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Open House spin-off a chip off the old Block

Nine to renovate Thursdays with "The Block on speed, with a big dollop of Better Homes & Gardens."

Block4890Nine’s love affair with renovation continues with Fairfax confirming Open House, a spin-off of The Block.

Set for Thursday nights it describes the show as “basically The Block on speed, with a big dollop of Better Homes and Gardens.”

With multiple renovations in one episode (gee, just like the original Block then?) the first episode sees former contestants Alisa and Lysandra given a $10,000 budget and absurdly short-time frame to spruce up a depressing, dark brick 1970s abode that got passed in at auction.

It appears to also include Scott Cam and The Block judges.

This year Nine also has a second season of The Block plus Renovation Rumble in which former Block champs take on former House Rules contestants.

This week The Block returned with its lowest-ever premiere at 860,000 viewers against Nick Kyrgios competing in the Australian Open and the Socceroos in the Asian Cup. It fared better on its second outing at 965,000 viewers against the Big Bash League final. As Nine copped some negative press for its debut ratings, replays have also been set in motion for Saturday afternoon.

Nine is yet to announce an Airdate for Open House only confirming The Block to screen on Sunday – Wednesday next week.

17 Responses

  1. 9 don’t seem to have anything else but the dross they’ve been serving up for years. This week they’ve got two episodes of Big Bang Theory on Monday and three eps on Tuesday – just by way of a change.

    I’m astonished anyone watches 9 at all. Morons only, it seems. Mind you TEN aren’t much better at times, with endless episodes of NCIS and Law & Order. A step up from BBT I guess.

  2. So 2 Blocks, Revovation Rumble and this on 9 plus 2 House Rules on 7 and I plan on watching 0 of it. Please no more Renovation shows 9 and 7.

    @Tomothyd – I totally agree. I would really like a U.S. style primetime line up. No odd start times, everything starting on the hour/half hour and no bloody block every night of the week.

  3. And its always the same contestants from previous seasons of The Block coming back again and again and again.

    Waiting for them to cast someone called Jenny on The Block just so we can all say it’s “Jenny from the block”…

    Yes, boring indeed…

  4. Agree with all the comments.

    Australian TV is so boring.

    David, can you please do an editorial piece on how the TV landscape has dramatically become worse over the past 5-10 years. I’d be interested in your thoughts considering your love of TV.

    1. I’ve written about changes numerous times. The Drama slate is actually very buoyant, the Reality slate too dominant and has overtaken observational / factual. Comedy left to the ABC. Variety non existent (unless it has a Reality slant). Light entertainment very thin. Sport is strong, News is regurgitated. What we have lost are many of the early evening shows that were entertainment and factually based. Last time I asked Screen Producers Australia to talk about this downturn they did not want to be quoted. I figured if they did not want to stand up for their sector struggling for commissions why should I?

  5. To be fair Nine had always planned to screen last nights ep on Sunday in Perth because the Cricket finishes at 7pm here due to time difference.

    You would think Nine would have used 2 seasons of The Block to try and launch new shows so that they are not so reliant on one show for ratings. But instead they continue to milk the same pony, schedule dramas poorly, launch unoriginal reality ideas and fill the rest of the week with Big Bang repeats. On the other hand, Seven would still be left with lots of compelling content to offer if MKR went away.

  6. Wow, how much renovation can you fit into one networks schedule, too much is the answer. Nine are so easily offering me more and more reasons to not comeback to their channel after two years of not watching any more tha 5 hours of their programming.
    Our networks need to look at how the US and UK offer their viewers a range of programming throughout the night, each night.

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