Tonight is yet another Shelley challenge which seems to be the least of matters contributing to tonight’s episode with a contestant apparently having to leave, according to some promotions! What could this mean?
We are treated to two recaps back to back before the contestants gather for a BBQ where Scott give week losers Katrina & Amie a chump t-shirt with ‘chump’ replacing the word ‘Chum’ on a tin can printing on the shirt.
The next day, Polly & Waz share their good news with Chrissy & Toby whereas Katrina & Amie try to keep their chin up, being the only couple never to have won a week thus far.
Scott then tells us that Rod & Tania are the couple who will be leaving the Block, only for the challenge day, due to a family tragedy. In their place, 2010’s Mark & Duncan will return for their second cameo this season.
With Rod & Tania heading off, Scott, Mark and Duncan head off to tell the others. They are all somewhat under enthused with contestants thinking they will smash them at any building challenge.
With that, they all head off to Shelley’s challenge with Katrina & Amie hoping they can win some money today, as they are broke.
The contestants head to an unknown location which actually doesn’t happen to be on a construction site, but in a studio. Today, they have to style a room! Mark and Duncan are immediately worried with other contestants quite happy with the idea.
The room each contestant styles will be photographed with the team with the winning photograph, winning the challenge.
As it turns out, the judges won’t be judging today, with Neale sending out ‘tougher’ judges. They are Jason Sullivan (stylist and winner of previous Nine series HomeMADE) and HomeMADE runner up Darren Palmer! So, as if we needed any more mention of renovation shows this week, Nine has surely outdone itself!
Each team have been given a blank space with some stylish tools. They have also been given a Window’s Touch Screen monitor fitted with all the necessary requirements for a HUGE product placement; plus, the contestants get to keep the screen.
The winners will win a home entertainment system for this week’s living room.
Their time begins and they all get started!
The contestants all head for their touch screens and work out their design before Polly & Waz and other contestants head for their wall paints. Mark & Duncan are quite confused, but they decide to try to go for the worst colour for a reverse psychology room where in their world the worse room actually wins!!!
Josh & Jenna are going to step out of the box and use a colour different to grey, but by the look of the colour, it still looks safe.
The contestants are still out looking for paint when Katrina & Amie begin painting. Mark & Duncan get some advice off of Darren before we find out that the other contestants have finished picking paint.
Shelley has been nice enough to let two furniture stores open their doors and let the contestants choose anything they want. These places are Space and Herman & Herman. They have 30 minutes however to collect everything. The sisters head for Space and Polly & Waz head for H&H, with both teams being cautious about knocking things over.
Mark & Duncan are spoilt for choice but Jenna & Josh can’t find anything they want. The sisters are looking for a few things and as they are style queens, this shouldn’t be too hard but they can’t find anything either, believing they have lost confidence in themselves.
At the half way point, Josh & Jenna still can’t find furniture with Jenna not able to find the home entertainment unit that she wanted and very soon, they begin to argue yet again!
After the break, we are given a recap of what we have seen in the first half hour; maybe a little inappropriate, and a little too long.
The contestants are still choosing furniture with Mark & Duncan choosing some pillows before a shag rug catches their eyes. Katrina & Amie still can’t lock in firm decisions but there are only minutes to go.
The judges come to their rescue and offer them some advice. They find some lovely chairs to begin their room. The judges go to help Mark & Duncan next and funnily enough, they choose a lamp as it looks as if a whale has vomited it out.
Polly & Waz are overwhelmed at the moment and are trying to pick a lamp for their room. The judges tell them to filter out what they don’t want, but Polly & Waz doesn’t know what she wants. Meanwhile, Josh & Jenna pick a modular unit under the pressure of a strict time limit, ditching their last plan.
With two minutes to go, Polly & Waz step on it, but aren’t too concerned about finding something quick.
The contestants now quickly rush to grab a few small fittings to splash some colour into their rooms with Katrina & Amie trying to find a few things to debland their room but Jason isn’t confident that their room will look good regardless.
After the break, we get yet another recap, and it is a bit ridiculous to be honest with you and when we return, furniture time is up, and now they just have to assemble their room.
Polly & Waz have a few too many items, but Polly thinks this is a good thing as they have a lot to work with.
Mark & Duncan aren’t as serious; loving their less is more room. Katrina & Amie are currently placing their coffee table in the room and they disagree on whether or not it works.
Josh says the most important part of the room is the PC, which is correct, but he seems fixed on placing a feature on the room.
Mark & Duncan are finishing their room and are having a good laugh, but Jenna & Josh are still a little too serious about it all, not able to find a suitable place to place their PC.
Polly & Waz have nearly finished their room and it looks wonderful and complex; love it. Josh is still trying to fit the modular unit so it works well as it came with all the shelves packaged individually, but in the process he smashes a few things which up their stress levels.
Polly & Waz are now trying to take their picture as Shelley comes to visit. She loves the room and what they have done with it.
Shelley then visits a bickering Jenna & Josh and compliments their room as well before calling out time up! Wow, that was fast!
Another ad break return, another recap but this time, we get a few thoughts from the judges. Now, the contestants have to work with a professional photographer who will now shoot their rooms from all angles.
The photographer is able to make all rooms look good, even Mark & Duncan who tried to do the exact opposite nearly.
After the photo shoot, the contestants then had to work the pictures into a spread and after that, the judges judge each look. They begin with Mark & Duncan and love their ideas and room with Darren exceptionally proud of it.
To Polly & Waz, and they loved the room as well saying they incorporated the PC well.
Next is Josh & Jenna’s room and while they had concerns about the rug, they think it worked really well. They also love the spread they did but Jason doesn’t like the wall painting.
Last is Katrina & Amie who have made the brand name KANDA (Katrina AND Amie), and the judges love the sophisticated room, from the colour scheme to the books on the table!
Now all the judges have to do is choose the winner! The judges took a few minutes to decide the winner and gather in front of the contestants where Shelley congratulates them all for their work before telling them what is up for stake.
She also tells them that the winning team will win Darren and Jason for the day tomorrow for shopping. This is apparently courtesy of Microsoft which really confuses me, and is just blatant, unnatural, unoriginal product placement.
The judges then reveal that the winner of the challenge is Katrina & Amie who have wanted the prize so badly.
So that is that episode done and despite the blatant product placement, this was a pretty good episode. Actually, those recaps were also quite annoying and seriously, not needed. If they need to fill so much time, they should have just cut it back to half an hour. This challenge would have worked well in a half hour timeslot in my opinion, as do many others.
I loved the challenge nonetheless and wonder what tomorrow will have in store for us as the couples begin their living rooms.
Courtney’s Verdict: 7.4/10
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