It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week. Aline Welcome TV Reload listeners. My name is Benjamin Norris, and this is your podcast to get all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part of our home entertainment and very little is known about how our favorite
shows get made. Each episode, I find guests that want to dive just that little bit deeper into the shows they're currently making, so that you can hear all the exclusive stories and gain access to the biggest names in television. I want to thank you for downloading and subscribing to this podcast. I really like hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment on your chosen podcast platform and I will make sure you feel as included in
the production of this show as possible. This episode, I'll be discussing Australian idol with one of the new hosts of the rebooted Channel seven series. It is the handsome Scott Tweety. Scott Tweety is an Australian television, radio host, presenter and producer. Tweety is currently back in Australia hosting Australian Idol. However, the last couple of years he's been
calling the US home on the E Network. The first few weeks of Idol have definitely shown audiences that the brand integrity has been kept in tact and hasn't strayed too far from what fans of the show No One love.
I will find out.
From Scott about his casting journey on Idol. We will discuss agism in the television industry. I will also ask if this series we will get a week by week elimination, which I'm pretty sure everyone wants to know. I personally am a big fan of Scott and I'll try not to annoy him or yourselves by falling all over him.
Anyway.
I'm going to bring him into the podcast now. I really hope you enjoy this episode. Hi, Scott, how are.
You, Benjamin? I'm very well. Thank you A great question to kick things off. It's been good because I actually am living overseas at the moment. It's been winter and I landed two days ago prepping for episode and one of Idol, and I'm so excited it's summertime. As a buzz in the air, fourteen years since Idle has been on. So yeah, it's an exciting time in my life, that's for sure.
I follow you on social media and have done for a very long time. I'm actually a Scott tweety superfan.
So does that mean you're watching my stupid breakfast reviews, watching my edits that I do?
Everything I've been watching. I'm like ready to say, you know, welcome home. I saw you walking in Bondi yesterday. I wasn't following you. I was just, you know, watching you on your social media. So that's less creepy.
We've got to get a beer. Then, what city are you in?
I'm in Melbourne. I'm in Melbourne, so you're in Sydney.
But well I'm no plans for Melbourne this time around when our auditions were being filled, which will happen again at the end of the year. Let's get a beer.
One hundred percent. Okay, Well that's great, you can meet your official super fan. Anyway, we're going to get away from this. People are like Ben, you'r banks so annoying. I have to ask how long are you going to be back here in Australia? Are you back here just for the Australian Idol finishing this season with the live episodes?
Is that how long you're here for?
Correct? Yeah? So here for just over two months. This is the dream scenario, by the way, because I moved over to the US three years ago and loving life over there. It's very different in America is a different beast altogether. But I think the hub of film and TV is over in Los Angeles. But I've always loved TV in Australia and we do make better TV here.
So coming home for a show this big and the schedule in summer time three months of the year I can be Sydney based and then nine months of the year over in the US, it's a dream come true for me.
Really, you're living the dream. How did idle come about?
Because I have been saying for years that this is your gig and you may need to just follow me on Instagram because you'll then reveal all the messages that I send you and when they announced it, I'll coming back.
I wrote to you and said this has to be your gig.
Well that makes you and osher Ginsburg because Osha texts me as well and he was like, tweety, this is yours. You gotta go through it, and you're right when it got announced. I've always wanted to, to be honest, I've done a screen test to host The Voice for four, to host X Factor before, and it's just all about timing in your career. For some of those shows, I still look too young. I did have enough experience. It's all about right time, right place, and I knew in
my gut. I was like, this is the right time for me. This is the right time where I feel I've got the runs on the board, my relationship with music, my relationship with Australians, it's all come to this and I want it. And when you really want something and you go hard that the problem with when you watch something bad enough is the rejection if you don't get it. And I've now been rejected enough to know that it's
all part of it. If it doesn't happen, it's not your fault because it's just a subjective process of people going through. It can be execs, it can be you know, a wrong pairing with another host, any of that. But I was like, this is the show that I want to come back to Australia to host, and I just lined everything up so I had chats with Channel seven execs, I had screen tests. The screen tests I did were my best I've ever done. So once again, I was like,
I don't get this. It's all cool, but I think I'm the best guy for the gig.
I actually thought that you would have been good to host the newer version of Big Brother. So that came back in twenty twenty and I started talking about you then. So this is like three years ago, and I was like, you know, if Sondy Krueger doesn't come back and do this job, I actually think that Scott twenty would be great at this because it kind of was a different format and I thought that you would give it the fresh vibe. I also thought you'd be really good at
sort of interrogating those housemates. Did they ever ask you to do that gig?
Never? No, that was never on the cards that one. I've been up for a few different shows, but not that one. But Ben, do you want to be my manager? You want to shot me around? This is great, man, This is great for the ego.
I put your name out there at the time.
It was like twenty nineteen they were rumoring Big Brother coming back and I mentioned it. You on a podcast, and then you ended up being in the Sports Bet at number five on most likely to host Big Brother when it came back. So I was like, I feel like I might be the only one talking about I don't know.
Who was four three two, who was ahead of me?
You had Christy Swan, you had Sondy Krueger. Of course, you had Colleen Yeah, and you had Tim Dormer. I think, I mean, I mean that's off the top of my head, but.
I mean there are all powerhouses right there. So it's a privilege to be in that top five with those those wonderful ladies and Tim Well.
Speaking of Osho, he was on the podcast a couple of weeks ago and he was talking about you and talking about how he thought that you should do this role, which is quite amazing to get that tip of the hat from someone so iconic and so linked to Australian idol. You know, has he been a huge inspiration for you and is it hard not to kind of, you know, impersonate him a little bit in this hosting role.
Ausha and I couldn't be more different. We are so completely different. However, we did go to the same high school, we did start in Brisbane Radio on the street team of I was at Nova. He was at B one oh five at the time and he did host Channel V in a music show. I hosted The Loops. So there's similarities, but we are completely different people. Well you can't,
I mean, in your career. I can only be myself, and that's what hosting is is being yourself, building a relationship with an audience and delivering a message in a very natural way. That's what we do for a living, and connecting with people. I think we're both in the business of making people feel good. We as hosts. It's not about us, It's about whatever's happening in front of us. So the less we can do to make people look better, we've done our job. We're better at our jobs basically.
So I can never compare myself or think I'm similar to Asher. I think he's had an incredible career. I'm just another brizzy boy having a crack and having a good time. And I think just working really hard. Like I think anyone that's worked alongside me knows that I just go hard. I just and I enjoy it. I enjoy that whole process, which is why how good Into
TV is I love editing. I love filming and editing and storytelling, and I think that's helped me get a lot of my jobs as well, just getting stuck into it. And then when I work on shows with the editors, listening to producers, listening to directors and just trying to get better and better.
Really, I think you're interested in people. That's what I've noticed with your work on Studio ten, whether it was The Loop wherever. I have seen some of your work that I got to see, you know, online when you're in New York. I think there's something of a currency that for you. Yes, you look attractive and can be, you know, a host like this and get those jobs, but that all seems to drop away and I can see you genuinely engaging in people and getting good content out of them.
Yeah, it's something I want to work on more and more every year. I think I'm a perfectionist, like a lot of us are media and we want to be the best of the best. And I edit so many videos that I don't put out because I'm like, no, I'm bored, I'm I don't find that entertaining and I don't do it, and I should put them out more, because Yeah, I think it's the art of just being the most authentic, genuine version of yourself that people connect
with the most. And I think it's when we try and be too presentory or too polished that people kind of lose interest. So yeah, I've been working over the years of just being myself and the talking to people and seeing what's out there that works the best when it comes to content and hosting.
Absolutely, you know, talking about Australian Idol, it's back this week. People have got to see it. It's very much like the Australian Idol that we know. They've been very true to the format. But I wanted to know how old were you when the show first debuted in two thousand and two.
I was in two thousand and two, so let's do some math here to fourteen years of age. So fourteen and I was invested in it. I thought it was the greatest TV show I was. I didn't know whether to go for Guy or for Nolesy. I ended up voting for Guy Sebastian and to this day I've done a lot more work with Nolesy. I've never told him
I voted for Guy. Will not bring that up. It just it was a moment in time in Australian history where there's those key moments where things just happened, and you know, like I think there was like the America's Cup years and years ago, not comparing Idle to that, but it was a massive moment in Australia where people would never engaged in a show like this before, and the public were so vital to what happened for the
results of the show. And it was also seeing amazing musicians, like it was a really incredible period of time.
I just remember watching Oh were you ben this? Because this reveals how old I am? I think I was? I was I was twenty two and I watched it in this apartment that I mean, now.
The hell do you have less gray hairs than me? And what's your skincare? Recing? What is going on?
That is good lighting? My friend? I mean, it's quite funny.
I auditioned for something that was a hosting role and I went and based all my look on what you were wearing on the Loop that week. It was like a white shirt and this jacket anyway, and then I said to my partner, I was like, what do you reckon?
Do?
I can I put some of those grays in.
My hair like Scott Tweety.
They're getting more and more. I was actually nervous getting the idle role. I was like, they can to ask me this.
I love this. Don't touch the gray hair at all. It's so signature, it's so you.
Well, yeah, I was just wondering that. I was like, are they going to tell me to diet to be more as I say, youthful. And it's like, guys, I've spent half my career looking too young, you know, half my career like nah, you just don't look old enough. So now let me have this moment. But I think it's going to go. It's going to be white pretty quickly all over it.
It's not funny that people always say things like you're too young, Like I'm now in my mid forties and I still get told I look too young for shows Like that's the feedback that I'll be all of a sudden, I'm going to be like, I'm just going to get this huge Buddha belly and you know, I'm going to just look my age and then they'll be like, oh, sorry, you're too old, and they'll be like a window of like a day that I could have been able to
do something exactly. We get this horrible feedback and it's very tough industry, but I have to say, it's been so good to watch what's happened with your career, and I think this is something that's really going to propel you.
I think it really will huge deal.
It's a massive you're just for me personally, and I think also the production Itselfie, I've never worked on a show where everyone involved, from the executive producers down to the camera guys, to the runners to the contestants. There's so much love for this show and the amount of energy and the vibes on set, I've never had anything like it. It truly was a moving experience and we haven't even done the live shows yet.
Did you get nervous though, I mean, this is what I was nervous about coming back to watching the show. I was hoping we would see the good singers and the bad singers, because that kind of was idle like we got to see the worst of Australian singers and the best. However, the cringe factor in twenty twenty three, watching some of these singers that can't really sing is sometimes hard to watch.
How did it make you feel to watch.
Some of these performers get up there and not be able to sing.
I loved every moment of it, and I loved it more because we get a feed if it's either Rickie or myself doing the door. So yeah, the contestant come in, we wait, there they go in. We can't hear or we don't really know what's going on in the room until they walk out. Have a golden ticket or not a golden ticket. If we're not doing that, we're back in our green rooms and we've got a feed of what's happening in the room. And if there's a bad one, I'm one of these people that sits there and I'm like,
what's Kyle going to say? What is Kyle going to say? And then he says it. And to be fair to Kyle, I think because he's just had a child, he's softened up a bit more and he's critiquing or judging hasn't as been as harsh as what I thought. But no, you need it because I think as well some people a live in this world where either their friends and family haven't been honest, and it's you're part of it.
The entertainment industry. It's hard, and it's you get judged all the time, you get knocked back, you get rejected all the time. It's all part of it. So it's how you bounce back from that. And then if there's an actual point in your career you're like, Okay, maybe this isn't for me, or you keep going harder and harder, you're like, Okay, I've got to crack through somewhere else.
But I think also all of the judges aren't leaning into oh there's one nasty judge and where the nice ones. I mean, they're all giving constructive criticism to these people standing there. Like even Meghan Trenor saw this girl and she was so wonderful. I can't remember her name this week, and she was so talented. However, she kind of overcooked
the performance. You know, she was dramatically pointing and doing all this stuff, and Megan was able to give her that constructive criticism, that tough love that you need to prepare these young people for. I mean, it is not a walk in the park. The industry is incredibly tough. People are going to be critiquing you online every single day, and if you can't take it from these people at this point then it's really time for them to leave the competition.
You are correct, and it's I thought they gave great feedback to a lot of singers, a great fear that a lot of them can take, and it applied to other areas of their life as well as singing. So all in all, it's been a really good experience so far. But the fun is just getting started because once we start live, that is where it all happens.
What's Ricky Lee like to work with? I've been obsessed with her. She's great, She's got so much energy and I love that she is still connected to the Australian idol brand. Has it been fun to collaborate with her on the show?
A dream come true? An absolute dream come true. She is a bogan from the Gold Coast. I'm a bogan from Brisbane and when two Queenslanders come together, it's a joy. It's an absolute. But she's so talented but just down to work. She's just what you see is what you get from Ricky Lee, which is you know, in our industry, sometimes it's not the case with her, pure joy. I really every day I get to work with her, it's like an honor to be standing next to her.
How long was the production shoots for that? Like, were you filming for days on end?
Like, yeah, we were, but they most audition days were just one whole long day. But then we have a travel day we'd filmed beforehand in that city. We might film some stuff afterwards as well. So not a massive schedule, but enough.
And do we know how many live episodes we're going to get, because you know, this is live television back for the first time in a very long time.
Are we going to get four or five or six? Do you even know how I know the number?
I don't know if I can tell you at this point, I think that a secret. But yeah, there is enough. There's enough where you're going to get to know these contestants.
Because I want to know, like, are we going to get like a week by week elimination or is it going to be like mass walkouts week by week? Okay, great, that's all I want to know.
That's the money so they'll be buying. That's that's the Idle brand. You need to evolve and get to know and build a relationship with these singers week after week, and that's really important to the format.
Who do you have a favorite? From the first week.
We've seen some amazing singers already. Is there anyone that stays in your mind that thinks, oh, that's someone to follow.
Yeah, I've got my favorites, but I can't leave my mind because we've got to play Switzerland.
As the host.
I like, once again, it's my opinion, but I'm not on the show to judge. I'm on the show to make sure every contestant has the best experience and they they feel comfortable.
I can imagine that you would have had the opportunity to interview with these judges before.
You've probably met them all before.
But is there some one of the judges this series that you've connected with more than the others.
I mean, I was lucky enough to when the process of getting screened for this, and there was discussions and then this went over two years. There's sort of long process to get this hosting role. Kyle san Lands was pushing for me. He was back in LA He saw me on E News in the US and he was like this young Ossie guy, like he's great. I really enjoy him. So he pushed hard for me to be one of the hosts. He's he claims I got the
job from him, which is probably right. Like Kyle has so much pull and he has so much credentials in the film and TV world with radio as well, so I have a lot to thank for Kyle. But also I've interviewed. I was Amy Shark's first ever interview on the Ari's Red Carpet, so I popped that cherry for her and I was like, yes, she does. She's so cool. She's like, oh whatever, I'm Amy.
I got that.
I was your first interview. But then I'm still getting to know Megan Trainer and I've definitely got the nod of approval from Harry Knick Junior. So I went and saw him the other day in the US. He was doing his Christmas live shows and I went there with his family. It was wonderful. So yeah, he's just such a lovely guy.
He's so genuine as well, Like that was what really he knows this format well because of American Idol, like he's gotten that before. So like you can say, how funny was it that he accidentally called it American Idol At one point I thought that.
They left that in. That's what I like that they're keeping the edit quite raw. They're not really polishing it a lot, which is great. I think it's people connect better with that.
But he's brilliant and I think, you know, for me, there was a lot of comments about why we didn't have all Australian judges because previously we had all Australian judges on this show and these days, you know, we want these people who are global superstars because we're trying to grow global superstars, so it does make sense for them to be there. But there was that nervousness from
the general public online and even for myself. However, I think with Harry Knick, Junior and Meghan that they are doing a very good job and I think audiences are connecting with them.
Yeah, they're gonna love them.
Everyone who joins the podcast gets asked this question, what is something from behind the scenes, something that we won't see, something as a behind the scenes secret from your time filming idol?
Okay, when Ricky Lee and Old School Idol were doing the show, every contestant got a Golden card and this card McDonald's was a sponsor at the time, so they got unlimited McDonald's whenever they wanted. They could take their friend as their family in and this card was like McDonald's on the house this time round for Australian Idol. Our main sponsor is Tim Tams. We have unlimited Tim
Tams on set at all times. If you ever want Tim Tams, hit me up in the DMS, every corner behind the scenes, Tim TAM's there, Tim Sam's here, Tim TAM's there is that old ad unlimited Tim Tams that is Australian Idol. It is awesome, but also I'm trying to fit into suits that were measured to me months ago to get the made custom for the live shows. I can't have that many no my treat every day I get like I usually have about three to four an episode, pick up.
The runs around BONDI way there, I think, and then eat as many.
Ten terms as double gyms so I could have my Tim Dams mate.
It was so great to be able to chat with you this morning. I think you're doing a fantastic job on the show. I can't wait to watch this season roll out. Good luck to you and all the people at seven. You know this is a fantastic show to see back.
Man, thanks for supporting me the show. I'm going to follow you on Instagram right now, and now let's have a chat. A few episodes did, We'll do that again.