Australian Idol may be returning to our screens in 2021 and while the format will likely stay the same, OG hosts Osher Günsberg, 47, and James Mathison, 43, don’t seem to be attached.
While we’re still reeling from this news, it looks like we don’t have to wait too long to see them together again as the pair are reuniting nearly 13 years after sharing the Idol stage in another way — for a podcast.
The duo will host Idle Australians, a series that will aim to make sense of the news of the week and according to the official synopsis: “The insightful new series will bring together two revered voices of Aussie culture for the first time in decades. Since their Idol days, the pair have followed different paths, with Osher solidifying his reputation as the country’s most beloved TV and podcast host and James entering the world of politics. This is the show generations have been waiting for!” We have goosebumps just thinking about it.
In 2020, the duo who hosted Australian Idol for six years together, joined forces for an episode of Network Ten’s Drunk History.
The pair remained friends, even after Mathison quit the series in 2008 (and was replaced by Ricki-Lee Coulter), with Günsberg saying in an interview with TV Week that reuniting with his old friend for the comedy series was “the greatest”.
Since his debut on the singing show which gave Guy Sebastian his start, Mathison has taken a political route, telling Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa in 2019, that he was working on the national legislation of psychedelics.
“I’m involved in this group I’ve started up called Legalise Nature Australia, trying to get a bit of advocacy and research around plant-based psychedelic medicine,” he said.
Of course, we all know where Günsberg has been, hosting The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise, as well as the Better Than Yesterday podcast and The Osher Günsberg Podcast.
