Welcome back to TV Reload. This is another bonus episode featuring a quick chat with Matt Shirvington, one of the hosts of Channel seven's later shows Ultimate Tag. Matt Shervington's athletic career made him a household name when he competed for the first time at the Kuala Lumpur Olympics in nineteen ninety eight. Shervington is the second fastest Australian sprinter of all time, and just as quickly, he has established
himself as a TV presenter. This year, he found himself as the man of the moment at Channel seven, hosting Holy Moly and now Ultimate Tag. There's something authentic and quite natural about his presenting style and it's no wonder Australia loves seeing him on their TV screens. So I'd like to welcome you to today's guest. It's Matt Shirvington.
Got this opportunity to do this brand new show, Ultimate Tag. It's got a sport kind of underlying it.
Welcome to the fastest show on television.
The elitists and the athleticism. I really really bought into.
The longer they last, the further I'll go.
I just feel so comfortable to be able to apply my skill set that I built up as a sports broadcast.
There's only one rule. I've been lucky enough to have enough experience behind me to be able to be myself.
How are you, mate? Are you well?
I'm going really well? Yeah, very happy to join.
You, Matt, You've become the king of Channel seven. To Sony Krueger's Queen, was it a surprise to get asked to host Ultimate Tags? So soon after Holy Moly?
Do you know?
My opportunity to diversify my career came hard and fast. I moved to Channel seven midway through last year and started in the newsroom in Sport, and I got a call to do a screen test for Holy Moly, and jumped at that chance, and knowing that there was an American series, and I was able to kind of watch that and get a gist of what was going on. And then barely weeks later I got a call to do this other screen test for another amazing show called Ultimate Tag, and that one I kind of like.
I really invested myself in both of them.
But the first screen test, I was very nervous, and I worked really hard on trying to understand the concept and whatever else. And when Ultimate Tag came around, I knew what the concept was. However, I was working in the news room that day and I had the morning news and then I had the afternoon news, and in between I had about a ninety minute block where I had to drive from Martin Place to Botany Bay to
do a screen test for Ultimate Tag. And I remember walking away going I think that was okay, but do you know what, I probably didn't give it my best and I might not get it. And sure enough, a couple of weeks later, I got a call and they said, would you like to do it? And I was like, yes, because Ultimate Tag it's the fastest show on television. It's got a sport kind of underlying it with the gameplay side of it, but also the eliteness and the athleticism
I really really bought in too. So yeah, I just feel so comfortable to be able to apply my skill set that I built up as a sports broadcaster and kind of branch out into entertainment. So yes, there's been a little bit of me and you know, kind of writing the coattails of Sonya, particularly on Holy Molly's been a blessing.
Did Krueger give you any tips on hosting every show on Channel seven?
Sonya and I have come completely full circle because I was on the first series of Dancing with the Stars and it was like a completely planet aligned moment where I had just pulled out of the Olympic Games. I'd got this opportunity to do this brand new show, which was strange in its concept ballroom dancing with celebrities.
Anyway.
I kind of said no straight away, and my mother in law said, hey, do you know what. I was leaving in London at the time, and there was a show called Strictly Come Dancing, which was basically the same show, and she said, I love that show.
You've got to do it anyway.
I thought, free trip back home in the sunshine in Australia, I'll go and do it anyway. Sonya was the original host, one of the co hosts with Darryl Summers on the first one. So Sonya and I have kind of known each other since then and have come full circle. But do you know what I do ask her for tips and advice, and especially in this industry that she's navigated so so well and very attentive when she does talk and give me some advice because she knows a lot.
Yeah.
Well, I think that you both share something really quite similar, and that is that there's an element of being a presenter but also still being yourselves, Like there's a bit of there's always a bit of yourself left in your presenting, which is what I really like about watching you on Telly. And it's the same as watching Sonya on Telly. I love that element that you bring to it.
I appreciate that, I really do.
And I think having had a career in a sport in another part of life, I think that's what I learned was you've just got to be honest with people and kind of wear you're hard on your sleeve a little bit. And I think that's all people really want is someone it's genuine and is not trying to sugarcoat things or be someone else.
Look, you know, take me out of it.
I think anyone that resonates with viewers, whether it's on television or listeners on radio, are the ones that are just being themselves and being genuine. And you know, you can rattle off a whole lot of names, and some we love, some are polarizing, but you can't blame them for being themselves.
Because that's exactly what they are.
So one thing I've definitely learned in this industry is that confidence to be yourself comes through experience. So I think the more comfortable you are with understanding the business that you're in, the more you can show your own character. It's kind of like I remember someone saying, make sure whenever you write a news story, make sure you put it in your own words, because you're going to deliver
it in the most natural way. So I guess, without sort of digressing too far, I think I've been lucky enough to have enough experience behind me to be able to be myself. And it's taken a long time. I've got to be honest. I mean, I've made every mistake there is to make Live to Wear, So yeah, that's pretty humbling too.
No, I think it's what we need to see more of. I think more people will return back to Free to Wear the more that we see ourselves on screen. And I think that ultimately is what we see with the style of presenting, which is what I'm still always drawn to whenever I watch any of your work, and I think that's really important. You know, the days of being word perfect and being sort of too perfect, I think is one of the reasons why people might turn away
from watching shows. You know, so I think it's quite powerful.
Well, it's funny, you know.
I think you've kind of experienced at firsthand. And I didn't really notice this until I lived in London for quite some time and Big Brother was huge over there for a period through the mid sort of two thousands, and I didn't fully understand why, aside from the fact that you're watching these people, but you kind of feel like you're part of their community.
You kind of feel.
Like you're at the dinner table with them, you're sharing conversations with them, and I think that that is what people want. I think that's what viewers want, is to feel like you're part of the journey, not just on the outside, but you can kind of feel like you're one of them. And definitely I think a vulnerability and a relaxed nature of how you present is key to that, because otherwise they just do feel like an outsider, like they're being spoken to rather than part of the conversation.
Well, I think TV needs to be aspirational, and so we want to feel like we can be there, that we can join the conversational that we're there and we're seen.
That's why when you're listening to someone be interviewed, you're screaming at the interviewer to ask this or ask that, or you respond to the to the question, or so often you will have someone being interviewed going, oh, what a great question. And it's it's exactly that people want to feel like they're in control.
One hundred percent. Now I need to ask you about this because Ultimate Tag we're just on the verge of it dropped, and there's so many people wanting to know how it's all going to work because in a way we think it's Tiggy like what we all played at school, but it's like, you know, it's the childhood game, but I guess it's all ultimately a bit like it's on steroids. How is this all going to work beyond how we think and remember what Tiggy is like as a kid, how is this going to work for adults?
Gin know what, in its simplest way, it is that game, And you're absolutely right. What we've done is we've amped it up. We've taken it to the absolute extreme, and Ultimate Tag is the perfect name for it. But we have professional taggers. So the pro tagers are the most elite athletic, from sporting backgrounds, from parkol backgrounds, dance fighting, you name it. They have an unbelievable experience to navigate
these courses, these ultimate tag courses. Then what happens is you have the players, and the players are the ones that have to stay away. So pro taggers are in or they're it, I guess you would say. And then the players are the ones that are trying to stay away, the ones that are taunting and running in the school yard as.
We did as kids.
But the really interesting thing here is that the players themselves too are very athletic and have a diverse backgrounds behind them. We've got olympians, we've got international level gymnasts, we've got concretors, we've got tradees, we've got bank managers, you name it. There is this vast array of people, and I think the great thing and the resonance that we have here is that everyone's represented. So everyone that played tag or tip can identify with someone in their backstory.
But then also they're very good at what they do as well. So out on the course you have a number of obstacles and I think one of the really great things about Ultimate Tag is that it is completely adaptable to how you use those obstacles. So you don't know what's coming, you don't know how the player is going to use it, you don't know how the pro tag is going.
To use it.
Literally, and we often say this, blink and you'll miss it, But the truth is when a player comes out, they don't know what they're going to do, let alone the audience.
So you'll watch them run this course and.
They will use a bar or a box in a way that you haven't seen and it'll shock you, and it'll shock the protager, and then the protag will kind of adapt to that and change. And do you know who I felt most sorry for in this whole production with the cameramen, because they are the ones trying to keep an eye on our players and protagers, and you can imagine, like.
There was no rhyme or reason to it.
The ones that impress the most in regards to the players and the protagers too were the ones that use the course in the most unorthodox way. And trust me, it'll blow your mind some of the stuff that these guys can do. And I say that having lined up against some of the most supremely elite athletes in the world. The game you loved as kids, Hi Gay is now the fastest show on the planet.
Let's go out.
Every day.
Aussies will take on these superhuman athletes.
Yeah, it's safe to say that I'm nervous.
It's like you're a little baby and a t Rex is behind you, just running after you.
Three he.
With one hundred thousand dollars on the.
Line, one hundred k it would be life changing.
Each new course is more daunting commission than the last.
Five foot four and you're asking me to jump up a.
Three meter wall, bro, They'll be highs and low.
Oh my god, could get a medic you telling me.
It's like nothing you've ever seen before, the believable, and there's only one rule. Who will have what it takes.
This is outstanding stuff.
To be crowned the champion.
Starts something much seven.
The other simplest way to describe it. We have taken an action movie, all of those chase scenes that you've seen down back alleys, overbuilding tops, all of those things that you kind of think of from an action movie, and we brought it to life.
Did you get to try any of these courses.
I so desperately wanted to do.
You know, every time i'd get on a box or a bar or you know, they've all got names, the junction or the wedge. Every time I would get on one of the obstacles, the EP would get in my ear and say.
Get down, get Servo off there. We can't afford for him to get injured. We can't slow production down. He can't get hurt. So I was like, come on, I just want to have one go, Just let me jump off something, just once.
So I did sneak up on a couple of times, but no, I didn't run it in its most glorious way, which it's meant to be.
You don't want to annoy killing. You want to come back for series two.
Killy was so hilarious. It was so good having her in my She was so funny.
For people who are listening to this, that's the executive producer of Ultimate Tag, a great woman, and I think she's going on to do the next series of Survivors. So maybe that'll be the next thing down the line. She'll call you up and ask you to go and do that show where you would be allowed to do all the stunts. Have they ever asked you to do Survivor?
They have, Yeah, in the past.
I've been niced a few times and I've been kind of contracted to a network, so I mean, yeah, I mean Survivor would be.
Would be fun.
I mean it's a huge investment of time and you've really got to You've got to want to do it. You've got to got a camp outside and have minimal amounts to eat. And Matt Rodgers was on Holy Moly Celebrity and he's.
What did they call him, the Godfather? I think it was the Godfather of Survivor.
Yeah, it's I mean, I'd love to have that physical challenge. I'd love to really test myself in that way. I mean, similar to sas as well on Channel seven.
Maybe that's the third series. Have they asked you to do ESAs?
No, No, no, and I have had I've had a little bit of advice from those.
That have done it.
It's tough.
Yeah, yeah, it's real.
It's real, and I think that's the thing that you know, kind of set the tone for it.
It is no mucking around. They only get what.
They get and they have to do the challenges and yeah, no, it's tough, So yeah, I'd have to think about that one.
Getting back into Ultimate Tag, you know, you saw so many of these people go through. I mean you saw all the players going in there. They all had fairly unusual names. Did you have anyone in your mind that's stuck out. I was reading all of the press releases today and reading all the different players that were there,
and I thought Hollywood was an interesting one. He was as a little boy, as a baby, he played like a significant role on Home in Away for like five years, and then you know, now he's an adult and he's named Hollywood on this show and taking part in the challenge for you. Did you have a memorable player that stays in your mind?
Yeah, there's a few. There's definitely a few players that stood out to me. There was one girl called Rebecca Bennett who I kind of had an affiliation.
With because she's a track and field athlete.
She's actually a very very talented four hundred meter runner, and without doubt, you'll see her, and she's already done so in the youth level, but you'll see her where the Green and Gold. She's that good an athlete and she's a career for a girl with cerebral palsy, and her backstory is just so stunning and so beautiful and so emotional. I won't give anything away, but it'll lift you up and break your heart.
Her story it is, it's just unbelievable.
That's what we want to see. They're the good stories. You know, you've been around, you know talking about athletes, you know, because you've been around for so long in a massive icon in the sporting world. Can we talk
about the highs and lows of being an athlete? How did you find yourself in this second career, Because I guess there's a lot of people out there that look up to you and have probably given the all into sport, and then and then thinking about this second career, you know, what advice do you have for them to see that there's more outside of their sport.
There's definitely two key things that I learned from my athletic career that I've taken into TV. The first one is, and I touched on this is confidence and an experience. And confidence comes from understanding the industry. And the only way to understand the industry is to do the work.
So you've really got to work hard at understanding I guess the audience that you're trying to talk to, the work you may be researching athletes for the coverage that you're working on, for an interview that you're about to do, whatever it is. So preparation and experience leads to confidence without a doubt, and that's definitely something that I learned in my career. The other thing, and I often get asked this from either athletes or footy players. Moving from
how do I get into TV? My best advice is this, your athletic career or your professional career before television or before anything else, is a foot in the door, and you still have to learn this industry equally to that person that is grinding their way through it at the same time.
And for two reasons.
One, just because you can do something in one particular industry and it's built a profile for you doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be able to do that as competently in the next one. And Two, the work you do and the willingness to understand the business and to put the work in will grow your own credibility in own respect, and I think that is hugely important,
especially in television. So my advice to them is go to a newsroom somewhere because in a newsroom you've got to you've got to write, you've got to edit, you've got to have a news now, so an understanding what the actual story is. And then in the background you you've got to present and you've got to articulate what
you're trying to say. So you do all elements, and you do it under a huge amount of pressure often and also too, it's usually a twenty four hour thing, so you can go in there at any time and sit in an edit suite with your editors and understand how a story gets put together and understand how writing works, and you get to see it from the very start, from scratch, you know, it's just a slug in the.
Rundown right through to going to air.
So yeah, that's my advice from you know, transitioning into TV definitely.
Well, I guess the message then for a lot of people as well as to just immerse themselves into another universe the way that they have, because you know, that's one of the harder things. You know, do you think that some of the sporting clubs and our sport do we need to work harder on assimilating people back into the real world after their careers have sort of come to an end, you know, stepping away from the idea
of progressing into it a television career. But you know just what happens to them next, you know, I do.
I think it's a really good point, and I kind of I use the metaphor as climbing Everest, and you know, I don't want to bore you with philosophy, but the way I have best understood it is your athletic career is like climbing Everest. And it's a great metaphor to use because we often use it. Start at the base and try and climb to the pin. The only issue is when you actually do climb to Everest. You don't
pack your bag just for the ascent. You pack your bag and all your preparation for coming back down as well. And usually when you claim Mount Everest. In real life, when you're coming back down is when all the shit hits the fans. So if you've got all the right equipment and extra tanks of oxygen and the right people guiding you, then you'll come down safely. The biggest issue for an athlete is often when you start at zero on your ascent. You've got people around you. You've got
an agent wanting to be your friend. You've got your coach, you've got your manager, you've got your your physio, you've got your dietitian, you've got friends and family, you've got your psychologists, You've got everyone behind you, and they're pushing you to go up.
This mountain, up this hill, to get to that pinnacle. And let's say a gold medal is your pinnacle.
At the Olympic Games, I didn't reach that, but I got a World Championship medal at Comwealth Games medal, so I didn't traverse all the way to the absolute pinnacle. But ironically, I still have to come back down because I've made that journey. I've started that journey. When you get to the top, you start to realize, hang on, there's no manager anymore. There's no well, rarely there's a manager, there's no physio, there's no coach. All of these people
have kind of disappeared. And then you're staring down this hill, this mountain, and it becomes overwhelming, it becomes really hard. So unless you have the right amount of people to help you down. And one thing, and this is and I often say this to school kids particularly. The one thing that will band your team together is humility and gratitude, because if you have that on the way up, they will hopefully be there on the way back down. But if you treat them like crap on the way up,
you've got to get back down somehow. I'll use Michael Phelps as a great example of someone that just strapped on a parachute and jumped off the pinnacle.
After Beijing, he.
Retired and he had a DUI, he got caught taking drugs, He had suicidal tendency is depression because you just jumped off the top. At the most success anyway, he decided to go back up the mountain. He went to the London Olympic Games, won a few more medals. By that stage, he had a wife, he had a kid, he had a business that he had started, and then all of a sudden, that journey off the mountain became a lot
easier for him. So that's kind of my metaphor, and I think if you can get the right team and you have all of that humility and gratitude on the way up, often you'll you'll carry that back down.
Oh one hundred percent. I think that's the message there, and I think for young people out there that might stumble across this podcast, I think that's really powerful. And kudos to you as well going out to those schools and talking to young people so that they're mentally prepared you for the journey up the hill, but certainly the journey down. You know, you said you were excited about the interesting blend of entertainment and sport with some of
these shows that you've just been working on. Do you think that this will be an interesting year for sport post COVID where after COVID last year, a lot of sports now sort of under a very different state and you know, obviously not out the other side of COVID, what do you think the future of sport looks like on Australian television.
It was really interesting, wasn't it.
I thought sport particularly adapted and transitioned through that COVID period, probably better than any other industry, and I think it showed the value of what it means to have sport on television, especially for you know, sport being played in any capacity for Australians. You know, you don't necessarily need to be a huge fan, but we love the idea of it. We love that, you know, we have these people taking part in our national pastime, which is often sport.
So I think they adapted so well in the immediate reaction to COVID, and I think now that they've had more time to think about how to plan going forward, I think they're going to.
Do it even better.
I think the great thing is too it really has shocked their system in understanding how they can be more efficient in running their business side of sport and also seeing the core values of what they offer, you know, and what those things are. And I think that's like anyone, you know, anyone that got locked down understands how important family is, how important connections are, how important.
Relationships are, and prioritizing those things. It's the same for sport.
I think they'll really understand, or they've been given an indication of what the real value is of their sport. And it could be rugby league, AFL, you know, soccer football, whatever it is. I think it's been a hugely beneficial thing.
It's been heartbreaking for Olympic sport. I think the Olympians have probably suffered the most because they had their endgame, their pinnacle of the Mountain moved on them for twelve months and some of them had to retire, some of them had jobs to go to, some of them had studies to finish off, some of them didn't have the finances to keep going.
So it's been really hard for them.
But hopefully, and I think you talk about what's coming up this year in regards to sport, seven's got the Olympics, and I think it's going to be a huge thing.
It's probably not going to be exactly what we've seen in.
The past, the Olympic Games, but it'll be huge for the world to be able to put on an event that can hopefully embrace so so many nations that have been affected by COVID.
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, I think it's going to be really interesting to see it evolved. And it's one thing for sure is that we're certainly not going to take it for granted. You think about what it's like being an Australian and so many people map their year at around their sport, you know, and that was really hard not to see that. I think sport plays such a pivotal role for mental health here in Australia. I think it's so powerful to have it on screen and allow
people to connect to that calendar without it. It was really quite stressful. I don't know if you saw this, but last week goggle Box were talking about you. Did you see what they were talking about.
I saw the quote, Yeah, I did.
Does it get to it?
It will forever Ben, it will forever haunt me, I you know. And it's funny. You know. I had a radio interview a couple of weeks back.
Yeah, as we're doing the publicity trail for Holly Moly, and a producer called me from the radio station and said, now, the boys want to ask you about this. I've said they can't do it, but are you happy talking about your licres suit and you.
Know and the bits and pieces?
Yeah?
I have to be comfortable with it. I don't have any choice. It is what it is. It was very funny though, hearing the people on goggle Box going straight for that.
Oh my god, it's Matt Svington. Is that Olympic runner? When he wore his shorts, you could see everything.
Yes, these whole family jewels went flip flop flip. Everyone watched the ideas Hello look at them, Oh damn. As part of kind of dissecting the show. I thought that was quite interesting. But anyway, yeah, look, you know, it is what it is. It is what it is. It's in my past. Somehow it put me on the map and I just.
Have to live with it.
Well, I guess people have been put on the map for worse, But I think that the strange thing about it for me is the fact, you know, it comes up every time. And when I saw it, I was like, oh, you know, obviously i'm doing the research. I'm talking to you today, so you know, I'm reading all the articles that are out there, and I saw it there and I just thought, oh, this is such a strange, such a strange thing to be known for, to have that
come back around. And I actually said it to my partner and he knew who you were straight away because of that, and I was like, it is funny though, Like I mean, I was on a series of Big Brother and I won it, and people always would go back to that moment, and it felt like I was being slowly reduced to this moment, and I just felt like, you know, there is so much more and it is hard to sometimes get over those moments that stay in the Zecheist of you know, how people remember you.
Yeah, without a doubt, But then you've also got to consider that if you can, if you can capture them in any moment, I think it's an amazing thing. I don't feel bad about it because I was wearing you know, a green and gold like a suit, running for Australia and doing a good job of it at that time. So for me, it was more about I was going to be out there anyway representing my country and it was important that that I did that and it gained
me attention. But also kind of parallel to that was an understanding of who I was and that I was an athlete, and you know, all of that came along with it too.
And similarly to you, I mean, you know, people will know you.
As the winner a big brother, but they'll also understand that you have now built credibility in what else you're doing.
And again, you know, I just touched on it before.
It's a foot in the door no matter how you look at it, and if you can use it ahead of the game, then you know it is what it is.
But yeah, you probably have some understanding of that. Yeah, I think it's a good way to put it and you go like, that's the foot in the door, and now we move on, and then you look for that credibility, which I think is what we all have to do. Lastly, I was going to ask, and I ask every this to everybody about a funny story from behind the scenes of the show that we're talking about. Is there any funny story from behind the scenes of Ultimate tag that you're willing to share?
What it did feel like behind the scenes?
Was it was like being on like being on a track and field team again, or you know, in the dressing rooms of your footy team, because you know, the pro Taggers were roaming around in their robes and you know, having half done makeup, and you know, like they were in some very odd and strange outfits. Abby and I unfortunately had to wear the same stuff for majority of the show as continuity sort of dictates for us.
But were you ever jealous of the outfits? Did you want to put some of those outfits on?
Man, these guys are in very very good physical condition. It's very humbling, like seeing some of them walk around. Arrow potentially has the best male body you've seen. But yeah, no, Yeah, there are definitely moments where and I don't know.
If you know, they will probably tell you if they've had some wardrobe malfunctions.
But we may have caught out of the corner of our eye some little slip.
Ups in their wardrobe, and you couldn't have offered them some advice about some tighter pairs of underpants.
Just make sure you wear undies, just you know, unfleax of advice.
Get the tightest job strap you can find.
Yeah, because you're like, the last thing you want is to be doing a podcast in the years to come and having them harass you about this.
I did wear undis, by the way, Well there's.
The clarification on that that'll end up in the Daily Mail, the clarification finally, but you were wearing underpants. Well, all I can say to you is this, I hope that they continue to make new television shows that we haven't seen before, thinking outside the box. You know, we don't necessarily need to make things too outrageous. It can be as simple as a game of tag. Congratulations on this show. I cannot wait to see Australia fall in love with it.
And I just appreciate your honesty and your cana today as always, so thanks so much for your time.
Awesome stuff. Thanks Ben. Really appreciate having a chat. Thanks to letter