How Sunrise star Sam Mac cheated his way into showbiz

SUNRISE weather presenter Sam Mac has been working on TV and radio for more than 10 years, but he got his first big break by “rorting” the system.

SUNRISE weatherman Sam Mac has revealed how he cheated his way into showbiz.

The 34-year-old, who landed the Channel Seven breakfast show gig in January, opened up to news.com.au about the slightly shady way in which he got his first big break.

“I won a competition in Adelaide on a radio station which at the time was called SAFM (now Hit 107),” Mac said.

“The competition was called Who Wants To Be A Co-Host On Air. It was a very ‘clever’ play on the name of a popular TV show at the time, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”

Mac, whose real name is Sam McMillan, was one of 10 finalists in the competition along with another budding star, Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann.

Over two weeks, each of the wannabe’s was profiled on the breakfast show and at the end of the campaign, the public had to vote for who they wanted to remain on air.

“I was at uni at the time and I happened to be working part time in a call centre,” Mac said.

“The call centre was full of middle-aged women who loved me because I used to run quizzes in the call centre in the downtime. We used to play this game called The Thesaurus Game where I’d say a word and they had to say a synonym for it. Very nerdy.”

As any charismatic 22-year-old would do, Mac charmed his co-workers into helping him win.

“They put this thing up on the board in the office that meant I had a whole call centre calling SAFM and voting for me,” he said.

On Sunrise, Mac ‘invented’ #YogaGram - a class designed specifically to improve your Instagram game’.

“We completely rorted the system and I won the competition. The prize was to go to the Edinburgh Fringe and review acts and when I got back they offered me a job.”

The gig was a dream come true for Mac who had always wanted a career in the entertainment industry.

“I once got banned from high school for using the school’s video camera to make our own version of Home and Away instead of for assignments,” he recalled.

Since landing the SAFM gig in 2002, Mac has hosted radio shows on both Southern Cross Austereo and Nova stations and has appeared on numerous TV shows such as Wake Upand The B-League.

“I particularly enjoyed The Project,” said Mac when asked about some of his favourite jobs.

“I worked with them for about four years in various roles. I was doing the Whip Around from Perth and then I was doing various live crosses and I filled in for Charlie Pickering hosting from the desk. I loved it and it was a really great TV grounding for me because my background really was radio.

“In terms of radio, before I landed a show on 92.9 in Perth I was working with Wil Anderson and Lehmo on their drive show on Triple M. That was a really big part of my development because I got to work closely with Wil and write comedy sketches with him.”

Mac’s vast media experience made him the perfect candidate to replace Edwina Bartholomew as the Sunrise weather presenter.

Mac met Susie O’Neill and Ian Thorpe and wrote, ‘I obeyed Thorpie’s request to not look him in the eyes ... on the condition he wouldn’t look my camera in the lens’.

“To be honest I was a little bit shocked,” Mac said about getting the job.

“I filled in for a couple of weeks for Edwina towards the end of last year. I didn’t really approach it as an audition, I kind of just did it and did it in my style. They were looking at other people for the role, I knew that. But at the start of the year they called and it happened very quickly.”

Mac revealed he’s signed on for the “dream job” for a couple of years and has been “amazed” by the experiences he’s had on air so far.

“My highlight was probably going to the high country in Victoria where they shot The Man from Snowy River and we basically camped out there in a swag,” he said.

“I thought swag was just something Justin Bieber had, but no ...”

Another of Mac’s highlights from Sunrise was when they drove through the Victorian town of Bright.

“The main street has about seven buildings,” he said.

“And we saw a restaurant that was an Indian and Italian restaurant. It just blew our minds that these two things were available in the one restaurant. It turns out the two business partners, one was Indian, one was Italian, and they couldn’t decide which restaurant to open so they said, ‘Why not have both!’

Mac met Brodie in Darlington Point and described him as, “One of the most charismatic & hilarious kids I’ve ever met”.

“We actually made an ad for them and played it around Australia. Their bookings were full within an hour of that going to air. Stuff like that really amuses me.”

As for his least favourite moment so far ...

“That was when I allegedly pushed a small child off a hoverboard in Adelaide,” Mac said.

“My second least favourite is when one of the producers made me do a bungy jump on my first day. Just on a side note, Edwina (Bartholomew) was sent to a cotton farm on her first day.”

Sam Mac can be seen on Channel Seven’s Sunrise from 5.30am to 9am each weekday and Best Bits! on Channel Seven each Tuesday at 10pm. You can also follow him on Facebook.