Sam Mac doesn’t like crazy. He would prefer to be at home with a good book or listening to a podcast than being tossed about on an adrenaline-fuelled adventure. The Sunrise star is, by his own admission, a nerd.
“I’m the least extreme person you’ll ever meet,” Sam, who turns 44 on February 12, tells TV WEEK.
“They had me bungee jump on my first day as a surprise. And that really set the tone.”
For 10 years, it’s been a wild ride for Sam as Sunrise weatherman. Like the time, back in 2022, when he rode EpiQ, the world’s tallest indoor roller-coaster, in Qatar, but had no idea what to expect.
“I remember that very clearly because my producer will sometimes organise things without telling me everything,” Sam recalls, “because he wants the audience to see my real reaction and that was very much my real reaction.
“What he failed to tell me before that segment is that it goes backwards. So, I’m sitting there bracing myself to go forward and the roller-coaster starts and with the g-force, I’m just flung backwards.
“And so, that facial expression is literally me realising that I’ve been stitched up. They’ve thrown me under the bus or into the roller-coaster. And that’s the kind of TV that people seem to enjoy.”
Over the past decade, audiences have thoroughly enjoyed watching Sam being thrown from pillar to post – his Sunrise colleagues most of all get a kick out of him seeing out of his comfort zone.
“Whenever there’s a segment where I get almost injured or I have a snake around my neck, anything where they can tell that I’m genuinely uncomfortable, that’s their favourite segment,” Sam says of the breakfast show team. “They thrive on that. We’ve done exercises with the police where they’ve had to cuff me or get me in a headlock.
“And the hosts lose their minds because they are genuinely enjoying it.”
But it makes for good TV, right? “Yeah, good TV and lots of trauma,” he jokes.
In truth, Sam knows he’s “very lucky” to have a plum job where he gets to be in Australia’s homes every day. Over the course of a decade, he reckons he’s been on more than 1500 flights for Sunrise (“zero of them in business class because I didn’t negotiate as well as Kochie back in the day!”).
And he wouldn’t want it any other way.
“It’s a blur,” Sam says of his time on the show. “This gig is amazing. It’s a roller-coaster and it’s something that I’m just so grateful I took on 10 years ago. I still have questionable knowledge of the weather, but thankfully our segments are so much more than weather.
“They’re about sharing Australian stories, meeting characters, going on experiences, showcasing the best of our country and international trips.”
And flying by the seat of his pants when things don’t go according to plan. Once, a female bodybuilder bench-pressed Sam above her head and her hand accidentally landed on his crotch. And when he went to a doggy daycare, while Sam did his live cross, two dogs were “getting rather amorous with each other” in the background of the shot.
“Ten seconds later, another dog enters the frame and urinates. You can’t write this stuff,” Sam says with a laugh.
He loves “rogue moments”, like when he accidentally ended up appearing on rival show, the Nine Network’s Today, and he hammed up a “breakfast wars” moment. “I love when it’s a bit out of the box and not knowing what’s going to happen next,” he says.
“But what I hope we bring to the show is unpredictability, because some TV can be very formulaic by design.”
His favourite moment? Writing and releasing “Half Man, Half Cat” with The Wiggles in 2019 is up the top. “Anthony [Field], the Blue Wiggle invited me to perform it on stage in front of thousands of kids,” Sam enthuses. “It was truly an unforgettable experience to perform a dance-off with Wags the Dog.”
Sam and The Wiggles – quite the natural fit.
There was also the time in 2019 when Sam was nominated for the highest honour in television, the TV WEEK Gold Logie, and he brought his mother, Loretta, and beloved rescue cat, Coco, to the event. His mum has a framed photo of them on the red carpet above the fireplace back home in Adelaide.
“Some said, ‘Oh, that’s really sweet, he took his mum and his cat,’” he recalls. “And some no doubt said, ‘The reality is he probably just couldn’t get a good date.’ But a lot has changed since then.”
Sam met his now fiancée, Rebecca James, over the COVID lockdown. They chatted online and spoke over the phone before finally meeting. “When I met her in person, you know, she’s stunning, and we just clicked and we were both calm around each other,” Sam recalls.
The couple now have two daughters together, Margot, 3, and Mabel, 1. Last year, the young family made the tough decision to shift from Sydney to Melbourne to be closer to Bec’s parents.
Letting go of the Sydney home where “we brought our girls home for the very first time” was “tricky”, but the right decision, Sam says. The next chapter of Sam’s life will be filled with Sunrise, of course, family and perhaps soon a wedding…
“I never want to be someone who is engaged for 10 years, so it’s just about finding the right time,” he says.
“We’re starting to plan. I’m very fortunate to have Bec as my fiancée. As long as I’m aware I’m vice captain, then we’re a great team.”
