It was a traumatic and controversial final episode of The Block: Glasshouse and one that left half of this year’s contestants bitterly disappointed. So much so, that winning brothers Simon and Shannon actually considered giving away a portion of their prize money following the show’s bizarre and dismal auction results.
The pair revealed on Channel 9’s Today that they had debated sharing the winnings but told host Lisa Wilkinson that they’d rejected that idea in the end.
The controversy, and “awkwardness” – as the brothers described it – came as they pocked $435,000 in the reality show’s season finale – including $100,000 for winning – while the other three other couples clocked up only $60,000 profit between them.
Host Shelley Craft joined all the contestants in tears during the final throws of the show as the auction results were revealed, while co-host Scott Cam described the ending as “traumatic and bizarre”.
After the mandatory flashbacks and walks down memory lane with each of the couples and reminiscing over some of the show’s biggest controversies like Simon and Shannon’s hidden mobile phone, Max and Karstan’s secret room and Darren and Dee’s controversial attitude, the reserve prices for each of the apartments were finally revealed. Michael and Carlene’s came in at $1.38 million; Max and Karstan at $1.67; Simon and Shannon at $1.565 million; Chris and Jenna at $1.5 million, and Darren and Dee $1.37 million. Pitting teams against each other for a final time, the show’s producers left it up to the teams to sort out the order for auction.
After a series of suspense-building ad breaks and stressed-out auctioneers, The Block: Glasshouse finally came to an underwhelming ending leaving audiences wondering whether the bottom has fallen out of the novelty of buying ‘celebrity-styled’ real estate.
Chris and Jenna’s auction reached $1.81 million, after an initial freak-out at not being able to reach their $1.5M reserve. Simon and Shannon’s went as smoothly as a winning auction would be expected with a final price of $1.9 million and a healthy profit of $335,000. Newlyweds Max and Karstan made a measly $40,000 profit, and as for ‘Double D’s’ Darren and Dee, well, they only pulled in $10,000 above their reserve.
So the show ended in tears and with a bit of a ‘let’s just get this over with’ air…SIGH. Of course theories of ‘too high reserve prices’ have been brandished all over the media post-final, but whatever the reason it’s going to be interesting to see whether The Block will garner as much interest from both contestants and audiences in early 2015 when the next series is due to begin.
Images courtesy of Channel 9 The Block: Glasshouse
So who do you think should have won? Do you think the reserve prices were too high? Tell us your thoughts below…
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