‘Blacklist’ no joke to Fiona
FIONA O’Loughlin believes she’s been “blacklisted” by Australian TV executives.
Last year the former Alice Springs comedian won the fourth season of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! but she has been unable to land a permanent TV gig since.
“I reckon I’ve been blacklisted from the television,” O’Loughlin said on The Little Dum Dum Club podcast.
She explained that she thought she’d be an attractive prospect for TV executives after 65 per cent of viewers voted for her to win the Channel 10 reality show over Danny Green and Shannon Noll.
“Don’t the networks want what the people want?” she said. “I do think it’s rude to the audience and I don’t think Australian networks listen to the f***ing audience.”
The comedian, who has been performing stand-up for 20 years, speculated that her battle with alcoholism might be a contributing factor as to why she’s been overlooked, along with the fact she’s “on the wrong side of 50”.
Speaking about the roles she’s missed out on, O’Loughlin told The Little Dum Dum Club hosts Tommy Dassalo, Karl Chandler and Josh Earl that last year she discovered she was in the running to land a permanent gig on Studio 10.
“I heard ‘ whisper, whisper, whisper’ at the Logies last year,” she said. “Denise Drysdale was leaving Studio 10 and she said: ‘I’ve put your name up for it’.”
After another Studio 10 cohost said she was in with a good chance, O’Loughlin “started getting a bit excited”.
“Anyway, I turn on the tele … guess who they got? KerriAnne Kennerley!”
The comedian also revealed that she desperately wanted to land a role as one of the judges on Australia’s Got Talent.
“I was like: ‘That’s the one, that’s the gig’!” she said when she heard the show was starting up again on Channel 7.
“I got my agents to ask and I said: ‘Please go hard for that.’
“Guess what the feedback (was)? Not experienced enough. At what exactly?”
O’Loughlin also revealed in the podcast how much she was paid to appear on I’m a Celeb.
“It was $120,000 if you stay in for the first two weeks,” she said. “Then they pay you a daily rate. I ended up with $150,000.”
No wonder she wants another TV gig.