Ant Middleton confirms huge SAS Australia shake-up as former star is set to return to the show

Ant Middleton has dropped a major spoiler about the upcoming series of SAS Australia.

The former British Special Forces soldier, 44, revealed a former fan favorite will make a stunning return to the Channel Seven challenge series – but not as a contestant.

On Friday, Middleton confirmed that comedian Merrick Watts will join the directing staff (DS), making him the show’s Australian DS member.

The role of the DS is to guide participants through the course before reporting back to Lead Instructor Middleton on their progress and skills.

“Merrick Watts, he is coming as one of the DS, the directing staff, he will be by my side at the next SAS,” he confirmed on Friday, according to the Herald Sun.

‘I think the cat is out of the bag now. We have to keep developing it (the show), keep it fresh.”

Watts successfully completed the grueling selection course during SAS Australia’s inaugural season in 2020.

After taking part in the programme, the radio presenter revealed how signing up for the grueling Channel Seven show helped him through his darkest times.

The father-of-two said he was in the ‘worst mental state’ he had ever been in before agreeing to go on the show.

After talking to his doctor, he saw a psychologist and even took a ten-week mediation course, but “nothing” helped.

“I felt like I was crumbling,” Watts said at the time during an interview with Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa.

‘I did the right things, I spoke to a psychologist, I spoke to my doctor, I took a ten-week meditation course. Nothing worked. I know I had to rebuild my confidence.”

Middleton confirmed that comedian Merrick Watts (pictured) will join the directing staff (DS), becoming the show’s Australian DS member

Watts said he knew a stint with SAS Australia would help him “rebuild his confidence”.

“If I’m confident, I’m very capable. When I lack confidence, I go back into my shell… I knew that just the process of preparing for SAS Australia would be enough to rebuild my confidence, and I was right,” he explained.

“I look at myself, a year ago, and when I signed up for this show, I was in the worst mental state I’ve ever been in. I look at myself a year later and I’m in the best physical and mental state I’ve ever been in. “I’ve been there all my life.”

He ended with, “It has been extremely good for my mind and my body.”

During his appearance on SAS Australia, Watts admitted his confidence had taken a hit after losing his radio career ‘about three years ago’.

‘I worked in radio for twenty years, and I was phenomenally successful. I had a number one radio show, got huge ratings and made a lot of money. It was a really nice time. And it ended,” he thought during his interrogation with the SAS Directing Staff.

‘You’ve been doing something like radio non-stop for twenty years. You get used to a certain way of doing things, and then when you’re out of it for a while, it’s exciting and then it’s kind of cool and it’s liberating.”

Watts successfully completed the grueling selection course during SAS Australia’s inaugural season in 2020

‘But then suddenly there was a period when I just didn’t have much work. There was a moment when I thought, “What’s next for me? Who am I? What am I going to do?”

‘I lost my self-confidence and I lost my strength and myself. That slowly started to manifest itself in anxiety and depression.”

Watts confessed that his struggles with anxiety and depression pushed him to apply for the show.

‘I’m doing this course to completely change who I was. Everyone knows me as a happy, fun-loving type…” he explained.

‘But I haven’t had that feeling for a while. And I want to feel like that again.’