Welcome back to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris, and on this podcast, I'll be going behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Kicking off today's episode, I want to thank the individual publicity teams at each network who have been kind enough to facilitate their talent and producers.
I would basically be talking to myself without you. In the next few weeks, I will have co CEOs at Eureka Productions, the head of Matchbox Pictures, and these are really not easy people to get in front of, so get pretty excited to go behind the scenes of television with those guys. A little housekeeping at this point. If you're enjoying the podcast, please press subscribe and leave a review. It's a huge part of the way in which these platforms gain more exposure, which allows us to grow a
little community of TV enthusiasts. iHeartRadio, iTunes and Spotify are all my biggest platforms to access TV Reload, and I want to thank them for their visibility because without them, I would just be another podcast with no audience. This week, I will be reviewing the new series of Big Brother and having the one and only Sonya Krueger drop in for a chat. There will be no spoilers, and really this is an opportunity for you to hear why this
year's Big Brother is worth watching. It's a challenge based format, but the producers at Endemol Shine have really listened to criticism and they have cast intelligent, highly engaging, diverse and accomplished housemates. This year, we will get to see more of them, and I promise you that there is more
visibility in getting to know each contestant. And at times I felt like I was watching the original and even better, yet, this Big Brother feels respectful to the original brand, which is brilliant because this is the twentieth anniversary of the show, which debuted here in Australia in two thousand and one.
Now for today's guest, I have known Sonya Krueger for nearly ten years and I always have people asking what Kruger is really like, and the truth is she is generous, wickedly funny and thoughtful, which is why her career is at an all time high. Produces one to work with her, audiences love her and with an authentic voice and an unmatched presenting ability, she is the darling of Channel seven for a reason. Hosting Holy Molly, Dancing with the Stars,
The Voice and Big Brother. There's no wonder that she has cultivated an appeal that has kept us wanting more. Big Brother twenty twenty one is upon us and is launching on the twenty sixth of April at seven point thirty on Channel seven. So let's get started with today's guest. It's the one and only Sonya Krueger.
It's hard not to be passionate about it when you work on it.
You think you know my game.
You know there's a lot of great television out there in Australia, more than meets the eye. The universe has put it back here in front of me for a reason.
I am Big Brother.
I love it. I know Gretel loves it, and Gretel messages me to She's such a sweetheart and I'll.
See you Monday April and twenty.
Six There's a lot of diversity in the past, and I think that is another reason that people will find somebody that they can relate to.
How are your mate? Are you well?
I'm very well. Could not be better. Actually looking forward to Monday night's launch. It's epic and I can't wait for everybody to see it and to tell me what they think.
You know, I feel like I'm a poker player at the moment, and I know it's a good hand, and I just want people to be knocked over by what these producers have installed. The new housemates are strong.
He Brother is going to throw us here for smart.
All my life I've lived outside my comfort zone. Going into Big Brother is exactly that and strategic.
I'm gonna act on and play.
Smart, but they are in for a bumpy ride.
Think you know Big Brother's game.
Think again.
One of the best things about you as a host is that you bring your own Krueger personal flair. And I absolutely noticed that with Dancing with the Stars All Stars that you went full Krux.
How is that full two? You know? It's funny doing Dancing with the Stars was such a great nostalgic thing to do, and it maybe I've realized how off the chain we were Originally. We were really allowed to kind of do whatever we wanted. There was no auto que. We could kind of just fill every segment with whatever we felt like at the time, and that kind of thing you don't get to do a lot now. So
it was really great to be back with Todd. For example, we're such old friends and we sledge each other relentlessly, but it's all in good fun. It's sport for us. Before we go, I ask you, Todd, what you think of my dress.
It's good to leave people wanting less.
And the fact that the viewers like it too, I think they know deep down we love each other. We really love each other, but our sport on air is to try and get one over the other, you know.
I spoke to Todd a few years ago and he said his favorite job is working with you on Dancing with the Stars. And he said that sometimes before the show, you guys would work out some good jobs to do for the show.
Often she would throw to me from the green room which I couldn't see, and she'd make some kind of gay joke or something which I loved.
She's good at a double one tendre. And you'd send each other like some messages.
I thought of this idea, and I think this is going to work, and then it would be executed. Or sometimes you'd even say to him, I've written this, this is a good one for you, and you'd sort of tell him.
Because I would think about he puts hi stuff in my position, I put myself in his, and I think, oh, if I could be Todd, I would say this, you know, and so I would have him and every now and then he might use it. Same deal, vice versa. You kind of have like that little mental storage bank of stuff and it goes into that storage bank, and sometimes they just randomly come out at the right moment.
When Holly Brisley do you know actress Holly Bristol is on, So this is one example. So we it's on your own in the makeup chair and going okay, you love what you've got, and said, well, I've got this line, but I don't over that we can say it. And it was that dress was so short we nearly saw Holly's brizzly.
It makes gold television. You know.
What was funny though, was that message I sent you the other day on the opening night, and I actually didn't realize that I'd recorded this sound of my partner and I. As you emerged on screen, we started swearing about how good you were, and we didn't realize we'd sent it to you with the audio, and then we had to write underneath it excuse the swearing.
Sonya fuck me dead.
Looking good, Sonny Florry for the swearing. It actually made my day, It really did, because you know, it's always nerve breaking when you walk out and there's a big entrance, especially with you know, there's Darryl Summers and we're we're doing this show that was so dear to my and you just want to make sure you don't trip over that everybody likes what you're wearing. So when you sent me that message, it was like, made me feel good about everything.
This season of Big Brother is actually one of the best seasons of Big Brother I've ever seen. And you know, I'm a diehard fan and I've seen them all and I don't want to give too much away because well, those people are annoying. What are we going to do to get people to tune in on opening night? Because I honestly think this series it's addictive and once you tune in, you will never be able to turn away.
What are we going to do to make people watch?
Well, I think, you know, if people come to that first episode, and I really hope they do. They certainly did last series. When we launched the show, the first episode really set things up so brilliantly, and there is so much packed into it. You've got those arrivals to have a live audience this year that we didn't have last year. You have a massive twist in the first episode involving two key characters, and there is so much
going on. It just rockets along. And there've been some amazing reviews written about that first episode already, which I'm so thankful for, because you know, there's a lot of great television out there in Australia. I think we actually make world class TV. Whenever I've been to the States, I turn it on. How do they do it? They would obviously do it better. It's America, right, but they
don't necessarily make better television than us. And I think we need to understand that we actually do make really incredible TV. Seine, who produced Big Brother, have done a brilliant job and it's one of those shows, as you say, if you start watching it, like I binged seven episodes last weekend and then I had to beg please send me the next seven. I was there for it, but I still wanted to see them put together, put together, and just to revisit the whole thing.
You know, if we go back to the beginning of Big Brother and it is the twentieth anniversary, so twenty years ago, in two thousand and one, Big Brother launched. But what was your first memory or interaction with Big Brother?
When it launched.
I got a phone call from Tim Klucas, who was working at Channel ten at the time and as I think, the head of production there, and he asked me to come an audition for this show, this new show called Big Brother, and they needed somebody who could do the whole live television thing. And he kept saying to me, look, there are very few people in Australia that can do that. We need you to come, and we've narrowed it down to a couple of people. Anyway, as the time sort
of got closer, he sent me screeners for it. I showed it to a couple of friends and they were like, oh, yeah, we don't really feel like it's you. And so I didn't go to the audition and Gretel ended up being the host. And I can't imagine anybody else hosting Big Brother in Australia when it first started. And luckily for me, Dancing with the Stars was just around the corner at seven, So you know, I had this thing I didn't want
to leave Seven. I didn't want to do a show that I didn't really know and love, and Dancing with the Stars was something that was in my wheelhouse. So it kind of worked out for the best because then, you know, if we fast forward like ten or fifteen years, it came back around. And it made me think when it came back around, and at that point I had to make the decision to leave seven and lead Dancing with the Stars and go and do Big Brother. And I thought, you know, the universe has put it back
here in front of me for a reason. So I feel like there's some weird connection with this particular show. It's weird.
Well, you are you are the queen.
You're the Queen of Big Brother now, and for so many years people sort of thought of Gretel Colleen hosting this show. But if you think about it now, there's so many people. You know, one of the contestants going in this year probably was too young to have watched Gretel Colleen hosts the show. And we'd only ever know
you as being the Queen of Big Brother. So whilst we bow down to Gretel Colleen and her amazingness, you've really owned this franchise, and you can see that you're passionate about it as well, which is important.
Yeah, I mean I love it. I know Gretel loves it, and Gretel messages me too. She's such a it's hard not to be passionate about it. I think when you work on it, or you've been part of it, or you're a Big Brother fan. Our fan base, it's they are super fans, you know, they eclipse all other fans of every other show. It's because you become so invested with the people, you want to get to know them. You spend every night with them pretty much. They become
your surrogate friends. And originally Big Brother was a social experiment. It was, you know, the or Welly and kind of idea of there's a higher power that's controlling everybody, and we cut them off from society and they have no interaction with anybody else. And I think it's evolved now and it's almost like a mirror into our own lives and we look at those people we think, would I do that, how would I be, who would I be making friends with? What would I do to get to
the end? Where is my own moral compass in terms of betraying friendships or forming alliances. So there's a whole other level of strategy with this particular version of the show. But at the core of it, and the thing that really works in this particular series and that sets it the part is the heart. Everybody who's reviewed it so far has said that it has this incredible heart and soul going on, and that is the thing that makes me the most proud. And I'm saying that like I
made it, I didn't make it. Amelia Executive is here and she deserves all of the credit because she is a boss bitch.
She's so good, but she understands the subject matter, and I think that's what's key is. You know, the best thing about Big Brother, and the best thing about television is when we can see ourselves and we can relate, when we can see ourselves in the scenario. And I think that's the magic of Big Brother is we all can see or we think how would we go, Or we see people interacting on the screen and we think, oh, go and have a beer with that person, or that
would be my mate. That ability to connect is really the essence of Big Brother.
Don't you think the diversity in the age group is really interesting because series of Big Brother and s j who is sixty five and the coolest sixty five year old woman I've ever met in my life, is like has inspired my outfit and I know you have one to be somewhere, but that whole kind of like nineteen nineties Jimiroquai ybe.
The added ass tracksuit.
We're both we're wearing it, but for people playing at home, we were wearing the same clothes.
Has like a green and purple version that I've never seen before.
It's wait, I'm sixty five years old. I am an anti jewelry dealer. All my life, I've lived outside my comfort Sir, I am going to get emotional because people think they can't do what they want to do.
And here we are, Hello, Sarah Jane. I have chosen you.
She's the coolest old person I've ever seen. But you know that leads me to something, and that is Isn't it amazing that we are here in twenty twenty one and the diversity of this cast, like we are seeing all ages in the Big Brother House like we've never seen before. We're seeing so many different people being recognized and represented, like Carlos being there is a fantastic housemate.
Hey, can you hear me some to dance with me?
I have chosen you.
I think that this is the best cast of Big Brother we have ever seen.
Yeah, I think we've got a really good mix of people. And I'm not involved in the past and process, but I love the fact that we have people who are, you know, culturally different, geographically different. We have people from final Queensland to you know, a sheep farmers from Adelaide in a city Melbourne, their ages are different. There's a lot of diversity in the past in that regard and I think that that is another reason that people will
find somebody that they can relate to in there. And from a personality perspective, when you look at somebody like Danny, for example, who features quite strongly in the promos, and Danny's a real estate agent from Geelong, he is probably one of the most polarizing people you know that you will meet because I guess he's always doing deals. You know,
he's that's in his DNA. But and you go through this ride Danny where you love Danny and then you don't love Danny, and you go through this whole thing and he makes friends with somebody who is the opposite of him, Nick, who is a color blind house painter.
A redhead color blind painter. I'd try to stick to my wife in that way.
I don't have to tell the client that how you're dealing with a color blind painter.
He's good with white.
It's about it beyond the color he can paint.
Yeah, And I think even the fact that these unlikely friendships get formed in the house, that is something that is fun to watch Nick meet Danieline.
We are so different, but I like you.
I like you at least four What are.
Their animals and they are represent you Daniel.
That lion right there, that's a fairal cat mate.
And those two together create some television goals because they are like they are self described. They describe themselves as being the wet band from home alone, the bumbling books who are spot not really you know. Like, so there are a lot of great, great characters in this series.
How have you gone with the format changes over the years, Because did you watch any of the overseas version, because like Big Brother now in Australia is quite similar to the Canadian version which Tim Dormer, you know, winner of Big Brother in twenty thirteen, he went and did that series, and now we've borrowed a lot of that essence. How have you gone with the evolution of Big Brother to this point?
I actually love it. I don't think if there's one thing you may not have noticed about me, Ben, I feel like if I sit in one spot for too long, I would get a little bit anty. And that's why I think. You know, switching back to seven and doing everything that I've been doing has been great fun for me because I get to change things up. The format changes have improved the show. The way we watched Big Brother twenty years ago and the way we watch television now,
those two things weren't gelling. So you know, we want something that's fast paced. We want an outcome every episode. We want to see an eviction and something happen, and then I hook for the next night so that we can, oh, yeah, I'm coming back because I want to see what happens next in that story. So I think it's evolved in a brilliant way, and it's now perfect for audiences who
are at home watching. It's broad enough too for everyone to watch, Like maybe we'll often watch over my shoulder if I'm looking at episodes and my laptop shell into like she us to see who wins the challenges, you know, and there's nothing in there that concerned me. You know, there's nothing in Big Brother that I think I didn't feel if I really want to see that. You know, there are some confrontations that confrontation doesn't necessarily have to
be a bad thing. I think people who are confrontational are also asserting. And we send our children to school, I mean, we try to teach them to become assertive. And I think that's not a bad thing to be able to be asserted, and it's not a bad thing to be reserved and to sit back from that either.
And there are all different personality types in the house, so I think that in real life we have to interreact with all different personality types and we have to be able to get along and at the end of the day, that's what happened.
Your relationship this year with the contestants is really interesting to watch because I think you really grill them, and I think it's a pull through for each episode. Is that excitement of you being able to unpack what's happened earlier and sort of unearthed things that have gone on, Katie.
A little Birdie told me that you and Max knew each other on the outside. Yes, we dated. Do we potentially have like a love triangle on our hands? I don't think so.
I can imagine that must be a very different process and your what's your relationship like this year with the contestants.
Look, it's great in that every time I turn up and I say hi, they're very happy to see me, and I'm really happy to see them because we have this kind of, you know, symbiotic relationship going on. It's like, oh, you know, I'm their window to the outside world in a way, although I don't tell them anything about what's going on in the outside world. But then I've become the prosecutor in Big Brothers' courtroom, and it's my job to really sort of get to the truth of what's
going on without without blowing anybody's game. And that's not always easy to do because sometimes there are issues that arise that you need to get to the bottom of. And it's I actually really enjoy it. I have to say, I've never been in this This type of posting is very different from anything else that I've done, where you know, where it's a big, shiny floor show, and you know you're introduced with amazing people onto the floor, incredible singers, dances.
This is more about thrilling down into what's actually going on in the house amongst certain people and their relationships and who's kind of forming, who's forming an alliance with herm and what the real deal is. So I enjoy it. I really do enjoy those evictions. I think the first series I was I sort of understood what I was doing, but it's kind of not really. This time around, I get it and I've enjoyed the process a whole lot more.
You can really tell that though that from and I really want to stress this to anyone listening to this right now, is the show is now worlds Apart from last year, like twenty twenty to twenty twenty one, you and the team of people at end de Molshine sort of listen to what people were saying, and this series that you have more chance to get to know these housemates. It's it's more like we understand the brand and now everyone is just full steam ahead. How emotionally connected are
you to these different contestants? Is it hard not to form favorites?
The weird thing is at any point in time, you know it's someone's my favorite and they're not. Then the next day I come in and I love this person and I don't love that person, and I'm like everybody watching at home, I'm the same. I'm like, oh, you know, when they first go in, you always kind of you judge a book by its cover, and you go, I'm going to be behind that person. I'm going to back
them in. And then as the show goes on and you start to get to know them and the layers of the onion get peeled away, you start to realize that actually this person is who I didn't think I was going to like. Now I really love that person, and so it changes, and it's like any sort of relationship, you know, it ebsonent flows, and your feelings towards certain people change and develop, and sometimes they disappear. It's so weird, it's hard to explain. You can't use the word journey
because it's my least favorite word. It's the most overused wordy television. But you do go on a relationship experience with these people, and that's part of a big part of the appeal for me.
Absolutely, you know, one thing I was thinking of since twenty twelve till now, since the moment you became a part of this brand of Big Brother, is how would Sonya Krueger go as a housemate in Big Brother? Because there's a lot of blind siding and bac stabbing and you know you've got to be like, have this strategic game. How would you go if you found yourself in the house.
I don't know. I think that i'd have to partner up with someone who had the smarts. I think, you know, like I could carry out I'm a good soldier. I'm a good foot soldier. I could carry out a plan. But I think I would need somebody, you know, like Amreily. He's the executive producer of the show. I would need her to kind of like direct the plan and then I would be the foot soldier carrying it. And you can see that in certain dynamics in the house too,
with friendships that go on. Also, I'd possibly be the persons bitching about nobody cleaning up because I'm a little bit like and i'd be They're going, then let's just dishes in the sink again?
Are you going to pick that up? Yeah? Those dishes?
That is not big television that is boring, so I suspect I could be voted out in the landslide.
Are you competitive? Like how competitive are you as a person I used to be.
I used to be when I'm as competitive dancer, I was trained to try to read. Now I know I don't. I feel like I'm less inclined to want to compete. I'm happy. I'm really happy with what I get to do, which some people have said he like, like, you're you're You're doing so much and and I'm like, yeah, but I'm really just the bus driver, you know, Like I'm driving the bus. People get on and get to the end, and that they provide the entertainment on the way and then they hop off the bus. So my role is
fairly minus in the grand scheme of things. It's not a big role, and I like it like that, you know, I'm like less is more so I kind of like the fact that I don't have to compete. I can watch them trying their hearts out, particularly in those challenges. They wow, they're nail biteam So I'm on the edge of my team. I'm yelling at the TV. But what I want to be one of those people right now? I'd rather just drive the bus.
You'd rather drive the bus. Yeah, And I love how humble you are. You're always so humble. You're like, I'm just here to drive the bus. I mean, looking like el McPherson hosting a show presenting better than pretty much anywhere in the world. Mate, you are more than driving the bus like you.
Are Channel seven Big Brother VIP.
Not at all.
But that brings me to something quite interesting, and that is I think you need to ring your mate Todd mckennie and ask him to do a Big Brother VIP because how do you think he would go in the format of Big Brother.
Well, one of the magazines reported that he was actually doing it, so I sent it to him and he was like, oh, I look forward to being asked to be on that show. So it was supposed that he'd heard about it. I actually think he'd bred him. I think he would. I think he would almost be a little bit like Nick and Danny from this series in that he would be incredibly clever, but probably just a really dumb things.
Time amazing, that's good television.
Super entertaining. Yes, exactly exactly, and I would just love to be able to grill Todd in the eviction ceremony.
That would be the best television.
I mean, some of the best television for twenty twenty one so far is the zingers between the two of you on Dancing with the Stars, Like it's palatable, it's so funny and so fantastic and good to see people being authentic and having real relationships on telling because I think that makes us relate better.
Oh yeah, one undred percent. That's why I could. I was a terrible actor. I can't ask for the hope. It's the same. It's sort of like, you know, if something's working for us, you'll know we're having a good time. And my philosophy has always been if I'm having a good time and the people around me are having a good time, and hopefully the audience will be too.
So again, being so humble, Big Brother is a show that we can all relate to, I mean, being locked in a house. In the last year, we all saw ourselves around Australia in similar situations, being lockdown with you know, COVID, What did you manage to do? What does Sonya Krueger do during lockdown? What do you do to stay sane?
A lot of cupcakes with my little girl mate are behind me now desperate to catch up. She's finished score. And so what you'll see in this series of Big Brother is covid sonya. It's that a lot of cupcakes.
You would never tell.
I have a question for you, which is the last question I ask everybody, and that is what's a funny story? That is kind of the take home from working on Big Brother after all of these years, like, what's something that's funny that happened behind the scenes that is a good story to get out over dinner conversation.
It was on the very first night of working on the show with Alex Mavadaik's back in twenty twelve, and I had to once all the housemates had gone into the house, I had to provide this live commentary over the top of what they were doing. And he is Ben and he's checking out, he's talking to you know, his friend over here, and I think Alex got in my ear and said, Michael's in the kitchen making peace.
And I went, Michael's making peace because there's obviously been a massive calling out and playing the role a peacemaker. And Alex was like, pizza, he's making up, not peace. Pizza and I was like okay, and I think I said it out loud live on air. So and there were more. Just go to YouTube you'll see all the moments where I spoke loud about what was happening in my ear or on the UNO at the time.
Well, congratulations on this new series. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to have this chat with me. I'm such a big brother fan. But beyond that, this is legitimately the best season I have seen. Let me tell you, it's freakin' amazing and you are in your element.
UNTI episode eleven, it all happens. Thank you so much, Ben, enjoy it and let me know. Let me know on social media.
I'll be tagging you.
I'll be hashtagging as I have done for the last many years.
Thanks so much.