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THE COUCH - TV Chat Thread

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I hate the Block, with it's top 20 music somehow fitting into people renovating houses, wtf!
 
Inigo Montoya said:
I can't read the article, something about bloody cookies comes up, always does with daily telegraph... Can someone please post the full article for me?
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THE immediate future of The Block is under a cloud with Channel 9 confirming there won’t be another series of the renovation show at the start of 2016.

Nine program chief Andrew Backwell says he will monitor the ratings for the current series of The Block, which starts Sunday night, before making a decision on the program’s future.

Just as worryingly, executive producer Julian Cress hasn’t purchased any more real estate for the Scott Cam-hosted show.

The revelations come after disappointing ratings for The Block Triple Threat which screened at the start of the year.

Nine has admitted it made a mistake padding Triple Threat with nearly three weeks of eliminations before contestants renovated an apartment block in Melbourne’s ritzy South Yarra. The series ended up running a mind-numbing three months.

The new series of The Block, nicknamed The Blocktagon because it features an octagonal eight-storey former Hotel Saville, has been stripped back to basics.

There are no eliminations, all episodes run 60 minutes maximum, and Thursday nights have been dropped. None of the contestants have much renovating experience.

Backwell is hoping the reboot will lead to a ratings resurgence for the show, which is in its 11th season.

“We will certainly monitor the performance of this series … before we decide to commission any further series,” Backwell says.

“I personally believe it’s going to perform well. I can, however, confirm that The Block will not start the 2016 ratings year.

Cress has been scouring Australia for a site for another series of The Block — but has so far come up empty-handed.

“We haven’t settled on a new site for The Block in 2016, but we are hunting for one nationwide,

Cress says.

“It is getting tougher to find an appropriate site because we have done so many different versions of the show in fantastic locations. We always want to try and give the audience something they haven’t seen before.”

Nine is screening The Block at a time when viewers are showing signs of rejecting the wall-to-wall reality shows on offer this year.

Seven’s Restaurant Revolution was a ratings flop and Seven recently made the decision to shelve a season of House Rules originally scheduled to screen this month.

“There is reality fatigue,” media analyst Steve Allen says. “All our research says that audiences will be very hard to re-attract to The Block, even if it is back-to-basics.

“It (non-stop reality shows) has been a strategic mistake by all the free to air majors this year (so) all the evidence says The Block will not shoot the lights out.”

One renovation program that could get the green light is a second series of Reno Rumble. The show, also executive produced by Cress, scored reasonable ratings when it launched in June.

Just as importantly for Nine, Reno Rumble cruelled the ratings of rival House Rules, which had a double digit slump compared to last year.

“We are certainly considering a second series of Reno Rumble,” Backwell says. “It was one of the highest rating new series this year.”

For now, Nine and Cress are just waiting to see how audiences react to the upcoming series of The Block — with fingers crossed.

“We have done two main things we have done to get back to basics with the original format,” Cress says.

“One is remove the elimination element at the front of the series. This allows the audience to get to know the characters and the building from episode one.

“We have also listened to audience feedback and scaled back the regular challenges that the contestants have to do.

“We know that many viewers complained that these took the couples away from renovating The Block, which is clearly why they come to watch the show.”

season of The Block features five teams — Queensland’s Kingi and Caroline, Victoria’s Whitney and Andrew, Queensland’s Suellen and Yvonne, West Australia’s Luke and Ebony, and New South Wales Dean and Shay.

The former hotel is being turned into a series of 225 square metre apartments, each with three bedrooms.

Because of the building’s octagonal design, all of the rooms will be irregular shapes.
 
Wow, looks like times are a changing. I had no idea that seven put the planned 2nd season of HR on hold. Good to see that episodes will be a max of 60 minutes now. I wonder what nine will screen at the start of next year... Well I know of one show that could be shown...;)
 
Meglos said:
No eliminations? The only reason I watch renovation or cooking shows is for the eliminations, without them you might as well watch the lifestyle channel.
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The eliminations on the block IMO are/ were pointless and somethings just plain stupid in the outcome... Can't remember what season, but the miners that were eliminated in the first round would have to totally beat out both teams in the 2nd round of elimination... I think it was fans vs favs.
 
I used to like The Block way back when but it has for sure run its course and I somewhat irrationally desire it to crash and burn and go away. I actually liked the original format of one episode a week with everything packed in and no pointless filler and the contestants still had to work etc to reflect a realistic renovation experience. Channel 9 should do it that way again... they won't, but they should.

Channel 9 cooked it's golden goose, hmm if only they had played just one season last year like any normal sane person could have advised and maybe shown some respect to that other reality tv show, which incidentally is totally unique to the other reality shows getting churned out so potentially could give them a unique viewership. Oh well.
 
jessy_girl said:
I used to like The Block way back when but it has for sure run its course and I somewhat irrationally desire it to crash and burn and go away. I actually liked the original format of one episode a week with everything packed in and no pointless filler and the contestants still had to work etc to reflect a realistic renovation experience. Channel 9 should do it that way again... they won't, but they should.

Channel 9 cooked it's golden goose, hmm if only they had played just one season last year like any normal sane person could have advised and maybe shown some respect to that other reality tv show, which incidentally is totally unique to the other reality shows getting churned out so potentially could give them a unique viewership. Oh well.
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They've buggered up a lot of stuff really. Too greedy and full of themselves and yes, your second paragraph is oh so true.
 
What i'm really loving at the moment is Family Feud Fails... especially the older ones.... such as the Richard Dawson Era of the US Family Feud.

This one makes me crack up everytime.

Very clever from Dawson

And who could forget...

There's something about these that have a sweet spot for me :D
 
Reaper said:
Looks like The Block could be... on the chopping block

The Block in doubt as Channel 9 reveals show will not screen at start of 2016
http://dailytelegraph.com.au/entert...at-start-of-2016/story-fni0cc2c-1227509838809
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Could be good news for House Rules, where 7 have a series in the can but have opted not to air this year as originally planned. Opens it up for them to screen it from February, pushing back My Kitchen Rules till after Easter.

No Block, no Big Bang Theory, no Big Brother - what on earth are Nine going to show all year?
 
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