Photos: Emily Chalk
Current affairs comedy 7 Days kicks off its 17th season on April 3 on Three with comedian Jeremy Corbett back at the helm – and he couldn’t be more grateful.
As host of New Zealand’s longest-running comedy show, the Weekly columnist says it is his dream gig to work with some of the country’s brightest comedic talents.
“I’m very lucky to have landed the hosting role,” says Jeremy, 62. “I’ve never really worked out who I’ve got to thank for that. Several people, I think, lobbied for me to host it. And I’ve got that job and it’s just perfect I think because I’ve certainly now got seniority. But even back when we started, I think I was the oldest on the panel. People say that I’m funny, but I think it’s that I surround myself with funny people, so it rubs off. It’s perfect, really. I get all the credit for being funny without actually doing any of the work!”
The show’s longevity has also exceeded his expectations. “I never thought it would go this long. I thought we’d get five years, but season 17 is pretty amazing.”
Jeremy believes it has survived because the format of the show is “fundamentally talking crap with your mates about the news – it’s a basic formula that still works.”
“I think it’s just one of those shows that everyone’s got a different appreciation for, but I think the way we tease each other on the show is the way that Kiwis interact with each other. It’s got that sort of casual chit-chat that I think most people go, ‘oh, I could join in on that conversation. I could be part of that panel’, and I think that’s why it’s stuck around. We’ve pretty much stuck to our knitting.”
It also comes at a busy time as Jeremy, wife Megan, 49, and daughters Charlie, 14, and Billie, 12, and golden retriever Cookie prepare to downsize from their five-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Auckland, which comes with large lawns to mow and a swimming pool to maintain.
Over the past three months, the family – especially Megan – has been “flat out” getting their beautiful home of 10 years in order and ready for sale.
“We’re downsizing so we’ve got more time to spend as a family and holidays, and less on maintenance,” says Jeremy. “Getting the family closer together in a smaller house really is the idea. The plan has always been to do it when I’m retired but given the way the industry is going, events have overtaken us, so we’ve moved the schedule up a bit. But yeah, I’m lucky to still be gainfully employed. We haven’t found another place yet. We’ve had a look at a couple, but I don’t think we’ve had one that we all agree on yet.”
The past 12 months have seen significant changes for Jeremy and the family. When producers axed The Project – which he co-hosted with Jesse Mulligan and Kanoa Lloyd – on Three at the end of 2023, Jeremy didn’t say much about it at the time it happened.
“While it was horrible that it was ending, we were kind of lucky in a way because we got to say goodbye as a show. It was only a few months later, Newshub hit the wall, and they didn’t get that at all,” he says.
The week before receiving the news, he remembers saying, ‘I don’t know how they’re still managing to make The Project. It can’t be cheap.’ “So, it wasn’t unexpected, but I had just got used to it always being there.”
While it was upsetting, the nice part was it meant he was at home for dinner. “That was a real big part of it, because I was gone from when the girls got home from school to basically nearly bedtime, so I love the fact that I got more family time when that finished. Though I didn’t love what it did to the bank account and I miss those people – it was a great, fun show!”
Jeremy jokes that now he’s home for dinner, daughters Charlie and Billie hate it because they have to have dinner at the table when, in the past, they’d become used to getting their food and disappearing. Charlie parries back, “We don’t hate it, we just really dislike it.”
“They might not think I’m funny anymore, but they’re actually pretty good at being funny themselves,” Jeremy shares lovingly.
As the author of Which Way Up? which was about becoming a father, Jeremy jests that parenting teens is easy. “They just come in, I give them some screen time and some food and we’re done. Hopefully they’re getting on fine. This is the most I’ve talked to them in the last three weeks,” he laughs. “They’re really good girls. Megan’s a great mum. I’m just there as a dad. We’re in the Goldilocks zone at the moment. They’re sort of too young to be going out, but old enough to be independent. So, we’re in this beautiful zone where they’re at home and safe. And, yeah, I love this time. They can communicate, they can make me laugh.”
Another considerable upside from fewer work hours was that he got to spend a lot of quality time with his father, Ashwin, in Blenheim, who passed away at the age of 96 in October. The family made many trips south to see Grandpa.
Add to that being busy with family life. Charlie plays waterpolo and Billie plays the piano. They have also enjoyed a good summer holiday in the Marlborough Sounds and getaways at their bach at Matarangi, where they’re looking forward to spending more time. However, the focus now is the big move. “We’ve got a storage unit and we’re like, ‘Why have we still got stuff here?’” laughs Megan.
“We’re both fighting very strong hoarding instincts,” continues Jeremy. “My dad was a real hoarder so tidying up his place was huge, too.”
Hopefully, by July, which will be Megan’s 50th birthday, they’ll be in a new house, happy and settled. That’s the goal. The last time they moved house, they spent six months renting before finding their current family home, where a life-size sculpture of a cow with a sheep’s head currently grazes in the front yard.
The sculpture was a wedding anniversary gift from Jeremy to Megan. “I love anything quirky like that so he was in the good books,” says Megan.
She had spotted it at a bookstore in Mount Eden that was closing down, and Jeremy asked them if they’d sell it. The sculpture was all black, before a friend stripped off some black paint to reveal the Māori design beneath, and it quickly became known as Badger.
“We were sitting in a room like this and I said, ‘What shall we call our cow? We should give it a name.’ And Charlie, who was crawling around said ‘Badger,’ which was the first word she ever said,” says Jeremy.
Will Badger be coming to the new house? “Definitely,” he roars. “We can’t leave Badger behind!”
Jeremy also recalls the first time Charlie, then aged 10, joined him on the settee to watch 7 Days, which had moved from a late-night Friday spot to 7.30pm. She wanted to watch it, and he agreed. “Then around 8pm someone dropped the F-bomb. It was kind of awkward when you’re sitting with your kid and someone drops a swear word on TV. I remember that vividly.”
What he’s most looking forward to being back on 7 Days is the camaraderie between them all. “It’s a team and that’s what makes it great because you might think of something on the spot, you can try it and throw it out there and it might fail, but there are six other comedians that will help you make it work, so I think that’s really cool. Not having all that weight on your shoulders. It’s not like stand-up where it’s just you on stage. There’s seven of us. And they’re friends too. It’s a really fun, friendly environment.”
Watch 7 Days at 7.30pm, Thursday, April 3 on Three and ThreeNow.
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