You used to be a carpenter. How\u2019d you end up on TV? – Bridget<\/p>\n
I was a carpenter, yes, until I was 50, actually. I did both. I did television and building until I was 50, and I\u2019m 63 now. <\/p>\n
About 26 years ago, I was in a pub having a beer, as I did every afternoon. A TV producer was there with his girlfriend. I knew the girlfriend slightly, but I didn\u2019t know him. He said, \u201cI\u2019m screen testing at the moment for a TV show, and I need a carpenter. Would you like to do a screen test for a TV show\u201d? And I said no, because I didn\u2019t know anything about telly. It was completely foreign to me.<\/p>\n
Anyway, he rang me up the next day, and he\u2019d gotten my phone number off my ute. And so I did it \u2013 and I got the job on a show called Backyard Blitz as a carpenter. That was coming up 27 years ago.<\/p>\n
The Block Australia host Scott Cam says none of the drama on the show is manufactured. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
When was the last time you did some reno work at home? – Jonathan<\/p>\n
I do reno work all the time. I have a farm. I\u2019m doing a reno on a building on the farm at the moment, a little house. I\u2019m in the thick of it.<\/p>\n
I stripped out the whole house inside, gutted it completely back to bare bones, and I\u2019ll start putting it back together in the next couple of weeks. I\u2019m also fixing the roof on my house … I\u2019ve got a leak, and I\u2019ve got to try and fix it. <\/p>\n
I wear my nail bag all the time, mate. At 63, I\u2019m a bit stiffer and sore, and I don\u2019t last as long, but I\u2019m still going.<\/p>\n
The Block contestants all used to get on the tools \u2013 but maybe not so often now. Does styling a room really prevent them from getting the tool belts on, or is it a full-time job? – Leigh<\/p>\n
They\u2019re actually doing more and more. They do all the labouring, of course, and they do all the painting. But they also get the nail bag on in the early stages, and they\u2019ve got to do the demo[lition]. Then they\u2019re the plasterers, they hang and gyprock. <\/p>\n
As the series goes on every year, I always get into them and say they\u2019ve got to learn a new skill every week. Learn a new skill, and then you can start doing a bit of labour yourself to save money. <\/p>\n
The first skill that you can learn is hanging gyprock sheets, plaster sheets. <\/p>\n
Do you think the amount of building work has changed since The Block started? And has this been due to things like health and safety and things being stricter nowadays? – Jude<\/p>\n
Well, certainly the jobs have got much bigger. Like the lounge and dining [rooms] of these houses are about the same size as the series one apartments. So, that\u2019s an indication that the job\u2019s bigger. <\/p>\n
There is health and safety \u2013 it\u2019s a bit different this year because they are living on site in caravans, and they\u2019re not in the houses. <\/p>\n
And we also have a curfew this year for health and safety. Gone are the days of working through the night on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. But the curfew does get later as the week goes on and they do work in the night time right through until midnight, so they\u2019re still exhausted.<\/p>\n
Scott Cam says last year’s show was ‘a bit of a misstep’. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Would you ever include a jail on The Block Australia for future seasons when contestants break the rules? You know, four walls, steel bars, a seat in the middle to sit and shame? – Madison<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a bad idea, actually, a little jail. But I do think the kids of today are a little bit lacking in resilience. They\u2019d all be very upset if we stuck them in a box. <\/p>\n
What we do if they break the rules, we make them sit out the first four hours or three hours of the day \u2013 that happens again this year \u2013 and so they just can\u2019t work. Their trades can\u2019t work, and that\u2019s almost like an invisible jail.<\/p>\n
How much fixing up of bad paintwork is done after we see the final build episode and before the houses go to auction? – Jude<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not too bad, you know. We let them come back a couple of weeks after the show finishes and do some touch-ups and tools. <\/p>\n
We do tend to touch up certain things that we think will help them sell their house, but not much because they\u2019ve got to do a good job each Sunday night to win and get the 10,000 bucks. And if you do a very bad paint job, you\u2019re never going to win.<\/p>\n
How much of the drama that happens between the contestants is organic, and how much is edited? And are you ever surprised when something pops up on screen? – James<\/p>\n
Well, we take great offence at suggestions that we edit or manufacture drama with our contestants. We are not that sort of show. We are not those sorts of people. Our producers, and myself, I wouldn\u2019t allow it anyway. <\/p>\n
They\u2019re together for 16 hours, 18 hours a day, besides the time they\u2019re sleeping, for three months, seven days a week, and if that doesn\u2019t create organic drama, nothing will. <\/p>\n
They\u2019re tired, they\u2019re stressed, they\u2019re lacking budget, they\u2019re under pressure, we\u2019re judging. So, we don\u2019t edit anything to make them look bad. <\/p>\n
In fact, we\u2019re on their team. If someone says, like [they have] in the past, that they got a bad edit, that just does not happen. They said it, they did it, and that\u2019s what went to air. That\u2019s not a bad edit. That\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n
Firm but fair is Scott Cam’s motto on The Block. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
You seem to be a very good mediator as well. What are your three best tips for cooling tensions on site? – Brett<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s to be reasonable. Hard but fair is what my dad used to say. <\/p>\n
Nothing is a stitch-up on The Block. We don\u2019t set you up to fail ever, we set you up to succeed. We set you up to make money at the end. The only stitch-up is you, yourself \u2013 you know, you\u2019ve created this, and you\u2019re blaming us. <\/p>\n
So, if something like that happens, then I get quite forceful, and I get quite hard, but fair. And I think they\u2019re the conditions to settle things down. And also being calm.<\/p>\n
If you weren\u2019t a host, would you have ever considered being a contestant on The Block? – Courtney<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think so. Look, as a tradesman, I know how hard that is with timelines and things like that. <\/p>\n
Every contestant who turns up doesn\u2019t realise how hard it is, so maybe I might have been foolish enough to do it. <\/p>\n
But with the experience of being a host for 20-odd seasons, I would say now, no, I would not do it.<\/p>\n
Which auction result do you think surprised you the most? – Rach<\/p>\n
Back in [season 18] at Gisborne, Victoria, we didn\u2019t know who [multi-millionaire Block regular auction bidder] Adrian Portelli was. <\/p>\n
All of a sudden, some contestants made A$1.6 million ($1.84m) profit. That was a big surprise. <\/p>\n
A long time ago, we did a place called Dux House. It had an indoor swimming pool downstairs, and the team I thought was going to come last by a long way, if not [fail to] sell their house at all, won it and won $750,000. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s about the property market. It\u2019s about the buyer on the day. It\u2019s about the emotional connection. It\u2019s about the auctioneer, the real estate agent, the design and the construction. That\u2019s what I tell contestants at the beginning of every series. You have to have all your planets perfectly aligned to be successful on The Block. If you\u2019ve got one piece missing, you won\u2019t be successful. And we\u2019ve seen that in the past \u2013 poor auctioneers, poor designs, bad emotional connections. But if you\u2019ve got everything, you\u2019ve got half a chance. It\u2019s the only episode of the show we\u2019ve got absolutely no control over.<\/p>\n
And finally, what\u2019s been your biggest home reno disaster?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never had a home reno disaster, mate. You\u2019re joking. I\u2019ve had a couple of hiccups, of course, but never a disaster. I\u2019ve certainly had my fair share of dramas on the building side over 40-odd years, but never anything that couldn\u2019t be fixed.<\/p>\n
New episodes of The Block Australia air Sunday to Wednesday at 7pm on Three, or on-demand at ThreeNow.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You used to be a carpenter. How\u2019d you end up on TV? – Bridget I was a carpenter,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95,85,24812,1863,29452,6326,1972,63919,3269,674,26879,29804,156,1342,71,1345,2273,302,95323,130,30863,111,139,69,90,13578,18047,6443,31261,95324,1305,223,1961,61,686,4276,9184],"class_list":["post-140369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-and","tag-australia","tag-australias","tag-back","tag-basics","tag-biggest","tag-block","tag-brandnew","tag-build","tag-building","tag-cam","tag-date","tag-entertainment","tag-five","tag-from","tag-home","tag-houses","tag-its","tag-momentous","tag-more","tag-muchloved","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-projects","tag-renovation","tag-returns","tag-scotty","tag-scratch","tag-show","tag-the","tag-this","tag-to","tag-week","tag-why","tag-yet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}