Nine’s Adrian Swift On Why This Year’s The Block Is The Most Competitive Yet

Nine’s Adrian Swift On Why This Year’s The Block Is The Most Competitive Yet
Sofia Geraghty
By Sofia Geraghty
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Yesterday Nine’s launch of The Block was the most-watched show in entertainment for metro views. Eager fans are unlikely to be disappointed, with Nine’s head of content production and development Adrian Swift telling B&T that it’s one of the most competitive seasons to date.

At a press event for The Block held in Melbourne last month, Swift hinted at the level of drama on this year’s show – saying that “MAFS dinner parties are nothing” compared to The Block 2023. He assured B&T, however, that the purpose of the show remains building, and not drama.

Adrian Swift

“The Block is a show about building and it will always be a show about building and renovating and we will never deviate from that,” he said.

“But this year, the the competitiveness and the angst between the competitors is some of the most we’ve seen. They weren’t cast for that and it wasn’t anticipated, but it’s been interesting the extent to which there really was a lot of lot of tension between the competitors this year.”

According to Swift, there’s been a number of structural changes, including the contestants receiving the production schedule ahead of time, which have added fuel to the flame.

“We let them see our production blackboard, which we would never normally do,” he said.

“It led to sort of tensions, which none of which we anticipated. We had some people trying to get ahead – which is something we  don’t usually allow. So what it also meant was it made it kind of it made the building a little bit easier, but it made the tension a little bit higher.”

Another key difference was the proximity, Swift said.

“Well, the proximity is really the big thing that makes this year different. The houses are all right on each other. So when we bought the properties, we demolished all the back fences, so they all get to see each other. So there’s a lot more, there’s a lot more interaction between the participants.”

Get your popcorn at the ready!

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