Reality TV: 2020’s heroes and zeros
The reality is people, there is nowhere to hide. These are the breakout stars and standout duds of Australian reality TV.
Entertainment
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In a year when many of us were housebound, reality TV took up more than its fair share of my television viewing. As we often see, reality contestants claim a dud edit when shooting doesn’t go their way.
The reality is people, there is nowhere to hide. The camera may add 10 pounds but it doesn’t make you say things you shouldn’t. So our advice is to own it.
MasterChef Australia with its new trio of judges – Melissa Leong, Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen – more than lived up to expectations by breathing new life into the format that has run for more than a decade.
SAS Australia was by far a favourite, mainly due to the fact the celebrities truly were put through their paces as opposed to the ‘pretend’ hard line taken in I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!
The return of Big Brother also provided much entertainment, albeit with a new format that took some getting used to. Married At First Sight lived up to its trashy reputation while The Block delivered more of the same – yawn.
New foodie show Plate of Origin was a complete flop and rightly won’t be back for another season. By far the standout reality show for this columnist was a surprise gem from the ABC in dating show Love On The Spectrum. Here, we look through the breakout stars and standout duds of reality television in the year that was.
HEROES
Adam Todd
Bachelorette hunk Adam Todd has it all. Humble and hot, the now Sydney-based former Perth geologist has been linked to Bachelor star Bella Varelis. Our hope is that he will be the next Bachelor.
Melissa Leong – MasterChef
While all three of MasterChef Australia’s new judges delivered the goods, food critic Melissa Leong was the standout. She’s sassy, sexy and fun.
And while some of her detailed descriptions of the contestant offerings were a bit verbose at times, I couldn’t turn away. In fact, it was the first season ever that I watched pretty much every episode.
Abbie Chatfield – Bachelor in Paradise
After placing runner-up on Matt Agnew’s season of The Bachelor, Abbie Chatfield gave love another crack on Bachelor In Paradise. She didn’t last long with no sparks flying but has more than made up for it in building her profile off the back of the format.
A proud feminist, she hosts a podcast that is hugely successful and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Vanessa Sierra
Former Love Island contestant Vanessa Sierra has built her social media following to more than 1.1 million on Instagram alone. Dating tennis bad boy, Bernard Tomic, she has forged a career through Only Fans and hasn’t shied away from working her best assets.
Guy Sebastian
As the only coach to survive Seven’s take over of The Voice format from rival Nine, Guy Sebastian is a winner. Talented not just as a musician, he showed he was able to put his own profile to the side to truly nurture new talent on the reality singing show.
David Genat – Survivor
It was second time lucky for Survivor star David Genat. The male model took out the crown in Australian Survivor All Stars after narrowly missing out on the 2019 season, Champions vs Contenders.
Schapelle Corby – SAS
More, more, more – that is what I want from Schapelle Corby. Whatever you think of the convicted drug smuggler’s past, she was mesmerising on screen as a contestant on SAS Australia. The big shame was that she left in the second episode. What made Corby so compelling to watch was that I believe we all had an idea of who she was as a person but in reality, she is just like all of us, even with her high pitched baby-doll voice. Sweet, naive, nurturing, I can’t wait to see more of Corby on the small screen.
Michael – Love on the Spectrum
What made Love on the Spectrum special was that it celebrated its contestants and their differences. It didn’t make fun of them. Treading a fine line, it could have easily gone the other way. But instead, the question I asked myself when watching this show was: are we all actually that different? Society tells us what a relationship should look like. Indeed, as humans, we crave affection, company and love. The show had a lot to teach us about how we treat people. And while Michael struggled in his pursuit of love, Australia fell in love with him.
Erin McNaught – SAS Australia
TV presenter and former beauty queen Erin McNaught gets extra credit for turning her back on the often plastic fantastic world of the modelling industry. Judged her entire career by how she looks, McNaught got down and dirty and more than handled her own in the gruelling SAS selection course. It paid off as she would have been discounted early on in the competition when in fact she made it to the end.
Sabrina Frederick – SAS Australia
Elite sportswoman Sabrina Frederick is a woman I want my nieces to look up to. Strong of mind and body, she not only worked her butt off in the competition but showed women are as strong as their male counterparts. She is a born leader and someone with a very bright future on the sports field and off it.
Poppy Jennings – Married At First Sight
Mother to twin boys, Poppy Jennings stood up to the producers on Married At First Sight when many others would have crumbled. It took guts. My heart broke for Jennings when she revealed she had been deliberately portrayed as “a bogan single mum” and a “miserable whinger” to fit in with “an agenda”. Jennings also claimed she was not able to say what really happened behind the scenes, including the truth about her relationship with TV husband Luke Eglin.
My top reality hero?
Candice Warner – SAS
It is the ultimate redemption story some stars can only ever dream of from a reality show. More often than not it doesn’t work but in the case of ironwoman Candice Warner, competing on SAS Australia truly paid off. It gave her an opportunity to put to rest any negative press of years gone by with Australians acknowledging her strength as a woman but also her dedication to her three daughters.
ZEROS
Firass Dirani – SAS Australia
While reality TV is often a magical rehabilitator of a celebrity profile, it was the
opposite for actor Firass Dirani in appearing on SAS Australia. The House Husbands and Underbelly star came across as petulant with a chip on his shoulder, which is a real shame. Multiple contestants spoke out about his behaviour and in my mind, there has to be a reason his career has never really taken off.
Scott Cam – The Block
I mean, how many seasons can Scott Cam do of reno show, The Block? Ratings say it is a huge hit but for me, one season has blurred into another. And Cam, one of the highest paid guys on television with a salary believed to be more than $1 million, his portrayal as a knockabout tradie when he is anything but is more than a bit rich.
Talia Rycroft – Big Brother
Adelaide construction worker Talia Rycroft came off as a mean girl from her short time in the Big Brother house. Surprise, surprise, Rycroft subsequently claimed she copped the villain edit, which may be so but she has to take responsibility for her behaviour either way. They didn’t edit her to be mean to house rival, Angela Clancy.
Roxy Jacenko – SAS Australia
To be fair, the season wouldn’t have been the same had publicist Roxy Jacenko not provided some drama from the very first episode when she quit six or so hours into filming. Jacenko in fact could easily sit as a hero on this list because she delivered a sprinkle of gold from her time in the wilderness. She also did so suffering a broken pelvis. I think she expected the villain edit, which producers delivered and she copped on the chin.
Ryan Gallagher – I’m A Celebrity
You could say producers were scraping the barrel when they cast former MAFS contestant Ryan Gallagher on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! Casting to be fair has been a bit dubious the past few seasons and Gallagher did his best to maintain relevance by hooking up with Brit reality star Charlotte Crosby. In the end, he came off as a domineering alpha male, particularly in his bullying of comedian Tanya Hennessy.
Frazer Neate – Bachelorette
It was a telling sign of Frazer Neate’s motives that a talent agent alerted media he had signed The Bachelorette contestant hours before the series finale in which he professed his love for Elly Miles.
Countless cheating allegations meant the relationship with Miles lasted but a few weeks. To be frank, the pool of Bach and Bachelorette talent though won’t dry up as long as we have good looking guys and gals so I expect the fame-chasing contestants to roll through for a while to come.
Pete Mann – Bachelorette
Pete Mann came off as mean and cruel by not pulling out of The Bachelorette ahead of the season finale only to break up with Becky Miles four days after production wrapped. I mean, why bother staying on the show if you clearly don’t see a future with one of the girls?
Ciarran Stott – Bachelor In Paradise
Surely there is no resurrecting the profile for Bach in Paradise bad boy Ciarran Stott. There is no coming back after his player antics, caught out multiple times on the show for telling porky pies. Here’s a tip Ciarran, dying your hair pink from peroxide blond won’t do the trick.
Timm Hanly – Bachelor In Paradise
A fan favourite in Angie Kent’s season of The Bachelorette, Timm Hanly blew it on Bachelor in Paradise. To add insult to injury, after saying he wanted to pursue a romance with Britt Hockley off the show, he ghosted her and got back together with an ex. Bad form.
And my top reality TV zero?
Nasser Sultan
Headline grabbing, fame chasing former Married At First Sight contestant will stop at nothing to get himself into the spotlight. I mean, who refers to themself as ‘Australia’s favourite celebrity’ when they are not a celebrity?
Originally published as Reality TV: 2020’s heroes and zeros
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