November 30, 2024 • 12 mins
The Block Australia has celebrated a significant milestone.
The popular home renovation competition show has begun its 20th season, and fans from both sides of the Tasman have tuned in to keep it going.
Host and former tradie Scott Cam says he's been with the network for 25 years - and he never expected the show to last as long as it has.
"I've done about 10 different shows, this one is the last show I've done, which I thought we'd get a couple years out of - and we've ended up going for years."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb we kewais just love a home reno show, don't
we Dey is definitely in our blood and it's the
same over the Testament in Australia, their version of The
Bloc is now twenty seasons old, which is crazy, isn't it?
But a testament to how these types of shows have
hooked us all in. To celebrate the milestone, host of
the show and Ossie icon, Scott Camers in the country
(00:34):
and here in the studio with me. Good morning, Scott,
thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
In, Oh morning, thanks for having me. Twenty season, Yes,
twenty seasons.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You've done eighteen of those.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Eighteen and it's you know, it's a show that keeps
on going. And I've got two more years in a
contract left, so there's going to be two more of
them and that'll make me twenty for me and it
could keep going.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I don't know, did you ever think that it would
still be around in twenty twenty four when you started.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
No, I've been at the network for twenty five years.
I've done about ten different shows. This one is the
last show I've done, which I thought we'd get a
couple of years out of it, and we've ended up
going yeah, for fifteen or six. We used to do
two a year for at some point, so I've been
doing it for about sixteen years. This show, why do
(01:24):
you love it? Well, it's a combination of two loves,
Like I'm a carbenter by trade and I love the
building process. And I love building and I love Telly.
So we combine the two and you've got the perfect
show for me.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I was thinking about why we love it, and all
you have to do is watch the first dip of
a show and you know why you love it one.
It is really fascinating. We are all quite interested in
renovating and building and always keen to see what people create.
But it comes down to the personalities a lot of
it too, doesn't it The actual sort of just putting
people in that sort of pressure cooker environment and seeing
(02:00):
how they handle it.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, and it's you know, it's really organic our show.
We don't set any of those dramas up. It just
happens organically. It evolves from day one. Personalities clash or
they're tired, they're under pressure, they're getting judged and then
some different styles of personality comes out in people. And
(02:23):
you know, like sometimes people say, well you surely you
knew that they were going to be like that, Well
you don't, because you interview someone five times and if
they want something really bad, they're going to say whatever
we want to hear, and they're going to act the
way they think they should act for them to get
that spot on the show. And that's what happens. It's
really difficult to interview someone five times and not pick
(02:43):
you and pick up the real person when they're under pressure.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
But here's the really funny thing about the contestans is
they all they're all obviously fans of the block and
have watched it, you can tell, and they all come
thinking we're going to rock this, We're going to nail
this is going to be a breeze. And then of
course within three days they're all crying and you go,
have you not watched the show? This is tough.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I know what you're talking about there, because we had
Jesse and Page this week. You know, he was in
bits and pieces talking to his mum on the phone,
and you know that's another sign of things to come
these days, is as we from twenty years ago, you know,
contestants have definitely changed their resilience and things like that,
(03:28):
because you know, he's a twenty nine year old carpenter
that should know the rapes around the building site. But
he was under so much pressure. I think maybe from
he's partner page and the concept and I don't know what,
but he was really not handling the situation well.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Because it's not a normal job. This isn't your normal
carpentry job.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
When you're well, if it's not for someone who's not
a carpenter, not a carpenter, that is their normal job.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Why does the block when it comes to selecting contestants packed?
So you've got in this episode, you've got an electrician
and a plumber, and a carpenter and an electrician end plumber,
and a terror decorator, a landscaper. Does that make it?
Does that theory make this really big challenge a little
bit easier? Or is it that it makes it more
interesting seeing them? Yes, try to do what they do,
(04:19):
but in a different way, in a different rona.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
We'll see like an electrician, he's not a builder, Like
electricians aren't carbenters. And it's mostly carpentry, and we supply
the plumbing and the electrical, so that's not a great
advantage really. And then we've certainly had, you know, two
sisters that have never done anything before, and we've had
we've had lots of people that have not experienced. In fact,
Grant and Courtney. Courtney's an interior designer type person, but
(04:44):
Grant works for a landscaping company. He's not a landscaper. Yeah,
he just works in the office, and so you know,
he's inexperienced building as well. But he's done a good
job in the first week or so. And this series
is a roller coaster, and I always say that, but
this is beyond a roller coaster. Like in week four
or five, which is in three weeks time, we have
(05:07):
a first on the show that is like, you know,
even production was taken aback.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
If I guess it, would you confirm it.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
I don't want to put a spoiler out there.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
No, I'm not going to guess it because I am
one weekend and I'm gripped. You can see the drama.
You are so right, Scott. You can see the drama brewing.
You've got quite a young group of people. They've all
come on incredibly confident, interestingly pretty inflexible. They have their ideas,
they have their way of doing things, and you can
(05:41):
just see how that's going to create a lot of
is shoes going forward.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And you know, you've got to be flexible on the show.
And you can't be black, black, black, black, black black.
I know what you're talking about. Well, there's a.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Couple of couples who are who you, who are basically saying,
why would I do this if I wasn't, you know,
designing a house for myself. And it's like, well you're not.
That's the whole point of.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
The game here, yeah, madness. And we've told them that
this is not for you, this is not your style.
You've got to create a style for the buyer, and
you've got to not polarize the buyers. And if you
do a black house, well you will polarize the buyers
because only a certain amount of people like a black
house and most don't. So therefore you're automatically And the
(06:27):
big thing about the block is that if a buyer
doesn't like your house, it's not as if they can
change things. All they do is go next door. I'll
go next doore, I'll go next door until they find
a house that is their style.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You did mention before that you have seen a real
change of the contestants and the seasons that you've hosted.
What are some of the changes that you've seen with
contestants and also just the way they approach the show.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Look, I think you know, some of them work really
hard and they do a great job. Others I find
in recent years are nowhere near working as hard as
they should or they will good And you know, some
of them in recent years, maybe you know, they say
I'm giving it one hundred percent, and you know, I
say to them, your one hundred percent is my forty percent,
(07:18):
So you're and by the way, you should be giving
one hundred and ten percent, so you're about seventy percent off.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
If you take a look at all the winners over
the years, is there anything that they have in common,
whether it be to do with their attitude, their strategy,
their style.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
One hundred percent, organization, good budgeting, and working until their drop.
That's that's that's the key to it. You've got to
be absolutely exhausted, and some of them are this year,
are doing that. You've got to be absolutely exhausted by
the end of each day and for three months, and
that's that's the job.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So can you tell after being on site with them,
after we've completed they've just completed week one, can you
tell who you think is going to last's going to
take it out? Well, I regon you could probably nail
it down to a couple Maybe.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, I could, But I can certainly see who's going
to struggle. I don't know who's going to take it
out because we've got no control on auction day and
anything can happen, and it's happened in the past that
the people that you think are going to come last
day win it. So but I can certainly tell who's
going to.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Struggle, who's going to enjoy the process, maybe a little
bit more than some of the others. How does the
show withstand the aps and downs of the property market.
I mean, I know, you know property prices here in
New Zealand have increased as he construction costs.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Well, we certainly hit that a couple of years ago
during COVID when materials went up by thirty forty percent
and we as a company struggled budget wise ourselves because
all our costs went up overnight, and so that was
a struggle. The island itself is a struggle with logistics, deliveries,
things like that, getting things that's too ours out of Melbourne.
(08:55):
And we can only build the best houses we can
and create the best common areas that we can to
attract the buyers on the day. You've got to have
a great real estate agent, a great auctioneer. You've got
to create an emotional connection with the buyers with your house.
And if you can do all those things and a
great design of course and great build you might make
some money. So you've really got to have all your
(09:17):
planets aligned and if you miss out on one of those,
which you've seen in the past, you can fail on
the day. And so that that is the nature of
the block. But that is also the nature of mums
and dads out there doing this every week, renovating a house,
putting it to auction, doing it themselves, putting it in
to auction and hoping.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
For the best and building and renovating or is it
sort of something which really a select few are able
to do these days.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
No, I think that exactly like New Zealanders, Australians love
their own lot and they want to value add to it.
It's we're obsessed, as I know you guys are with
owning a home and renovating it. Everybody does it.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
But you were still working up till about ten years ago, won't.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
You other job? Yeah? Yeah, I stayed as a cartmenter
builder up until ten years. I was fifty two when
I sort of pulled the business up, and I'm sixty
two now. So I did both Telly and my business,
and I still work on the tools now, but not
for clients. I just work for myself.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Nice got any summer Renaud's plant.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yes, I do. I've got a house down the coast
of New South Wales and I'm doing a big renot
on that starting January.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So what you've learned from watching other people and often amateurs,
and imagine we're all thinking about this over summer, what
you've seen on the block, what would be the biggest
piece of renaut advice that you would give people.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Well, it'd be coming from not the block. It'd be
coming from my forty years in the building industry, because
the block does it not always the right way to
get tests at least. Look, I think the biggest information
I can give to anyone that's renovating is to budget, budget, budget,
no your budget, and you know, make sure your budget's
correct to what you want to build, because if you
(11:04):
run out of money halfway through, you're in big trouble.
You know your limitations if you want to do a
little bit at yourself, know what you can and can't do,
and know what you're capable of doing. Like you know
you can hang plaster, but you probably can't set it
because that's hard to do. Hanging your door is one
of the hardest things you'll ever do in carpentry. So
don't be fooled into trying to hang a door. Even
(11:26):
though it looks simple, it's not. It's one of the hush.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
It's quite funny because I keep saying to my husband,
can't you just fix that about the door?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Your door pot on two mil all the way around,
two mil gap all the way around. And the other
thing is limit your variations in the building game. It's
called variations, which is in a nutshell, changing your mind.
So once you'd decide something, stick to it, and if
you change your mind, it's called a variation. And they
cost on average about five thousand bucks. Say, if you
(11:56):
have ten of them, it's fifty grand.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So if you'd like to watch some variations. Definitely catch
the Block Scott. It's been a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you so much and I cannot wait to see
how this season unfold.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
It's a corker, let me tell you. It's a rollercoaster.
It's one of the best and it plays out right
until the last week. Oh, I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
To the Block Australia Season twenty is Sunday to Wednesday
on three. You can also watch on three Now if
it's raining where you are. The staff didn't you might
want to tune through the first week. I tell you
I'm hooked. You've probably get at that.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb we kewais just love a home reno show, don't
we Dey is definitely in our blood and it's the
same over the Testament in Australia, their version of The
Bloc is now twenty seasons old, which is crazy, isn't it?
But a testament to how these types of shows have
hooked us all in. To celebrate the milestone, host of
the show and Ossie icon, Scott Camers in the country
(00:34):
and here in the studio with me. Good morning, Scott,
thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
In, Oh morning, thanks for having me. Twenty season, Yes,
twenty seasons.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You've done eighteen of those.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Eighteen and it's you know, it's a show that keeps
on going. And I've got two more years in a
contract left, so there's going to be two more of
them and that'll make me twenty for me and it
could keep going.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I don't know, did you ever think that it would
still be around in twenty twenty four when you started.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
No, I've been at the network for twenty five years.
I've done about ten different shows. This one is the
last show I've done, which I thought we'd get a
couple of years out of it, and we've ended up
going yeah, for fifteen or six. We used to do
two a year for at some point, so I've been
doing it for about sixteen years. This show, why do
(01:24):
you love it? Well, it's a combination of two loves,
Like I'm a carbenter by trade and I love the
building process. And I love building and I love Telly.
So we combine the two and you've got the perfect
show for me.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I was thinking about why we love it, and all
you have to do is watch the first dip of
a show and you know why you love it one.
It is really fascinating. We are all quite interested in
renovating and building and always keen to see what people create.
But it comes down to the personalities a lot of
it too, doesn't it The actual sort of just putting
people in that sort of pressure cooker environment and seeing
(02:00):
how they handle it.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, and it's you know, it's really organic our show.
We don't set any of those dramas up. It just
happens organically. It evolves from day one. Personalities clash or
they're tired, they're under pressure, they're getting judged and then
some different styles of personality comes out in people. And
(02:23):
you know, like sometimes people say, well you surely you
knew that they were going to be like that, Well
you don't, because you interview someone five times and if
they want something really bad, they're going to say whatever
we want to hear, and they're going to act the
way they think they should act for them to get
that spot on the show. And that's what happens. It's
really difficult to interview someone five times and not pick
(02:43):
you and pick up the real person when they're under pressure.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
But here's the really funny thing about the contestans is
they all they're all obviously fans of the block and
have watched it, you can tell, and they all come
thinking we're going to rock this, We're going to nail
this is going to be a breeze. And then of
course within three days they're all crying and you go,
have you not watched the show? This is tough.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I know what you're talking about there, because we had
Jesse and Page this week. You know, he was in
bits and pieces talking to his mum on the phone,
and you know that's another sign of things to come
these days, is as we from twenty years ago, you know,
contestants have definitely changed their resilience and things like that,
(03:28):
because you know, he's a twenty nine year old carpenter
that should know the rapes around the building site. But
he was under so much pressure. I think maybe from
he's partner page and the concept and I don't know what,
but he was really not handling the situation well.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Because it's not a normal job. This isn't your normal
carpentry job.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
When you're well, if it's not for someone who's not
a carpenter, not a carpenter, that is their normal job.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Why does the block when it comes to selecting contestants packed?
So you've got in this episode, you've got an electrician
and a plumber, and a carpenter and an electrician end plumber,
and a terror decorator, a landscaper. Does that make it?
Does that theory make this really big challenge a little
bit easier? Or is it that it makes it more
interesting seeing them? Yes, try to do what they do,
(04:19):
but in a different way, in a different rona.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
We'll see like an electrician, he's not a builder, Like
electricians aren't carbenters. And it's mostly carpentry, and we supply
the plumbing and the electrical, so that's not a great
advantage really. And then we've certainly had, you know, two
sisters that have never done anything before, and we've had
we've had lots of people that have not experienced. In fact,
Grant and Courtney. Courtney's an interior designer type person, but
(04:44):
Grant works for a landscaping company. He's not a landscaper. Yeah,
he just works in the office, and so you know,
he's inexperienced building as well. But he's done a good
job in the first week or so. And this series
is a roller coaster, and I always say that, but
this is beyond a roller coaster. Like in week four
or five, which is in three weeks time, we have
(05:07):
a first on the show that is like, you know,
even production was taken aback.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
If I guess it, would you confirm it.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
I don't want to put a spoiler out there.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
No, I'm not going to guess it because I am
one weekend and I'm gripped. You can see the drama.
You are so right, Scott. You can see the drama brewing.
You've got quite a young group of people. They've all
come on incredibly confident, interestingly pretty inflexible. They have their ideas,
they have their way of doing things, and you can
(05:41):
just see how that's going to create a lot of
is shoes going forward.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And you know, you've got to be flexible on the show.
And you can't be black, black, black, black, black black.
I know what you're talking about. Well, there's a.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Couple of couples who are who you, who are basically saying,
why would I do this if I wasn't, you know,
designing a house for myself. And it's like, well you're not.
That's the whole point of.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
The game here, yeah, madness. And we've told them that
this is not for you, this is not your style.
You've got to create a style for the buyer, and
you've got to not polarize the buyers. And if you
do a black house, well you will polarize the buyers
because only a certain amount of people like a black
house and most don't. So therefore you're automatically And the
(06:27):
big thing about the block is that if a buyer
doesn't like your house, it's not as if they can
change things. All they do is go next door. I'll
go next doore, I'll go next door until they find
a house that is their style.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You did mention before that you have seen a real
change of the contestants and the seasons that you've hosted.
What are some of the changes that you've seen with
contestants and also just the way they approach the show.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Look, I think you know, some of them work really
hard and they do a great job. Others I find
in recent years are nowhere near working as hard as
they should or they will good And you know, some
of them in recent years, maybe you know, they say
I'm giving it one hundred percent, and you know, I
say to them, your one hundred percent is my forty percent,
(07:18):
So you're and by the way, you should be giving
one hundred and ten percent, so you're about seventy percent off.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
If you take a look at all the winners over
the years, is there anything that they have in common,
whether it be to do with their attitude, their strategy,
their style.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
One hundred percent, organization, good budgeting, and working until their drop.
That's that's that's the key to it. You've got to
be absolutely exhausted, and some of them are this year,
are doing that. You've got to be absolutely exhausted by
the end of each day and for three months, and
that's that's the job.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So can you tell after being on site with them,
after we've completed they've just completed week one, can you
tell who you think is going to last's going to
take it out? Well, I regon you could probably nail
it down to a couple Maybe.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, I could, But I can certainly see who's going
to struggle. I don't know who's going to take it
out because we've got no control on auction day and
anything can happen, and it's happened in the past that
the people that you think are going to come last
day win it. So but I can certainly tell who's
going to.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Struggle, who's going to enjoy the process, maybe a little
bit more than some of the others. How does the
show withstand the aps and downs of the property market.
I mean, I know, you know property prices here in
New Zealand have increased as he construction costs.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Well, we certainly hit that a couple of years ago
during COVID when materials went up by thirty forty percent
and we as a company struggled budget wise ourselves because
all our costs went up overnight, and so that was
a struggle. The island itself is a struggle with logistics, deliveries,
things like that, getting things that's too ours out of Melbourne.
(08:55):
And we can only build the best houses we can
and create the best common areas that we can to
attract the buyers on the day. You've got to have
a great real estate agent, a great auctioneer. You've got
to create an emotional connection with the buyers with your house.
And if you can do all those things and a
great design of course and great build you might make
some money. So you've really got to have all your
(09:17):
planets aligned and if you miss out on one of those,
which you've seen in the past, you can fail on
the day. And so that that is the nature of
the block. But that is also the nature of mums
and dads out there doing this every week, renovating a house,
putting it to auction, doing it themselves, putting it in
to auction and hoping.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
For the best and building and renovating or is it
sort of something which really a select few are able
to do these days.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
No, I think that exactly like New Zealanders, Australians love
their own lot and they want to value add to it.
It's we're obsessed, as I know you guys are with
owning a home and renovating it. Everybody does it.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
But you were still working up till about ten years ago, won't.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
You other job? Yeah? Yeah, I stayed as a cartmenter
builder up until ten years. I was fifty two when
I sort of pulled the business up, and I'm sixty
two now. So I did both Telly and my business,
and I still work on the tools now, but not
for clients. I just work for myself.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Nice got any summer Renaud's plant.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yes, I do. I've got a house down the coast
of New South Wales and I'm doing a big renot
on that starting January.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So what you've learned from watching other people and often amateurs,
and imagine we're all thinking about this over summer, what
you've seen on the block, what would be the biggest
piece of renaut advice that you would give people.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Well, it'd be coming from not the block. It'd be
coming from my forty years in the building industry, because
the block does it not always the right way to
get tests at least. Look, I think the biggest information
I can give to anyone that's renovating is to budget, budget, budget,
no your budget, and you know, make sure your budget's
correct to what you want to build, because if you
(11:04):
run out of money halfway through, you're in big trouble.
You know your limitations if you want to do a
little bit at yourself, know what you can and can't do,
and know what you're capable of doing. Like you know
you can hang plaster, but you probably can't set it
because that's hard to do. Hanging your door is one
of the hardest things you'll ever do in carpentry. So
don't be fooled into trying to hang a door. Even
(11:26):
though it looks simple, it's not. It's one of the hush.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
It's quite funny because I keep saying to my husband,
can't you just fix that about the door?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Your door pot on two mil all the way around,
two mil gap all the way around. And the other
thing is limit your variations in the building game. It's
called variations, which is in a nutshell, changing your mind.
So once you'd decide something, stick to it, and if
you change your mind, it's called a variation. And they
cost on average about five thousand bucks. Say, if you
(11:56):
have ten of them, it's fifty grand.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So if you'd like to watch some variations. Definitely catch
the Block Scott. It's been a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you so much and I cannot wait to see
how this season unfold.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
It's a corker, let me tell you. It's a rollercoaster.
It's one of the best and it plays out right
until the last week. Oh, I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
To the Block Australia Season twenty is Sunday to Wednesday
on three. You can also watch on three Now if
it's raining where you are. The staff didn't you might
want to tune through the first week. I tell you
I'm hooked. You've probably get at that.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudken, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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