The New Block Port Melbourne seeks to survive against rivals in ratings chase
Nine's renovation reality show The Block is set for serious competition this year, as Ten have Australian Survivor, set to go to air this Sunday August 21 at 7.30pm.
Both coincide with the end of the Olympics where Channel Seven have understandably absorbed the strongest audience over the last two weeks.
Seven will attempt to hang on to some of their Olympic audience with new cooking show Zumbo's Just Desserts, which airs Monday, and could create a three-way reality battle, although whispers are that it is not likely to impress.
Australian Survivor sees 24 people marooned on the tropical island of Samoa with little more than clothes on their back.
Having to fend for themselves, the contestants must compete with each other, yet also build relationships so they don't find themselves being voted off the island.
The winner will earn half a million dollars at the end of the 55 day show.
The Block is again in Melbourne.
Lizzie Young, Nine Entertainment's director of innovation, partnership and customer experience, suggested she wasn't worried about the potential impact on The Block's performance.
“My view is The Block is the biggest reality format coming to television for the remainder of the year," she told Mumbrella.
"We absolutely believe in The Block.
"We have complete confidence that it will deliver,” she said.
“It’s been a year and we know that Blockheads are hugely loyal fans, so that puts us in a really good position.”
The Block's grand finale audiences have been decreasing since 2010, and last year The Block posted its lowest finale audience to date, with 1.57 million tuning in for the grand final.
“We’ve spent this year addressing that and ensuring our content distribution strategy meets what the audience wants and to that end we launched 9Now, our live-streaming and video on demand product in February, and we’ve got 1.5m signed up subscribers to that product – and that means for this season of The Block it is available to the entire audience anytime, anywhere, on any device,” she said.
