{"id":834465,"date":"2026-07-30T23:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T23:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834465\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T23:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T23:39:10","slug":"the-block-2026-contestants-frustrated-with-major-change-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834465\/","title":{"rendered":"The Block 2026 contestants \u2018frustrated\u2019 with major change this season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Contestants on this year\u2019s season of The Block will face a situation not seen before in the 21 previous seasons of the show: Rather than living on-site, they will all bunker down together in a share house off-site.<\/p>\n<p>Host Scott Cam breaks the news in this week\u2019s premiere, airing 7pm Sunday on Nine \u2013 and it\u2019s immediately met with a mixed reaction from the contestants.<\/p>\n<p>While some are happy to have a proper roof over their heads for the whole season \u2013 compared to previous years where contestants have started out camping in tents before moving into the first finished rooms of their houses \u2013 others are unhappy at being forced to live in such close confines with their competitors.<\/p>\n<p>More than one team remarks that it\u2019ll be hard to keep the plans for their build a secret, living in a house crawling with other contestants. <\/p>\n<p>news.com.au attended The Block\u2019s Mount Eliza site for a recent inspection of the near-finished houses, and seeing where they are situated this year, one can understand Nine producers wanting to keep the neighbours happy by getting the contestants off-site each night: This year, The Block houses jut up against some of Melbourne\u2019s most exclusive multimillion-dollar addresses. <\/p>\n<p>As Scott Cam told news.com.au during the visit, piling the contestants into a share house wasn\u2019t so much an attempt to launch a spin-off of the show, more part of the show\u2019s ongoing attempts to fall more in line with expected building industry standards. <\/p>\n<p>On your average building site, workers don\u2019t camp out amid the mess and rubble \u2013 they go home to rest and recharge in a comfortable space so they can arrive back at work the next day feeling ready to work safely again. <\/p>\n<p>The Block Executive Producer Justin Sturzak explained at the same event that producers wanted to make the share house situation as comfortable as they could for contestants, decking out the house with a sauna, spa, gymnasium and other mod cons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt had absolutely everything you could want to have in a house \u2013 the only thing you had to do was share it with eight other people,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Sturzak said that the 20-minute drive to site each morning provided an opportunity for each team to vent about being thrust into share house living. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got to give you stories about how frustrated they were with their neighbours, their competitors, and everything that happened inside. That created something really new and interesting for the show that we\u2019re going to see this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among this year\u2019s crop of contestants, South Australian couple Adam and Jolene perhaps got the best deal: With not enough bedrooms in the house, they were put up in a large luxury caravan in the backyard. Adam described it as \u201cbeautiful\u201d compared to the situation inside: \u201cIt was 23 and a half foot of quietness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One couple who had no complaints about the share house situation were WA\u2019s Lisa and Rosco \u2013 this despite Lisa discovering in the early days of the season that she was pregnant with the couple\u2019s second child. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t mind it. We spend our first five years of our relationship living in a share house with five to seven other people our age \u2026 we\u2019re pretty used to lining up for a shower,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>The new season of The Block premieres 7pm this Sunday on Nine. <\/p>\n<p>Read related topics:<a class=\"topic_tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/topics\/the-block\" data-tgev-container=\"story-topic-links\" data-tgev-label=\"The Block\" data-tgev-order=\"1\" data-tgev-metric=\"npv\" data-tgev=\"event10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Block<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contestants on this year\u2019s season of The Block will face a situation not seen before in the 21&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[406367,406379,406401,406411,403755,380306,406352,406378,406409,406371,406392,406396,406382,380044,406381,406385,406362,406373,406393,378965,406383,406387,397847,392980,406400,406390,9697,387986,382345,64,63,12601,406404,406365,68447,406384,406368,406402,406398,134,406355,406348,406394,406358,406388,28544,12430,175561,647,406361,406375,381654,20975,406349,376479,406366,406351,406353,406357,9666,406412,406403,397528,393660,20671,406410,15214,406391,55128,406345,929,24677,406395,406374,8825,34117,406364,406363,391877,406372,15215,406397,406407,406413,406380,406370,406386,378599,405551,406359,242592,406399,406405,406346,406356,376754,406344,406354,391669,406347,356269,406360,60939,288452,378553,406376,406408,406406,380844,406377,406389,380519,406350,199184,364611,25962,6624,1782,406369],"class_list":["post-834465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-s-crop","tag-s-lisa-and-rosco","tag-s-mount-eliza-site","tag-s-ongoing-attempts","tag-s-premiere","tag-s-season","tag-s-season-premiere","tag-s-second-child","tag-23-and-a-half-foot","tag-7pm","tag-7pm-sunday","tag-a-bombshell","tag-a-comfortable-space","tag-a-house","tag-a-large-luxury-caravan","tag-a-mixed-reaction","tag-a-proper-roof","tag-a-recent-inspection","tag-a-sauna","tag-a-secret","tag-a-share-house","tag-a-share-house-off-site","tag-a-shower","tag-a-situation","tag-a-spin-off","tag-absolutely-everything","tag-adam","tag-an-attempt","tag-an-opportunity","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beautiful","tag-block-contestants","tag-block-teams","tag-contestants","tag-each-morning","tag-each-night","tag-each-team","tag-eight-other-people","tag-entertainment","tag-expected-building-industry-standards","tag-five-to-seven-other-people","tag-gymnasium-and-other-mod-cons","tag-host-scott-cam","tag-huge-change","tag-line","tag-lisa","tag-major-change","tag-melbourne","tag-more-part","tag-multimillion-dollar-addresses","tag-news-com-au","tag-nine","tag-nine-producers","tag-no-complaints","tag-not-enough-bedrooms","tag-not-everybody","tag-one-couple","tag-other-contestants","tag-others","tag-our-age","tag-our-first-five-years","tag-our-relationship","tag-previous-years","tag-producers","tag-quietness","tag-scott-cam","tag-share-house-living","tag-site","tag-south-australian-couple-adam-and-jolene","tag-spa","tag-stories","tag-sturzak","tag-such-close-confines","tag-sunday","tag-tents","tag-the-20-minute-drive","tag-the-21-previous-seasons","tag-the-backyard","tag-the-best-deal","tag-the-block","tag-the-block-contestants","tag-the-block-executive-producer-justin-sturzak","tag-the-block-houses","tag-the-contestants","tag-the-contestants-off-site","tag-the-contestants-while","tag-the-couple","tag-the-early-days","tag-the-first-finished-rooms","tag-the-house","tag-the-mess-and-rubble","tag-the-near-finished-houses","tag-the-neighbours","tag-the-new-season","tag-the-news","tag-the-next-day","tag-the-only-thing","tag-the-plans","tag-the-same-event","tag-the-season","tag-the-share-house-situation","tag-the-show","tag-the-situation","tag-the-visit","tag-the-whole-season","tag-their-competitors","tag-their-competitors-more-than-one-team-remarks","tag-their-heads","tag-their-houses","tag-their-neighbours","tag-this-season","tag-this-sunday","tag-this-week","tag-this-year","tag-wa","tag-work","tag-workers","tag-your-average-building-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}