This week on The Block, the drama hasn’t been about the houses they’re building, but rather, the share house the contestants are living in. The living quarters erupted with a heated confrontation when Rosco and Adam’s family members were permitted to stay in the cramped share house without the other contestant’s permission.
For Chantel, this was a step too far. She felt that she, and the other contestants, should have been asked before other family members were invited to stay at the house — and was particularly upset that no one had made the effort to introduce them. As a result, she approached production with a complaint about the arrangement.
“I don’t feel particularly good about having three extra people in the share house,” Chantel explained during the episode.
“It’s already so cluttered sharing one shower, sharing two toilets, with people who aren’t Block contestants. And especially that we weren’t notified. It feels a little bit uncomfortable to me.”
“Saying you feel uncomfortable is indisputable. There’s no substance to it,” Lisa hit back.
With the disagreement running rampant and production getting involved, host Scotty Cam stepped in.
“Chantel has said she’s uncomfortable with Jimbo [Rosco’s dad] at the share house,” Scotty told Lisa and Rosco. “Because she said that, we have no alternative. He’ll have to move out, as well as Jolene’s boy as well. Or you’ve got to come up with a different arrangement.”
When Scotty told Rosco, he pointed out that he and Jolene control the access point Chantel and Wyatt need for upcoming work on their garden.
What the fans have to say
Online, it seems fans don’t agree with the way that this issue was handled and felt that Scotty threw Chantel under the bus.
“Everyone has a right to be annoyed with the extra guests in the house and production should have managed that much better,” wrote one fan on Reddit.
“When it came to someone actually saying they need to go, Scotty goes around and tells them it’s Chantel saying she feels uncomfortable. Love Scotty normally but that was not cool at all. A bunch of them had issue with the guests and Chantel should be able to say she feels uncomfortable without being pointed at as the problem. It’s very aligned with a victim blaming way of conversing and framing an issue.”
Meanwhile, in another thread, fans called out the way Jolene wasn’t pulled up for saying she felt uncomfortable around Wyatt, while Chantel was criticised.
“I’m struggling to understand why Jolene can say she felt uncomfortable around Wyatt, he apologised, and he has since kept his distance from her, yet when Chantel says she’s uncomfortable having THREE extra men staying in a small house with ONE bathroom, suddenly she’s the bad guy?” wrote another.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be happy either! It’s a shared living space with limited room and one bathroom, and suddenly three additional people are staying there without everyone being properly consulted first. Surely the common courtesy in a share house is to ASK the other people living there before inviting extra guests to stay? That’s just basic human decency.
What makes it even more frustrating is that Jolene and Adam essentially have their own private retreat, so their living situation is completely different. Chantel has to deal with the reality of sharing an already cramped space with even more people.”
Meanwhile, other fans felt that the new season twist of the Blockheads living together was just adding too much extra stress on their shoulders.
“I feel the contestants should not be expected to live together,” they wrote.
“They are already under enormous pressure, and having no private space to unwind, decompress, or discuss their plans freely only adds to that stress. Sharing one bathroom between so many people is simply ridiculous. The contestants deserve some privacy and personal space, especially given the demands of the competition.”
If forcing sleep-deprived renovators into a cramped share house was meant to inspire great design, the only thing being constructed right now is a share house of resentment.
You can watch The Block on Nine and 9Now.
