The Block host Scott Cam tells the contestants in Sunday’s season premiere that he considers them the luckiest contestants in the history of the show, having been tasked with building houses with water views in one of Melbourne’s most exclusive bayside suburbs.
What he tells them next doesn’t make them feel so lucky.
Not only will contestants be staying off site in one big share house nearby this year, but they’ll also have to abide by the same strict work hours as their trades: They cannot start work on site until 7am each day, and they have to be finished by 6pm. On Saturday, the hours get even shorter: 9am until 3pm.
It’s a marked contrast to how the show has traditionally run, with contestants pulling all-nighters on-site, sometimes presenting their finished rooms to the judges on little to no sleep after working mammoth shifts to get everything done.
This time around, contestants will have to down tools and leave the site altogether when the bell rings, no matter how behind they are.
“That’s going to be tough,” Cam concedes.
“You will have to work the same restricted council hours that anyone who is building within Mount Eliza is sticking to.”
The Block’s longtime foreman Dan says that, while tough, he thinks it can be done. “If I was a contestant right now, I’d be very anxious at this time restriction. You’d be thinking: How can we fit this into these hours? But you’ve just got to have the right team with a good attitude, and you’ve got to have good time management,” he insists.
The contestants themselves aren’t so sure.
“The hours are quite scary. Knowing that they work to midnight, one o’clock last year,” says Victorian dad Rick.
Brisbane besties Courtney and Sev are more blunt: “We’re stuffed. These are big houses, and to have that sort of reduction of hours and still hold to a 12-week program? It’s a lot.”
Given this year’s location, it’s easy to see why producers would be keen to keep their neighbours onside throughout the build.
Unlike some recent seasons filmed in more rural locations like Daylesford and Phillip Island, this year, he Block build is happening in the middle of a densely population residential area in one of Melbourne’s most exclusive suburbs, surrounded by houses worth millions of dollars.
Earlier in Sunday’s premiere, Cam broke the news that contestants would be bunking together under one roof in a share house off-site, for the first time in Block history.
While some are happy to have a proper roof over their heads for the whole season – compared to previous years where contestants have started out camping in tents before moving into the first finished rooms of their houses – others are unhappy at being forced to live in such close confines with their competitors.