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Jonesy: Why I turned down co-hosting with Lisa Wilkinson
When it comes to powerful radio duos in Australia, Brendan ‘Jonesy’ Jones and his WSFM breakfast co-host Amanda Keller always comes to mind.
And as far as Jonesy is concerned, the radio booth is where he sees his career continuing.
While the 50-year-old is set to appear on Channel Seven’s one-off charity special, The Real Full Monty, later this week, he’s adamant that’s where his TV career stops.
In fact, the radio star says if television was his true calling, he wouldn’t have rejected the offer to host a morning show with Lisa Wilkinson.
“I remember many years ago I got offered to do a show with Lisa Wilkinson on Seven,” Jonesy tells Be.
“It would’ve been 1999. I was doing mornings at Triple M and a production company rang me and said, ‘Look, we’d like you to come in for a screen test for this new show we’re thinking of doing on Seven’.
“It was called The Morning Shift and this is way before Larry and Kylie were even born and Lisa and I just got on really, really well,” Jonesy explains.
“It was a nice chemistry and then it just got to this point where they were saying, ‘Would you leave radio for it?’ and I said, ‘Well no’.
“I’ve waited all my life to get to this point so I had to say no and I think it went to some swimmer or something in the end.”
Jonesy does wonder what would’ve happened if he had accepted that television role, which ultimately went to professional swimmer Duncan Armstrong.
“I don’t know what the sliding doors of my life would’ve been if I’d taken that role at the time,” he says.
Earlier this year Jonesy dabbled in a bit of TV presenting, stepping in for Peter Stefanovic on Weekend Today.
“When I did the Today show, I really liked hosting that show,” he says, however warns us not to expect him to take over such a hosting gig any time soon.
“That would mean working seven days a week. That would be hard. That would be every day,” he says.
“I did like doing the show, it was good. But maybe I’m getting too old,” the radio star laughs.
“There’s a lot of radio shows out there and radio is something people do on the side while they’re waiting to do something on TV. Radio is the mother of all things and I would never leave radio to do solely TV because I don’t trust TV, I trust radio.”
Jonesy and WSFM co-host Amanda Keller have been doing very well in the breakfast radio ratings, and perhaps his new one-off TV project airing this weekend will only help boost those numbers.
The father of three is set to appear on Channel Seven’s The Real Full Monty, stripping down alongside a string of stars to raise awareness about men’s health issues.
Jonesy filmed the show at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre earlier this year alongside the likes of Kris Smith, Shane Jacobson, Matt Cooper, Jett Kenny, Campbell Brown, Sam Mac, Brian Taylor and Todd McKenney.
“We did it and it’s done but now the new anxiety is, ‘Oh right, people are actually going to see it’,” Jonesy laughs.
The Real Full Monty will air on Sunday July 29 at 7pm on Channel Seven.
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