Let’s level with each other here, when it comes to reality TV shows like The Bachelor, Love Island and Married At First Sight, a v. small percentage of Aussies actually sign up for that old chest nut we call love.
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The vast majority of them only agree to humiliate themselves on national TV for the rewards they think they’ll reap when the show’s over, namely fame, money, party invites and free shit.
But as we’ve seen time and time again, when reality contestants come through to the other side and realise that life as a D-lister isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, they’re left whining about the experience, wishing they’d never signed up to begin with.
For this reason, Marion ‘Maz’ Farrelly, an Aussie television producer since 2000, says she’s “very up front” with fame hungry contestants.
During an interview with Big Brother winner Tim Dormer on his Popsugar podcast, Farrelly (Big Brother, Dancing With the Stars, The X Factor and The Farmer Wants a Wife) dished on the brutal spiel she gives Aussies when they cross her desk, Daily Mail reports.
You wouldn’t believe it based on the wack jobs we’ve seen on our screens, but Maz insists that producers “vigorously psych test” contestants to ensure that they’re up for the ride and although they want the most entertaining folk to be cast in the show, she always gives them an honest insight into what life after the fact will look like prior to them signing up.
“I’ll say to people: ‘You will be too famous to go back to your job, but you won’t be famous enough to be famous. You’re probably not going to work for two years’,” she explained.
She tells the women that they’ll struggle to find blokes who’ll be willing to date them after the show and she tells the men that they may be subjected to violence.
“If you have a relationship in the house and you’re a girl, your mother will probably get a brick through the window saying, ‘Your daughter’s a (bleep)’,” she continues.
“You’ll be in the papers, everyone you’ve ever slept with will come and sell their story.”
She also tells them that being “loved” by the Aussie public is “very rare” for a reality star and they’ll likely be known as “that idiot from the telly” for the rest of their days.
… sounds about right.
