Chris and Rosie Ramsey on 'riotous' new show and the future of their podcast
Chris and Rosie Ramsey talk about their new show where the public certainly don't hold back.
Chris and Rosie Ramsey are busy. Very busy. With an award-winning podcast, a Sunday Times bestseller and a record-breaking tour already under their belt, they barely have time for a new TV show.
"We're on cloud nine, but you can't even take a minute to sort of enjoy it because it's been so busy and so crazy," Chris tells me over the phone.
Regardless of how busy they are, they remarkably find time for a (joyous) 45-minute chat where we touch upon almost everything. Unlike most celebrity interviews, the tone is completely relaxed and friendly. It's basically my very own episode of Sh**ged, Married, Annoyed. We share beefs, grievances, what we're watching on TV, our shared love of the North East, and much more.
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We chat ahead of the launch of their new programme, aptly named The Chris and Rosie Ramsey Show. They are the absolute stars of the show - quite rightly - with parts of their podcast being brought to the screen for the first time. Expect beefs galore.
"It’s a completely new format, but obviously there’s going to be elements because you’ve got me and Rosie at the helm of it, so there’s always going to be that similarity," Chris explains. "We’ll ask our celebrity guests, who will all be celebrity couples, what their beef is and then we ask our audience to submit their beefs so people in the crowd will stand up and have a mic thrown in their face and they air their grievance with their partner on the show."
According to the pair, it's going to be a pretty fiery format from the off.
"If the pilot’s anything to go by, we might have to get some riot police in or like an aftercare team to look after them after they’ve dug each other out on the show because they were amazing," Chris adds. "They were so up for it. Our crowd are so up for it – they’re our kind of people. The format is celebrity chat show, but also the audience are involved, and they just deliver."
It's fair to assume The Chris and Rosie Ramsey Show will be a roaring success if the demand for tickets is anything to go by. Just moments after the pair shared links to get into the live show, the website crashed. Twice.
Rosie, clearly still shocked by it, explains: "I mean we live in a world where we think that tomorrow everyone’s going to stop listening. Honestly! When that website went down when we put it on our Instagram, I genuinely thought before I posted that, ‘what if no one comes?’ I think it would be unhealthy to be like, ‘this is going to sell out’."
"We’ve got sort of a humbleness but almost to a detriment where we’re like, ‘we’ll not bother’," Chris admits. "The fact it crashed the website twice, we couldn’t believe it. We’re just absolutely so grateful to our fans and our listeners for being so cool and so honest. I think the show is going to be a hell of a night whether watching it at home or being there."
As with everything they do, honesty is at the heart of it. They don't know the questions beforehand so their reaction is pure and genuine. Even for their podcast they don't tell each other big things that happened in their lives each week to save an element of surprise.
"We prefer that!" Rosie explains when asked if she's nervous about what's coming. "We did it with the tour and it worked. We wanted to keep the TV show the same because it would just be a bit repetitive if we knew exactly what was coming. I think we’re looking forward to the excitement of it as well."
Chris adds: "There’s a lot of preparation that goes into a show like this and the team are brilliant and we trust the guys to pick the funniest beefs. And they listen to the podcast inside out. The podcast is off the cuff so we try to bring elements of that. You want to bring the good elements and make it be an extension of the podcast rather than, 'now we’re doing a telly show and it’s totally different'."
That aforementioned podcast has been very successful indeed. Sh**ged, Married, Annoyed first launched in February 2019 and at time of publication has 167 episodes to its name - that's pretty much one a week for the past three and a half years. Those who've listened from the beginning have been through Chris' Strictly journey with him, we've heard them argue, and we've been with them throughout their pregnancy and birth of second child, Rafe.
Regardless, there are some things off limits to their listeners.
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"Not as much as you'd think," jokes Chris. Rosie adds: "We're TMI people. Usually what happens is there are genuine things that have happened in our lives, like we'll have had a massive row, a serious row - if you're in a relationship you understand - but then it'll die off and you'll forget about it. That's when we can take the mick out of it. If we were having an argument with a mic in our face, I think we'd kill each other."
Chris continues: "The actual podcast is off limits if we've had a row. It's a balancing act sometimes because we think we've got to be in the right mood, so we know on podcast day not to have a go at each other. It's all sunshine and rainbows until we sit down at that podcast. We've created a very strange working environment."
That strange working environment seems to bring about a plethora of success, with no signs of anything slowing down for the pair.
"I say a lot of thank yous to the air," admits Rosie. "We're doing what we love together and it's really cool."
Chris adds: "We'll keep doing it as long as people keep listening because we really enjoy doing it and sitting down to have a laugh."
Millions of downloads, a record-breaking tour and a new TV show? Never mind talking about the end of their run - Chris and Rosie are just getting started.
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