And with that, it was all over. Channel Nine’s ratings behemoth The Block swept the TV Ratings charts over the weekend with the Grand Final achieving a Total TV reach of 3.65 million and an average audience of 2.4 million.
In the grand final, five brand-new builds went under the hammer in Daylesford with some couples walking away with big profits and others left empty-handed.
In a rare move, all five couples unanimously agreed prior on the auction order, a united front heading into the biggest day of the year. But the mood quickly changed once they found out their reserves were set at $2.99 million.
Britt and Taz in House 3 started the day with a bang. Their bids soared to $3,410,000 and the final hammer delivered a massive $420,000 profit for the cops from WA. The winning bid came from a new buyer to The Block scene, injecting fresh energy into the competition.
Robby and Mat in House 5 followed, and were met with the familiar face of serial Block investor Danny Wallis. The IT entrepreneur known for his philanthropic support of the show over the years secured the home with a trademark bid of $3,099,999. The best mates from SA pocketed a profit of $109,999.
Then the momentum slowed with new parents Em and Ben in House 1. Bidding reached only $2.97 million before the auction was dramatically paused. After deliberation, a vendor bid of $3.10 million was placed, but there was no further interest and the house was passed in.
Sonny and Alicia in House 4 entered the auction with a $50,000 reduced reserve of $2.94 million from winning Week 12, but the auctioneer started strategically with a vendor bid of $3.05 million. This set the stage for one of The Block’s most consistent buyer advocates, Frank Valentic, Director of Advantage Property Consulting, to enter the fold and place a bid of $3,060,000.This secured a $120,000 profit for the parents from Queensland.
Finally, Han and Can in House 2 closed the day with immense pressure. Like House 4, their auction started directly with a vendor bid of $3.10 million, but with no buyer uptake the house was also passed in for the couple from WA.
After the final hammer, the coppers and parents from Newman in WA scooped the $100,000 prizemoney and a take-home a total of $520,000, plus the title of the first team from WA to win The Block.
Winners Britt and Taz said: “It’s phenomenal to walk away with a reward like this for all the hard work we have put into it. This is life-changing for us, it’s incredible. It’s our mortgage paid off.
“I thought our auction set the tone for everyone else. We took it upon ourselves to do that, and we were shocked more than anything. We had worked as a team right to the end, so it’s just a bit hard for us to see what has happened today.”
Truly scintillating stuff.
Seven’s The Voice on Sunday was the next most-watched show of the weekend, with a reach of 1.56 million and an average of 751,000.
Seven’s coverage of the Supercars race on the Gold Coast performed well, no doubt aided by Brodie Kostecki’s huge shunt in qualifying and a breathless Bathurst 1000 last weekend.
Channel 10’s top-rating show over the weekend was Saturday’s Selling Houses Australia, which recorded a reach of 560,000 and an average of 279,000.
