Ahead of the new season of Love Island Australia, host Sophie Monk reflects on two decades of reality television memories with Alex Casey.
It may have been a quarter century ago, but Sophie Monk remembers the Bledisloe Cup national anthem sing-off like it was yesterday. It was August 25, 2000, and Monk was one of the members of Bardot, Australia’s answer to TrueBliss, who had been flown over here to sing the Australian national anthem alongside their trans-Tasman counterparts.
But Bardot’s rendition, with its jumbled harmonies and surprise Wallabies back-up vocals, left a little to be desired.
“Ours was so awful,” cackles Monk, speaking to The Spinoff from her bed in Australia. “I remember we sang the second verse which, at the time, I didn’t even know our anthem had a second verse.” Has she rewatched it recently? “No, I’m not watching it. Oh god, the harmonies, no.” Still, there were lessons to be had. “Never do the national anthem, I’ve learned. The odds are pretty low that the national anthem is ever going to work out for you.”
Monk was just 18 years old when she was launched into the reality television universe in Popstars, the New Zealand-created format which manufactured a pop group in just a few weeks. “I hadn’t even heard of Popstars or seen the New Zealand one,” she says. “ I just saw a magazine clipping saying you should audition if you’re a singer and want to be in a band.” She just thought the cameras were there for a one-off TV special about making a band.
“Next thing you know, it’s on every week, everyone’s following us everywhere… It was quite fun, but it did quite literally change my life overnight.” Monk had many moments of feeling “overwhelmed” with the attention and the press, and not having anyone to turn to. “The support on reality television was very different back then, because I guess no one had done it before, including producers, managers,” she says. “It was a lot to take in for an 18-year-old.”
She barely even got time to compare notes with TrueBliss during their 2000 visit. “It was very brief, and I just remember that they were very sweet to us,” she says. “Everyone adored them, and they were a really big deal.” Despite their conviviality, the trans-Tasman rivalry simmered. “I felt bad, because we fully stole Popstars. “Australia was like ‘this is the first ever reality show in the world of girl groups’. And I was like, ‘um, I think there’s a New Zealand one’.”
Monk may have been in the second Popstars iteration in the world, but it was not to be her last reality appearance. Bardot eventually split up, and she moved to Los Angeles for a decade to pursue acting. When she came home to Australia, she dabbled in shows like The Celebrity Apprentice, Australia’s Got Talent, and Beauty and the Geek. But it was her starring role in The Bachelorette Australia that propelled her right back into the middle of the reality TV machine.
“It felt so vulnerable, because you really are so yourself, and so nervous that you are going to ruin everything,” she laughs. But nearly 20 years on, she says she had much more support when things got too much. “I had a psychologist on hand to talk to whenever I wanted,” she says. “It was only later that I realised I probably didn’t have to worry so much about getting a bad edit or anything because, you know, I was The Bachelorette and they looked after me.”
Now entering her sixth season as the host of Love Island Australia, Monk says she has a lot of empathy for the swimsuit-clad 20-somethings looking for love. “I’m quite protective of them all, because I know exactly what they’re feeling,” she says. “Often at home, you can watch a reality show and see someone crying, and you’re like, ‘oh god, I would never do that if I was in there’, but every emotion in there feels 1000 times stronger than on the outside.”
And despite all the promos promising a hotter, sexier and spicier season than ever before, Monk says the show is much more wholesome than people might think. “I actually think there’s quite a wide-eyed innocence about the search for love on Love Island, which I find fascinating,” she says. Still, there’s plenty of drama to come. “We throw a lot at their relationships to see if they’ll work, or see who is wasting their time – and it makes great TV.”
Before we part ways, one more crucial question has to be asked. With TrueBliss reuniting earlier this year, could we see something similar on the horizon for Bardot? “I don’t think so, sorry, nah,” Monk laughs. So no chance of an anthem sing-off rematch? “Never, no. And definitely not a national anthem, that’s for sure.”