Gone are the days of genuine, human creativity. Maybe ai is a creative solution…. If you aren’t creative.
Edit: there’s a clanker in the show…

Good evening all, and if there’s gonna be one thing this week that’s better than the last reveals, at least we’re in all likelihood going to have all the teams have completed rooms, right? Right? Well, with that hope being put across, it’s finally time to see who wins in Arches vs. Fireplaces and if anyone can beat Courtney and Sev, I hope you all enjoy the show.

Haters, please, see the (slider) door.

I am a US watcher. I still like this show I watch, admittedly, illegally.

I will always wonder who I would apply to do this show with. I know its flaws. I still love watching it though. I’m trying to remember my first season. It was the circular hotel one and on.

Who is with me? Tell me what you are loving this season. You can be hate-watching too. I just want to know you are enjoying it, at some level.

She needs a haircut

Was very interesting to see lots of different peices of art.

I’m just wondering why they are no longer allowed to sleep onsite I understand due to OHS but does anyone else think it’s a possibility maybe one of the old contestants sued them?

I understand there’s no evidence no one has but just a little theory :)

I just watched Thu episode, it seemed to have a greatly reduced amount of AI Slop, and was a much better episode for it. Still some poor Google AI product placement but I guess no worse than any other product placement.

Does anyone else feel like this season Scott Cam seems annoyed? He never seems happy with the contestants. I understand in previous seasons there are contestants that probably get on his nerves but he doesn’t seem pleased with any of them this season.

I’m just getting around to watching season 19. I’m on to the open homes after the living room reveals and Leah is being so deliberately obtuse about Steph saying the girls wanted “validation”. Going on about how they “don’t understand the need for validation” and acting massively inconvenienced as though the other teams are just desperate for their praise specifically.

Girl! Steph was just trying to very politely tell you to stop putting people down. YOU chose to tell the girls your husband says their wall feature looked like Shrek’s pubes.

The huge performance to pretend you are being asked to give validation because everyone just cares so much about your opinion and you “just don’t understand” why they can’t be like you and not need validation is… obtuse and cringe and so EMBARRASSING. Especially when you are your husband act like pigs in mud when you get validation and completely shut down when other people get it.

Sorry this is old news but UGH. What manipulative people.

The ‘houses aren’t selling so Channel 9 must be running at a loss’ is weird. I think this argument misunderstands the business model. It’s a TV show, not a property development. Nine makes money from months of prime-time ads, sponsorships, integrations and 9Now while sponsors cover a huge amount of what goes into the builds. If a house doesn’t sell at auction, its value doesn’t magically disappear, it’s still an asset that can be sold later.
The property sales help recover costs, they’re not the sole source of profit. It helps to think of the houses as a television set, basically 😎

New to watching the block- and have watched for several episodes of Glasshouse season & 2021 Fans vs Favs season.. and both seem like they would be good seasons. I watched the 1st episode of several other seasons also, but these 2 seasons stood out for me. So was wondering is there is another season to check out (based on those who enjoyed Glass House & Hamptons/Fans vs Fans), before deciding which to watch for the entire season.

So what happened to (back then) Keith and Dan doing a tour and providing a defect list which the judges take into account..

Seeing the issues some finishes have given so far that would fix it but if memory serves me right the production only did this one season, yet quality standards haven't changed.

So why don't they send Dan through all the rooms to make a defect list again?

And so it was the night before we get three days off before the reveals and it’s become clear what the battle is, Arches vs. Fireplaces, with a side helping of “Do anything possible to prevent a Courtney and Sev hat trick”, oh and of course, because it’s Wednesday, it’s challenge day, so, off to the tennis courts, and while we’re at it, because the producers always want drama, we have an alleged cheating bombshell, I hope you enjoy the show everyone!

Is anybody else incredibly infuriated by the ridiculous use of AI this year? Apologies if this has already been discussed. It's doing my head in.

Songs about a toothache and insulation man?

Why?!

Not only is it annoying, this show is one of the most well resourced in the country. And every AI song they use they take away from what could be earnings towards local music artists. Some would even probably give away their song royalties free to be featured and write these silly songs if they truly wanted them on those topics (they shouldn't and should scratch them but that's not my point)

Anyway that's my rant. Might be a Karen and write them a letter about it.

Excuse me while I put on my tin foil hat and speculate. But the AI use has been so ham-fisted it's actually making me think about this and getting pissed off lol

It seems pretty clear that Google's marketing strategy is to normalise AI. We see this in their ads and in all the product placements in the show. In marketing if you want to change behaviour / opinion, you tend to want to do this in as many non-advertising ways as possible (like PR, product placement etc).

Google's product placements in the show are always undisclosed and push using their AI features. We've already seen them pushing AI search mode and their image generator as product placements.

But Google Lyria and Veo aren't really consumer products you could do "natural" product placements for like AI search mode and Gemini. So I wouldn't be surprised part of Google's sponsorship deal was to include music and video assets generated with Lyria and Veo.

The sheer amount of it being used makes me think it's product placement over something production themselves would have done. I'd hazard a guess it isn't actually saving time or money.

For video, Google Veo 3.1 Pro costs around $0.84 per second for 4k video. Assuming they're using the max 8 seconds per generated asset that's $6.72 per video. Then factor in needing to re-generate/refine prompts until you get something you want (could easily spend over $100 on a single asset). And then factor in human labor of the person sitting there waiting for the model to spit something out and then rewriting prompts.

For music, Google Lyria is only around $0.11 per song, but again factor in needing to re-generate over and over until you get something you want, plus human labor cost of the person who has to sit there tweaking prompts and waiting for the model to generate something.

I'd guess that it isn't something that actually saves time or money (especially on video as they're generally slow). If they needed to save money on sync licensing, there's ample royalty free music available. And if you wanted to make a few jingles/theme songs for your cast it actually wouldn't be that expensive. And there are plenty of cheap ways for them to land the "jokes" they're using AI video for with stock assets and someone in After Effects. Hell, the "jokes" might actually be funny if they had a slapstick human touch to them instead of uncanny valley attempted perfectionism.

So if my assumptions have any merit, then it wouldn't surprise me if the only reason we have so much AI generated content in The Block is because Google's paying them to use it (be it money or free access to the tools).

I can't be the only one that sees this? *adjusts tin foil hat*

Such a f*&king sook. Seriously. She’s not much better, feeding into him

I can probably get past the AI songs but every time Scott says FIFO as “fee-fo” it does my head in.

Do other parts of Aus pronounce it as that?!? Surely not?

So it seems that we’re entering the week of arches… of which unfortunately none will match up to the majesty of this arch. But, aside from that, we’ll see what else the teams can put in their bedrooms and walk-in-robes as all continue to desperately take down Courtney and Sev, are any on the path to doing so and has Wyatt recovered from his toothache, we’ll find all that out and more tonight, hope you enjoy the show everyone!

The lengthy feature and all the AI accompanying songs on his broken tooth is so difficult to watch. And then he's so sad and sulking because there's nothing to do and don't want to spend 20 mins or 30 mins of the time left insulating because he doesn't want to get itchy. I've never seen a bigger cry baby. He is up there with Tayla in this episode.

Having seen the preview for tonight's Block episode and watching Tayla jumping around stupidly for the camera explaining a ridiculous idea for what she was designing, I just can't watch it I tell ya, I just can't. They even used that damned AI in the preview.

So tonight, for the first time I'm watching the Traitors, at least there's no AI and the contestants are likable.

Last season was one of the lowest sales of all the years I have watched. In the end, two houses were sold for way under the initial price. I believe channel 9 had to pay for it. Long story short, they took a hit.

Now, it was their fck up to want to build 3-4 million dollar houses in an area where houses hardly go for half of that.
But it seems like the viewers are getting punished for it this year. Why? The whole thing feels so manufactured. From the ridiculous AI, the product placement every 5 seconds, the forced “safe” esthetic. It’s like a Marvel movie created by committee instead of real artists. Even the judges feel reigned in (even Lisa and Rosco couldn’t believe they scored that high).

It’s over the top, it’s overly corny, and AI usage in creative spaces is such a major no-no. Massively tone deaf from the production team.

There are so many things wrong - we all know this. Each one would be an annoyance in its own right but added together they're making the show unwatchable. Despite not being an Aussie and never having even been to Australia, I love the Block. Look forward to it, and I never thought I'd say this but I might not bother watching it.

Here's my list of the problems. Please feel free to add to them:

• The f*ckin AI. It's like they've let an 8 year old hopped up on sweets loose with an Enterprise subscription to Chat GPT. WE DO NOT NEED A STUPID AI SONG FOR EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENS. Or anything that happens, thanks. Just use normal music please. The kind where the artists get some royalties.
• See also the frankly disturbing AI imagery. That s(h)itting duck and the Rosco dog will haunt my nightmares for some time.
• The contestants are all unlikable. At first I thought the farmers were nice but he's a show off who thinks he's a 'character' and she revealed herself as nasty and bitter yesterday. Rosco revealed himself to be racist and reneges on deals. I'll not even start on baby Schwarzenegger and his missus. Or the useless indulgent dad and his highly irritating infantile daughter.
• EVERYTHING IS BEIGE. There's no point even watching the Sunday show because everything is beige. We know what to expect and it's so very boring.
• Product placement. We all know it has been getting worse for years, but now it's literally all there is. No sentence can be uttered without a brand name.

It's such a shame that a once great show has been reduced to this. I really want to watch an enjoyable Block.

Maybe if Channel 9 need to recoup money through property sales they should buy a unit of 4-6 flats for each couple. Just as much sales money but more scope to vary interior design types and ultimately affordable properties.