Late last year, the news went out that The Living Room was being axed.
Even though it wasn’t true – Amanda Keller and company will be back this year with just a “tweak here and there” – viewers were horrified.
Amanda felt the love. “It was very nice, the outpouring of, ‘Oh, no!'” Amanda tells TV WEEK.
“I was at great pains to say, ‘Don’t panic, we’re back.’ There’s such love for this show and we never ever take that for granted.”
Gold Logie nominee Amanda keeps things real.
(Getty)The love isn’t just for the popular lifestyle show, it’s for Amanda.
Although she’s been on TV since the mid-1980s in series such as Beyond 2000 and Denton, it’s in the past few years that people have started to truly appreciate her.
That’s been proven by the TV WEEK Gold Logie nominations she’s received two years running.
“What I’m very pleased about is that I can be professionally the busiest I’ve ever been, and the oldest I’ve ever been, funnily enough,” Amanda, who turns 58 this month, points out.
“That someone my age can be front and centre on Australian television and Australian radio without anyone saying, ‘You’re too old to be doing it.’
“I look around me and really think that’s changing. I’m seeing women of my age in all kinds of media and I think, ‘Well, thank goodness. We have our place.'”
Amanda is, by anyone’s standards, set to have a very busy year.
There’s the new incarnation of The Living Room, featuring the original team of Amanda, Chris Brown, Miguel Maestre and Barry Du Bois.
“Barry, and Barry’s hair, will still be there, front and centre,” Amanda says of her close friend, who’s had a long battle with cancer.
“He’s doing really well.”
Then there’s Dancing With The Stars, which is filming in Melbourne this time around.
On top of that, Amanda also has her breakfast-radio show on Sydney’s WSFM.
“I don’t know if I look forward to a busy year, but when I look at all the projects I’m involved in, there’s not one I don’t want to do,” she explains.
“And when I do start to think, ‘Oh, I’m exhausted,’ I think, ‘Well, these shows are absolutely ones you’ve chosen to do, and you’re doing a job you love, so have an afternoon sleep, muster your strength, make dinner for your family and start again tomorrow.'”
WATCH: Amanda Keller talks about her Gold Logie nomination. Story continues…
It’s very clear that family – husband Harley Oliver and sons Liam, 18, and Jack, 16 – is Amanda’s number-one priority.
“I very rarely go out during the week,” she says.
“With having to get up at four in the morning, it’s just too hard. To be honest, I’m not that interested in it. I like being at home and having dinner with the family and having a life. That’s my life, what happens inside the doors of home, really.”
Last year was a “massive” year for the family, with Liam turning 18 and finishing school.
“I was taken by surprise at how emotional I felt at the idea of him imminently leaving home,” Amanda says.
“It brought up a lot of stuff about my own mum, because she’s no longer here. It made me think about how casually I left home, and I don’t get to say ‘thank you’ to her for that.”
Amanda juggles a lot, but she’s nailing it!
(Getty)Family wasn’t the only thing that got Amanda feeling emotional last year.
Hosting DWTS for the first time, she found herself shedding a lot of tears.
“Often, even in rehearsals, I’d have a bit of a cry when Samuel Johnson was dancing,” she remembers.
“And Courtney Act. I often got very emotional watching Courtney’s unmasking as Shane [Jenek] through much of the season. There was just so much I thought was extraordinary.”
It’s understandable that Amanda feels for the celebrities competing on the show, who this year include Claudia Karvan, Ed Kavalee, Celia Pacquola and Dami Im. She competed herself in 2006 and knows how tough it can be.
“What I found hard – and I know that people struggle with this – is that you’ve earned your stripes professionally, and here you are, starting from scratch,” she explains.
“You’re not very good at the beginning, and you’re having to stand there and cop judgement from the judges. That’s the bit that really stings.
And that’s part of the pleasure for the viewer.
“It’s hard being told off like a little kid when you’ve done your best. You think, ‘I only learnt this dance two days ago!’ It’s so hard not to answer back.”
WATCH: See Manu Fieldel get a perfect score on Dancing with the Stars. Story continues…
Amanda has always been up for a challenge in her career. There’s one thing she’d still really like to try: serious acting, taking her inspiration from “when Julia Morris was in House Husbands“.
“I’ve done some fun acting, Paul Fenech’s Pizza and Swift And Shift Couriers, which I loved,” she explains.
“I just played a crankier version of myself, which is very easy for me to do. But I wouldn’t mind having a crack at some serious acting. My dance card, excuse the pun, is pretty full at the moment, but in the future I’d love to have a crack.”
