What time does the Block start tonight 2022?

"In fact, we flew them to Adelaide before The Block started for a week, and put them up in a hotel so they could see [Joel’s mother], and they came back and said everything’s fine."

Just a short while later, Scotty said Elle and Joel vanished. 

"They never spoke to us, they just left in the middle of the night," he said, adding: "I still don’t know why they left. They never mentioned their sick mother in the 48 hours before they left, or after they left. The executive producer spoke to them (after they left) and they didn’t mention their sick mother then either."

ICYMI, it was reported in April that Joel and Elle had pulled out of the show when Joel's mother had suffered a nasty fall. 

The beauty blogger and former GWS Giants player travelled to Adelaide, where Joel’s mum was receiving treatment for possible bleeding of the brain, a broken coccyx and a fractured wrist.

Not too long after the news made headlines, Scotty slammed the pair, saying: "45,000 people applied to be on The Block and win life-changing money. These guys got on and they just couldn’t handle the pace after 48 hours… Which to me is a bit un-Australian! Have a go! It’s p**s poor."

A few days later, he cleared the air and told reporters: "Obviously I wish Joel and Elle success in the future. It’s just that they created a fair bit of chaos for us here in the first 48 hours. The show… we put a lot of time and money into the start of our show and then we had to rejig the whole thing… the whole promos had to be re-shot.

"It just was a lot of angst on our part when they just departed the way they did. When I say those words, that’s just Scott Cam speaking from the heart."

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A critical tradie shortage.

In July, it was revealed that the reality show was dealing with a massive labour shortage as the construction industry proved to be unstable.

The production's building company went as far to post an urgent request for as many tradies as they could get. 

"We desperately need help completing the current series of The Block, Tree Change. Carpenters, Cladding Crews, Skilled labourers, Trade Assistants," the program's building company, Nine In Six, wrote.

"Wages, Casual, Subbies we won’t discriminate. Immediate start, Five Weeks to go Location Gisborne Victoria. Send us a message if you’re keen."

Thankfully, a number of labourers came to the rescue, with Scotty telling news.com.au that the last few days had been saved. 

"We always knew there were going to be supply chain and tradie issues, but towards the end we got desperate, so we put that call out and we got a couple of young carpentry teams. Terrific blokes."

After viewers reacted to that auction, Nine maintains a lot of the joy is in the series arc rather than the outcome.

• Published on November 30, 2022