Jonathan LaPaglia has offered some brutal thoughts on the state of Australian Survivor, over a year after he was shockingly fired by Network Ten as the host of the reality show.
Jonathan had fronted Australian Survivor for ten years and 12 seasons before he was unceremoniously axed and replaced by contestant and winner David Genat, but the former host isn’t leaving without taking a few jabs, including at the show’s declining ratings
In a recent interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Jonathan said his firing — which the network explained was a bid to increase Survivor’s viewership — didn’t exactly pan out. “[Ten] told me ratings were declining, and they were looking for a way to boost that. But that hasn’t worked out, has it? They’ve lost 40 per cent of their audience.” Jonathan said.
SMH reported that the figures Jonathan referred to were the overnight ratings for Survivor’s 2026 finale, which it said were “not far off” from Jonathan’s mention of 40 per cent. But the swipes didn’t stop there, with Jonathan going on to question how the network could continue making the show with such “catastrophic” ratings.
“Honestly, I can’t believe they’re going again with ratings like that. Those ratings are really catastrophic. And if it continues like this, I don’t see how they can sustain it. It makes me sad in a way because we all worked really hard on that show,” Jonathan said.
“For 10 years, we worked hard trying to build success … It’s kind of sad to see it crumble like that. It’s not what it was. And there’s a whole bunch of reasons for that.”
Jonathan LaPaglia takes aim at David Genat
A few reasons, according to Jonathan, were the “terrible decisions” made by the network and this year’s “clunky” theme, as well as new host David — whom he also had some choice words for.
“The stuff with David felt weird, you know?” [David is] fed everything in his earpiece. It disconnects you from the players and I think that’s what the audience is sensing,” Jonathan said, before claiming that producer intervention takes the host out of the moment.
“If the producer is trying to control every word that comes out of your mouth, you’re not in the moment any more,” he said.
Firing back at the comment, a spokesperson for Endamol Shine, the production company behind Survivor, said it’s “untrue” that David’s hosting was handled differently from Jonathan’s by producers.
“Australian Survivor is produced today exactly as it always has been, including how the host communicates with the cast,” the spokesperson told SMH. “Nothing about that process has changed between hosts. Any suggestion otherwise is untrue,” they added.
Elsewhere in the interview, Jonathan had a one-word response to the fan calls to boycott Survivor that erupted following news of his axing; “Good.”
Yikes!
It comes ahead of Apocalypse, a new survival show hosted by Jonathan for Binge. It’s an Alone-style series that tasks contestants with surviving in an abandoned town for 28 days with no food, running water or power.
It’s set to premiere on September 16, so here’s hoping the ratings aren’t as “catastrophic” as Jonathan’s former show.
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