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Shaynna Blaze: “It’s the best of both worlds.”

She works on arguably the most popular shows on both STV and FTA -and Shaynna Blaze loves them both in equal measure.

2014-10-29_0850She’s almost the luckiest woman on television, working on arguably the most popular shows on both Subscription TV and Free to Air.

But while Shaynna Blaze keeps to a hectic schedule filming both Selling Houses Australia and The Block, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
 
Blaze, who has just completed Sydney & Melbourne appearances at Grand Designs Live, is halfway through filming the next season of Selling Houses Australia.
 
“We’re trying to go quite rural for a lot of them. Getting away from the cities to pales that aren’t just 10 km from the cities, which makes it a little bit harder. But we really concentrate on the stories and the people in the homes,” she told TV Tonight.
 
“It’s good because not everything is always
so accessible.

“I actually do have the best of both worlds,” she acknowleged.

Yet while both shows are Property and Renovation hits, they take a different approach to storytelling. Selling Houses is self-contained with none of the ‘soap’ that works so well for The Block.
 
“Someone said to me what they love about it is that it’s a complete story, with a beginning, middle and end each episode. It almost has a doco-feel to it –not in a traditional way- but you get to find out how those people got into that situation and how they’re going to get out of it,” she explained.
 
“So it’s about ‘What’s the problem? Here’s the solution, and is it going to work?’
 
“But there’s always a little bit of jeopardy because as we know there are no guarantees in real estate.”

But Blaze sees benefit in the Nine renovation series too which fits into the Nine schedule from a much different perspective.
 
The Block is on TV six nights a week so while a lot of people say ‘It should be all about renovating’ who is going to watch someone put a nail into a piece of wood six nights a week?” Blaze asked.
 
“There’s only so much the contestants can physically do themselves. But they are giving great design ideas and things like that. To make it six nights a week and have people hooked you have to have that element of soap so that people keep coming back. It’s a big commitment 6 nights for 10 weeks.”

The most recent series scored big TV ratings but a divisive finale with two teams pocketing big cash prizes over their rivals. While Nine is yet to confirm the sale of the sixth Prahran apartment, Blaze says any profit above the reserve should not be divided amongst 3 other teams.
 
“No because they didn’t do it at Richmond when that didn’t sell,” she insisted.

“It’s not about a charity, it’s about real life and real estate. The last two series they were very lucky because the market was booming and they were all similar sized apartments. The Glasshouse was diverse and different and they go in there with no guarantees. So for them to sit there and expect something when there are people who are out there doing the same thing but don’t get the money back, that’s not what it’s about.

“It’s not about a pat on the back. They’re all in there for their careers just as much as winning prize money. So they’re all getting something out of it in the end.”

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