Australian Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia: "I don't feel guilty at all. That's what they signed up for.”

Contestants who sign up to Australian Survivor are under no illusion that they are headed for a luxury island escape.

There’s nothing to eat but rice and coconuts, you’re subjected to gruelling challenges on next to no sleep and there’s not a hot shower in sight.

But, contestants aside, there's someone else we need to make sure is sleeping well at night: our host, and Australia's newest national treasure, Jonathan LaPaglia.

Luckily, Jonathan confirmed to Mamamia that his digs during his stay in Samoa were just fine, thank you very much, but we wondered whether he ever felt guilty at leaving the poor, broken-spirited contestants to head back to a luxury suite at the end of a hard day of filming.

"I don't feel guilty at all!" he laughed. (He really might as well have said "LOL, no.")

"That's what they signed up for! I don't feel guilty that I have nice digs that I'm going back to. But I have empathy for them.

"In the middle of the night when I would get woken up by torrential rain...I'd be annoyed because it woke me up. Then I'd think, 'Hang on, those poor bastards are out there with just a banana leaf over their heads!"

Speaking of poor bastards, Jonathan admitted he completely underestimated just how much of a challenge hosting the show would be, especially when you're putting yourself up for comparison to Jeff Probst (aka SURVIVOR GOD) who has been hosting the US version of the show since 2000.

via GIPHY

"He is the master, he really is. Jeff is so good at what he does and he makes it look easy. It was a real challenge to step up to it," Jonathan said.

"It was way harder than I thought it was going to be. And I thought that people were going to hate what I was doing, but I was kind of surprise that on the whole, people have been incredibly supportive."

While there's no denying that the Aussie actor makes a great host, there's something else that has won the country over: his arms.

How long will it take before Jonathan LaPaglia's arms have their own Twitter account? #SurvivorAU

— Michael Byrnes (@MichaelByrnes) August 21, 2016

And on the seventh day, God gave the world Jonathan LaPaglia's arms #survivorau

— Jordy Lucas (@jordy3392) August 22, 2016

My favourite team is Jonathan LaPaglia's arms. #SurvivorAU

— salad. (@elyssalucy) August 29, 2016

Can we talk about Jonathan LaPaglia's arms?

— Kemal Atlay (@kemal_atlay) August 22, 2016

"When the show first launched, it all became about my arms, and the veins in my arms. I was like, what is going on? I'm just standing there! It's crazy!" he laughed.

Yes...crazy...