Sea views, a contestant share house and a supersized sponsor HQ, here’s what to expect ahead of Sunday’s premiere of The Block season 22.
The Block returns to Channel Nine and 9Now on Sunday August 2, relocating to Mount Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula for what producers are calling the show’s first genuinely coastal build.
This season’s biggest addition is the HQ Village, somewhat similar to last season’s “Sponsor Village Saloon”.
The new HQ Village is a 1,000-square-metre shed built on site, housing a Bunnings, a Chemist Warehouse and a McCafé.
This season, contestants received a $250,000 cash budget alongside $750,000 in “Block bucks”.
The $750,000 comes from sponsors including Freedom, Beaumont and Reece, though it can only be exchanged for sponsor products.
Traditionally, The Block partnerships were meant to be part of the actual build through materials, tiles, lighting and fixtures. The HQ has given brands a new way to tie-in, built around what contestants use day-to-day rather than what they build with.
Flea medication brand Simparica Trio, for instance, features on the show via the HQ to protect the animals on set. The brand has also gone a step further and utilised judge Shaynna Blaze in its TVC creative outside the series.
Newer brand partner Australian Retirement Trust runs as a straightforward billboard and spot buy alongside some extensions outside the show featuring their retirement monster “Artie” within the Block environment. Artie may even make an appearance or two on the show.
Two different products with two different entry points.
“The Block really lends itself to natural brand integrations across multiple categories,” said Nine’s director of brand partnerships and client experience Sarah Stewart told B&T.
“We could not make the size and scale of the show that we have if we didn’t have all of those people invested in the format”.
The investment tends to stick. McCafé has returned for its 13th year, Domain its 12th, Arnott’s its fourth. Bunnings is only in its second season after replacing Mitre 10, which had held the slot for two decades.
“Once they’re in the block, we haven’t really seen them move out of it,” said Stewart.
She also made clear that Nine has set somewhat of a limit on how many brands the show will carry. Its a ceiling she said is deliberately managed rather than fixed.
“We know that viewers can smell a rat,” said Stewart.
Nine’s The Block team works almost year-round. Post-production on the current season overlaps with partner conversations for the next one, which start around September and October, ahead of pre-production early the following year.
Nine told us that if brands are waiting for ratings data before reaching out to the be involved are often pitching into a process already underway.
The Block continues to be one of the country’s top-rating entertainment shows and its audience has risen year-on-year for the past three seasons.
The 2025 season saw an average per show audience of 1.675 million, up from 1.463 million in 2024 and 1.4 million in 2023. The finale episode pulled an average audience of 2.442 million viewers last year, up from 2.122 million the year before.
“We’ve got seasoned renovators, experienced trades, and we’ve got absolute novices,” said executive producer Justin Sturzaker. It’s a skills gap that will play out under one roof. In another season first, contestants have moved off-site entirely, into season 21 winners’ Emma and Ben’s house.
Due to council rules on a residential street ruled out living on the build and “partly because we just thought that would be really funny” according to Struzaker.
Production has pitching it as a fresh format twist, but it’s really a production constraint that turned into content. It served a reminder that the show adapts fast to whatever a location throws at it.
“While living together offers opportunities for shared meals and camaraderie, it also ensures the competitive tension remains constant as contestants spend nearly every waking hour in each other’s company,” said executive producer and series creator Julian Cress.
Season 22 premieres Sunday August 2 at 7pm on Channel Nine and 9Now.
