\u201cLadies and gentlemen, I\u2019m just going to state the obvious, we have a doppelganger in our midst,\u201d she began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am disgusted at how much you\u2019ve copied my husband. From the hair to the suit, do you not have any value or respect for originality?\u201d she asked Irvine on live TV.<\/p>\n
The Spinoff founder Duncan Grieve was writing about the show for the website at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was as if no one had ever worn a suit before Willy Moon, whose schtick was wearing a suit,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moon added to Kills\u2019 slapdown of Irvine: \u201cIt\u2019s like Norman Bates dressing up in his mother\u2019s clothing. It\u2019s just a little bit creepy and I feel like you\u2019re gonna stick someone\u2019s skin to your face and kill everyone in the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Irvine in 2015.<\/p>\n
Kills added: \u201cYou\u2019re a laughing stock, it\u2019s cheesy, it\u2019s disgusting. I personally found it artistically atrocious. I am embarrassed to be sitting here in your presence having to even dignify you with my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The studio audience were in uproar as Irvine responded: \u201cThank you Natalia, you\u2019re beautiful\u201d. Despite strong public support, he was eliminated two weeks later.<\/p>\n
John McDonald, then head of production at TV3, was running the show that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went straight to their dressing rooms and I said \u2018What just happened? What did you just do?\u2019\u201d McDonald told The Reality Machine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings had gone so wonderfully well to that point and I genuinely liked Willy and Natalia. I have a different view of that show from TV3 main leadership at that point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never should have fired those guys.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin a couple of minutes Natalia was saying, \u2018Grab a camera. I will go to Joe\u2019s dressing room, I\u2019ll take flowers, I\u2019ll apologise, I\u2019ll get down on one knee, I\u2019ll tell him I\u2019m so sorry about that and we will move on\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what McDonald thought would unfold \u2013that that would be the following night\u2019s episode. But the horse had bolted, two days later the couple were fired and fled the country. They landed to a throng of paparazzi peppering them about the incident at LAX.<\/p>\n
The pair were replaced by Shelton Woolright from Blindspott and Aussie singer\/actress Natalie Bassingthwaighte.<\/p>\n
Andrew Szusterman was in charge of entertainment at MediaWorks at the time, including TV3.<\/p>\n
He says despite what one may think, it did not work for ratings.<\/p>\n
Willy Moon and Natalia Kills. Photo \/ TV3<\/p>\n
\u201cThose that think it had a ratings surge it did anything but. It actually had a negative effect on that season. The ratings took a tumble after that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
As soon as the scene went down, his phone blew up, he recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
Podcast host Reeve, who has 20-plus years in the television business, reckons the couple wouldn\u2019t have been directed to be so harsh.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally speaking, there probably isn\u2019t a lot of explicit direction, because \u2026 people are not good actors usually so the more you tell them \u2026 often the worse the outcomes get.\u201d<\/p>\n