, I was just one hundred percent me and that's all I could do.
I also, it was so strange to me you did so much research before going in doing the challenge. You know, you watched you know, ninety five seasons of the show, however many there is, and then then you were you surprised that the others hadn't done their homework.
I mean, like, if you're going to go on to a show like you might as well know what you're going in for. I was a big fan of the show, so when I got the call up for the show, I was like home percent down for it, like want it. That was one of my goals was to be on that show, like obviously the American version of it, and if like this version gets me there, that would be fantastic.
But yeah, no, I knew what I was in for, and I had trained for it, and I was ready for it, and I mean the only thing I couldn't anticipate was the social side of the game and all that, and that was probably like the part that I was maybe unprepared for.
This is going to make get me into a bit of trouble, but I'm just going to say it anyway. But early reports were being leaked to journalists back at home here in Australia as the filming was happening, and the reports will become in were that Emily Sebaum is the villain of the series. But I thought it was really interesting that that narrative that kept being pushed out there had to have been pushed out there by all the people that were in your opposing team essentially.
Yeah, I mean, like it's a part of the show that people aren't going to get along and they want to air that and they want that drama. And I just did the best that I could with the people that were in there. Like obviously, like we're not all going to get along. There were twenty two people in one house, Like, we're not always going to get along. But yeah, I mean, why was the villain?
Then?
I guess I'm the villain.
I don't think you were the villain at all.
I think it just says something more about the type of people that were leaking stuff to the media, do you know what I mean? Like, I think we're only getting one side of the story because I've also spoken to so many other people that absolutely did not see you that way. So you know, obviously there's two things can be true at the same time. I guess is
the best way to describe it. I was just chatting to Marley, and Marley I asked him about, you know, can you tell a personality, you know, based on the show that they were from. You know, once you've been in there for a little bit, were you able to go, oh, they're bachelor people and they all behave a certain way, Like can you categorize the way people are based on the show they came from.
I mean, you can't judge people on where they came from. I can only judge people on how they treat me. And I guess, like what I can see personally, and I mean there was people in there. No I didn't get along with them, and like I probably won't be friends of them, but that's okay. Like we can't get along with everyone every single time, and when we live in a space twenty four seven where you can't get away from these people, like people will get on your nerves.
And I'm sure I did that to people too. People didn't like me, and I got on people's nerves. But like, I'm not going to talk bad about anyone because like it is what it is, and it was a game, and it was it was for TV, and if that's what they need to do, then that's what they needed to do. But I'm going to go on the show, be myself and let people really see who I am. And that's all I can control. I can't control how other people see me. I can't control what they say
about me. And look, to be honest, I don't care.
What about these rumors about you and Ryan. You know, obviously there was rumors floating around you guys.
Absolutely crap, Hi, shut up.
Everyone wants to know whether or not. I mean, what's the real story behind the connection between the two of you.
Just to d Yeah, well we got on the show so well, we were partners on the very first challenge we won. We just knew that the entire show that we had each other's backs and we weren't going to backstab each other. We're going to look out for each other and we did and like nothing obviously happened on the show, Like we weren't a spa rendezvous and we weren't a shower scene. We were completely friends on the show and outside of that, there was just something more.
There, so official confirmation and that you two are Australia's hottest reality TV item.
We're not going to answer, well, I don't know that way, but yeah, I don't know what to say that that.
I was going to say, what did you say? Emily?
I was going to ask you about what Keiki and Connor said at the end of the episode, because I thought it was really shady. They were kind of like they should have just been really noble on what's the word that I'm They should have been really humble about the way in which they won and they walked away, but they were like, oh, she was an Olympian. I can't believe we've beate an Olympian. What did you think about their reaction to winning.
Just because I'm an Olympian doesn't mean I can do everything Tom Dick and Harry can do like I can't. Like I was an Olympian in the water in a pool. If you beat me there, then yes, say you've beat an Olympian, But like, you didn't beat an Olympian in something that she actually does. That's like saying, like me doing a makeup competition with Kiki and going I beat a makeup artist, like you know, like it doesn't compare outside of what you actually are known for.
I also think growing up I was made to believe I'm not made to believe there was a there's a certain respect that you give to people who represent Australia in the Olympics, and so I couldn't even imagine saying anything bad to you. Even if I didn't like you, Emily, I would still be like that person represented Australia. I have so much respect for them. So like that's kind of lost on the next generation in some ways. And I guess that was kind of seen in the challenge.
In a way.
Yeah, I mean I don't care what I did me that was my love. That was my passion. I didn't do it for self gratification or for people to stand up and give me a round them of course every time I enter a room, like I couldn't think of anything worse than that. Like I did it for me.
I didn't do it for anyone else. And I don't, like I don't need to just be like seen in that certain way, but like, you know, to say comments, like some of the comments that were said, like like me and Ryan, we're happy and like we like watching the show back, like we see what they aired and we know what actually happened, and you're good, and yeah, we made peace with it a very long time ago, like we left the show together and like that was the best thing that happened to us, was that show.
And yeah, like we might not have aired the way that we were to hope, but we found each other.
And now call that. Man.
I have to ask you these top five need to know questions.
Feel free to throw yourself under the bus with the answers or say it or play the fifth, but everyone who's joined the podcast has had them. Alrighty are you ready? Okay, who was the nicest contestant in there? Bryan Who was the biggest villain?
Oh, I don't know, that's hard. I mean the person that I didn't get along with the most was probably Connor.
Who was the messiest person that you live with?
The messiest? Probably David.
Yeah, boys in general, everyone that was on this show, Like all these boys are so messy.
It's it's just it's crazy.
Ye.
Who's the funniest person in there?
David?
I just love d I've.
Got David for so long and I just think he's the night Like I've known him since he was fifteen, and he's it's just so funny.
He's larger than life. It needs his own show. And who was Who did you want to win?
Like when you left the competition, not what you know now, don't let any other things into the equation, but who did you want to win?
Who did I want to win? I wanted myself to win, and if I didn't win, I want to rhyme win. And if we didn't win, and I wanted Sugar or Grant win, I mean yeah, I wanted anyone that I was like really that had my back for me, that was a.
Part of your alliance, which is understandable.
Can I just say so lovely to be able to have this chat with you, and thank you for being so generous with your time that means a lot to me, so worried anytime