’You can’t make that shit up’ says Triple M star of MAFS

Jane Kennedy and Mick Molloy have little choice but to talk about the reality “phenomenon” that is Married At First Sight on their Triple M drive show, but that doesn’t mean the comedy duo aren’t gobsmacked by its success.

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Jane Kennedy and Mick Molloy have little choice but to talk about the reality “phenomenon” that is Married At First Sight on their Triple M drive show, but that doesn’t mean the comedians and seasoned TV and film producers aren’t gobsmacked by the success of the show.

The pair, whose friendship and artistic collaborations date back more than two decades to when both were members of comedic group D Generation, moved into the competitive radio slot last year and are building ratings success.

Jane Kennedy and Mick Molloy in the studio where they produce their national drive show each weekday. Picture: Tim Carrafa

With the day’s events the basis for their early evening banter, the craziness of MAFS is often a hot topic of discussion.

“It’s a bizarre phenomenon,” Kennedy tells Insider. “Our show’s based on what’s in the news and what people are talking about on a daily basis.. Unfortunately this group of hapless, idiotic 20-something people have been dominating our screens.”

“F...ing MAFS,” Molloy chimes in. “You don’t realise what kind of a monster it is until it’s lined up against you.”

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He’s talking about his popular Channel 7 AFL show The Front Bar, which he hosts with Sam Pang and Andy Maher on a Wednesday night.

To be fair, it may have lost a few viewers to MAFS, but the show has been holding its own, smashing Nine’s long-running Footy Show in the ratings. This past week, the relative newcomers had a national audience of 509,000, nearly three times their rivals who managed just 185,000.

And it’s not as if the comedian actually has to watch the show — that job goes to his co-host.

“I live vicariously through Jane Kennedy when it comes to MAFS and a lot in the reality genre,” he says. “I must say Jane does a lot of the heavy lifting in that department.

As one of the brains behind Working Dog — the production company she runs with husband Rob Sitch and fellow comedians Tom Gleisner and Santo Cilauro and responsible for hits such as Utopia and Have You Been Paying Attention — Kennedy finds herself pondering the buckets of cash and countless hours they put into their work when MAFS proves you really don’t need either to be a hit.

Member of the D Generation.

“We put a lot of effort and craft into making our shows,” Kennedy says. ”Then you realise all you need is some outspoken people who are ready to make a dick of themselves (and) there’s your show!”

Asked if Working Dog would consider creating their own MAFS-style show, she concedes the reality show is in a league of its own.

“It’s already a parody, what more could you do? You couldn’t make up the shit that’s on that show,” she laughs.

Molloy disagrees.

“That’s a great idea — I’d love to see Rob (Sitch) on the couch being cross-examined by one of the ‘experts’,” he says.

The pair never miss a beat and rarely talk over one another — they’re not exactly finishing each others’ sentences, but they may as well be. With so much history, their stories are inextricably linked and they have decades of shared experiences in the industry to draw on.

It’s probably why their national drive show has been successful, breaking through the one million listener barrier in the first survey for 2019 and capturing the key 25-54 male advertising demographic in most capital cities, and why they genuinely seem to enjoy their jobs.

Kennedy played investigative reporter Brooke Vandenberg in the satirical current affairs show Frontline. Husband Rob Sitch was Mike Moore, the show’s anchor.

Radio shows thrive when their hosts legitimately get on — Kyle and Jackie O and Jonesy and Amanda are two examples — and there have been teams thrown together in recent years that have failed spectacularly. The breakfast slot on Sydney’s 2DAY FM in particular has suffered greatly because of clashing personalities with the show cycling through a long list of talent trying to find the right fit.

Kennedy says listeners see straight through on-air relationships that are manufactured.

“You just can’t fake that — we’ve tried,” she laughs. “I am fascinated by how groups of individuals are plonked together by a program director who just thinks all of a sudden you can just have this chemistry.”

The physical confines of a tiny studio where hosts are almost sitting on top of each other for hours a day also calls for a certain level of friendliness.

“It’s the biggest mistake, especially in radio, when you’ve got a very small room and you’re spending a lot of time together,” Molloy says. “I can’t bung that on and the mistake people keep making is to think you can architect the result.”

The Kennedy Molloy show came about when Molloy decided he needed to spend more time with his family and wanted a move from breakfast to drive. He approached Kennedy about joining him in the studio and she didn’t need to think twice about it (although she has said in the past it was taken to a family meeting to discuss).

“It was the happiest moment of my life when Mick approached me and said ‘do you want to work every afternoon, Jane?’ and I said ‘shit yes’,” she laughs.

“I’d done the hard yards and Mummy was ready to leave the house,” she adds.

“It’s funny we’re coming from different directions because I was coming from the idea that I needed to spend more time with my children so I was getting out of breakfast into drive and Jane’s saying ‘I want to spend less time with my children’,” Molloy says.

Kennedy Molloy, National Drive Show 4-6pm, Triple M

Originally published as ’You can’t make that shit up’ says Triple M star of MAFS