BACK ON THE BOX
Some fresh faces are ready to dish out their opinions when Goggle box Australia returns this week, writes Holly Byrnes
IF “talking a little bit of s---” on
Gogglebox Australia doesn’t work out for newcomers and Gold Coast flatmates Milo and Nic the latter suggests another TV title could be right up their alley.
Dobbing in his best friend as quick as you can blink, Nic reveals what the country will soon know about his offsider.
“Milo has a bad habit of collecting things from council clean-up and bringing them home. Every day there’ll be a new piece of furniture he’s found on the way home from work,” the 31-year- old primary school teacher says of his surf retail manager mate.
Jumping in to defend himself, while owning his weakness for roadside junk, Milo says: “I love antiques and, for me, someone else’s trash is another man’s treasure. People don’t know the value of the stuff they’re throwing out. I’m like an Australian picker,” he enthused, in a nod to the antiqueing series American Pickers.
“Well, on the border of picker and hoarder,” he adds with a chuckle.
Letting the boys banter, Milo continues: “True story, just recently I found a pie tin from the 1960s.”
Nic chirps up: “And Holly, guess how many pies we’ve made since then? Zero, that’s why it should be on the street.” The cheeky exchange perfectly captures the personalities of the show’s newest rough diamonds, who hadn’t watched an episode of the Endemol Shine series – broadcast by both Foxtel and 10 – before being cast for it.
“Milo came through the door one night and he said, ‘Mate, weird story ... someone came up to me at work and said, ‘ We’re looking for a couple of young surfer guys to go on the show Gogglebox’ and he said, ‘Look, it’s not really for me’.”
Claiming he was “too old for that silly nonsense,” the 35-yearold was quickly talked into taking it on by his younger mate. “I said, ‘ Bro, we can do that ... all you’ve got to do is talk a little bit of s--- and we are doing that right now’,” Nic recalls.
For the sake of conservative viewers and the class of nineyear- olds he teaches who might be up late watching, Nic warns their content might not be perenially PG.
“I’m hoping they don’t watch. They’re only nine so the content might be a bit adult for those kids,” he explains, adding, “I’m more worried about the parents watching it than the kids.”
The opportunity to join the Logie-winning series of couchbound TV critics came after original cast members Adam and Symon pulled out of the series to concentrate on the careers they were studying for when the show first launched back in 2015.
They followed Angie Kent and Yvie Jones, the single gals who also left the series for several other reality TV shows.
Both would head to the South African jungle for the 2019 season of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!; before Kent put her heart on the line last year on The Bachelorette.
Taking the departures as the chance to refresh the line-up, producers have also cast the
Elias family from Sydney’s south, including mum Danielle, dad
Les, son Jacob and daughters Lily Rose and Ivy.
Bringing some single gal sass back to the show are Bondi neighbours Kaday and Chantal, who have flagged their interest in following Kent into the Bachelor universe, looking for love.
But it’s the Gold Coast surfers who could be the new breed’s true romantics – obsessed as they are with Married At First Sight, The Bachelor and Love Island. “How can you not love Love
Island?” Nic asks. “We love love, so of course we love Love Island.”
Milo finishes the thought: “It’s one of those shows that’s full- on and cringey but for some reason [editor’s note: we can’t imagine why?] we’ll come home and chuck it back on.”
Also making her debut with the boys will be their house cat Mars, whose a little less enthusiastic about making her TV debut than her owners. “She will jump on the couch a couple of times, just depends on how comfortable she is. She’s a little bit scared but we’ll see,” Nic says.
Fans of frisky Gogglebox boxer Bane, who belongs to Matty, Sarah and Jad, Milo added: “That dog is hilarious, but [Mars] is not a humper.”
Like most Aussie blokes, expect these sports lovers to be across all codes when it comes time to offer their commentary.
“To be perfectly honest with you, Holly with a Y, we watch anything and everything sport,” Nic says.
“And now that we’ve got free Foxtel,” Milo reveals, spruiking the first perk of the job, “that’s not all we’ll be watching.” GOGGLEBOX AUSTRALIA 6PM, WEDNESDAY, FOXTEL’S LIFESTYLE; 8.30PM, THURSDAY, 10