Richard Reid reveals the dangers of reality TV after his “horrible” experience
Richard Reid recalled his “horrible” experience filming The Celebrity Apprentice while hosting The Amazing Race stars Nick Evbuomwan and Femi Ogunsiji’s Uncovered podcast launch.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Studio 10’s Richard Reid has revealed the dangers of reality TV.
The American media personality recalled his “horrible” experience while discussing mental health with The Amazing Race stars Nick Evbuomwan and Femi Ogunsiji at the duo’s Uncovered podcast launch.
“Reality TV is tough. I did a show Celebrity Apprentice and that was an awful show, it was just horrible,” Reid told a crowd of socialites and influencers at Jackalberry.
“If you saw that show Unreal, producers can be really nasty. They get a camera on you and say ‘Good job … how do you feel that the rest of the team thinks you’ve let them down?’
MORE SYDNEY CONFIDENTIAL
Brian Henderson won’t have treatment after cancer diagnosis
Greg Norman lands hole in one with new TV gig
Margot’s Oscars chances revealed
Then you’re like, ‘what, who?’ Then they don’t say anything and you haven’t eaten, all you’ve had is coffee … they try to stir trouble up.”
Reid, who hosted a Q and A chat alongside Ogunsiji and Evbuomwan, appeared on former Channel 9 show Celebrity Apprentice Australia in 2015 alongside the likes of former Bachelor Blake Garvey and Sophie Monk who won the series.
“I think there needs to be some responsibility from the production company and the networks to have an extended level of care to check in on contestants after the show,” he said.
Evbuomwan and Ogunsiji said while their experience on The Amazing Race was positive, not everyone can handle being on a reality show.
“Anyone that’s been on TV realises that it’s not as easy as it seems … to have this massive high and then to drop down … it can be very emotionally taxing,” Ogunsiji said.
The Sydney psychiatric nurses hope their new podcast Uncovered, which tackles mental health, will help destigmatise the issue.
“That’s our biggest mission is to destigamtise mental health. People are comfortable discussing physical health but not mental health,” Evbuomwan said.
“A lot of people are too scared to talk about mental health so the aim is to open up that conversation and show that everyone goes through it and it’s normal.”
Reid, who won I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! in season five, said social media can be detrimental to mental health.
“When people say nice things about you it’s great then all of a sudden you read one negative thing and that’s the thing that sticks with you and gets in your mind,” he said.
“It can ruin your day or your week. I mostly choose not to engage because it just gives them power. If someone writes something negative about me I just block them.”
UK reality star Andrew Brady from Big Brother UK was among guests at the VIP launch and told the crowd that something desperately needs to change.
“We’ve had three suicides from reality TV shows in two years (in the UK). How do you stop that?” he asked.