‘People were angry’: Jonathan LaPaglia breaks his silence on Australian Survivor shake-up

When Australian Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia was axed as host in 2025, he famously shared on his Instagram account that he was “blindsided” by Network 10’s decision to let him go after almost a decade as host. 

“Australian Survivor has seen some of the most epic blindsides over the last 10 years, but this one might just be the craziest of them all… because it happened to me,” he wrote on Instagram.

The show moved on this year with former winner David ‘Golden God’ Genat as host. Jonathan, 56, who lives in the US with his wife, Ursula, and their daughter, Tilly, 22, was unable to catch David’s season as the show doesn’t air in the US.

“Weirdly, Channel 10 doesn’t send me the episodes anymore,” he says. “I don’t know why, but they don’t. The only stuff I saw was on social media and, occasionally, my friends would send me clips.”

Does he have an opinion on what he did see?

“It was strange,” he admits. “It was weird for me to watch someone else do something that I did for 11 seasons.

“It seemed like it pissed off more people than it pleased. So, God knows, it didn’t seem like it was a great move [to replace him]. But, anyway, what do I know?”

For the moment, though, Jonathan’s focus is the wild new reality show, Apocalypse, which he narrates. Set in an abandoned dilapidated town, with crashed cars, a train off its tracks, half a wrecked aeroplane it feels like end of the world as we know it!

The opening moments of Apocalypse are so genuinely eerie you’ll half-expect some kind of monster to appear.

“I was hoping for it,” Jonathan LaPaglia laughs to TV WEEK. “That opening sequence really reminded me of The Blair Witch Project! And the one thing that movie did so well was you didn’t quite know what was going on.

“It was asking more questions than it was giving answers, which to me is good storytelling. I don’t like something when it’s completely explained to me so I don’t have to do any work.”

Essentially, 14 people – both Brits and Aussies – have been dropped into an abandoned US town, roughly the size of Sydney’s CBD, and must survive for 28 days without electricity, running water and outside help. There are no rules and it’s freezing.

The eight-episode series feels like a cross between Survivor and post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us, with a hint of Lost (minus the polar bear). It makes sense that Apocalypse is from the creators of SBS series Alone and Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge.

Some of the contestants include an Australian Paralympian, a cattle farmer, a chef and a London taxi driver. But in the first episode the contestants struggle to find anything resembling food.

While there are similarities to Survivor – both are reality shows in which players are forced to fend for themselves – in this case there is no tribal council to vote off contestants. But there’s still plenty of game play going on.

“This is much more about surviving not only the environment, but also each other,” Jonathan says of Apocalypse. “There’s always going to be a hierarchy in any kind of society. Some people are in charge and some are followers.

“And what’s interesting about the show as it progresses is that there really is a rift between the men and the women about their roles.”

Without spoiling things for viewers, there is a twist that occurs at the end of the first episode – and it “completely hooked” Jonathan.

For fans of Survivor there might be some mild disappointment as, unlike Survivor, we never actually get to see Jonathan. Apocalypse was conceived and entirely filmed before his involvement.

“When they first announced it, there were lots of people on social media who were saying, ‘Oh, my God, he’s back! I can’t wait to see him,’” he says. “I’m like: ‘No, I’m just a voice.’ Are people going to be expecting me to jump out of the shadows and scare the players?”

Secretly, yes!

While producers are keen to keep the identity of the town a secret, Jonathan has shed some light on its rather miserable history. The town was specifically built in the first half of the 20th century around a psychiatric facility.

“I think it had up to 3000 psychiatric patients and an equivalent number of people who worked in the town for the patients,” he says. “It was a fully functioning town with hospitals, schools, supermarkets, everything you need… And it was functional until the early 2000s, when it was shut down and used for urban warfare. That explains to me why it feels like the town is populated with ghosts.”

Apocalypse premieres Wednesday, September 16. Episodes weekly on BINGE.