‘We take all these absolute liabilities to Zante’ - Rylan Clark on hosting ‘binge watch’ Hot Mess Summer

Virgin Radio

24 Jan 2024, 11:25

Rylan Clark visited Virgin Radio to talk about his new reality series, and how you “can't help but fall in love” with the contestants.

Hot Mess Summer is released on Prime Video on Wednesday 7th February. Joining the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch, the presenter said: “It is crazy. I mean, if ever there is a reminder of how old you are, watch this show!”

He added: “We take all these absolute liabilities to Zante.”

The series follows a group of eight party animals, who believe they're in for a summer of non-stop revelry. However, there is a twist. Rylan explained: “They all think they're going on a show called Party Summer, sort of 18-30 type, everyone just have a laugh, go out. I meet them all, and first of all, they're like, ‘Why's that Rylan from the telly here? This is crazy’. But I'm like ‘Guys, I'm just here, like your big brother to have a bit of a laugh’. I send them all off on a night out, and they have the best time, all hungover the next day. I sit them down and go ‘Well, that’s your last night out in a long while, because you're here to work’. And then they take over my bar. No more nights out!”

Rylan - who rose to fame on The X Factor in 2012, before going on to win Celebrity Big Brother - continued: “You think, ‘Oh, another show with kids abroad.’ It's not like that. You see this change that happens and it's so interesting.” 

In the six-part series, the group find themselves organising events, catering to VIPs, and even cleaning toilets. With a lucrative cash prize hanging in the balance, they must rein in their wild ways and band together if they're to win. The host teased: “Something happens in the last episode where even me and the rest of the crew watching live were going ‘I did not expect that’.

“It is a binge watch!”

He added: “You think, ‘I'm not going to want to like these people’, but you can't help but fall in love with them."

On working with the contestants, the TV star told Chris: “I was like, ‘Are these kids even gonna know who I am?’ Because they didn't know I was there. Yeah. And as they walk around the corner and see me, I thought they'd be like, ‘Who's that woman with the beard?’”

Rylan is a sometime host of ITV’s This Morning, and will be back on the sofa for a week soon. However, with regard to who might be permanent replacements for Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, he said: “Everyone keeps asking me. I genuinely wish I could tell you but… I don't care! I’ll just go in and go home. I'm having a lovely time.”

Hot Mess Summer is available on Prime Video from Wednesday 7th February.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.