OPINION: 'The Block just had to use the rage-bait treatment to survive.'

It's indicative of just how far down the trash-lined road of reality television we've travelled as a species when we can look back at the early days of the genre and reminisce about how wholesome it used to be.

Remember the first series of the Australian Bachelor? How Anna and Tim fell in love before our eyes and went on to have two children (and more abdominal muscles than is humanly possible) together? 

What about the early days of Big Brother, when in a pre-social media era, we were content to watch people squeeze each other's blackheads and do the bum dance? 

Take me back to series one of Farmer Wants A Wife, or hell, even the first iteration of MAFS, before they cast an entire menagerie of gaslighting narcissists to marry and then fight each other for our amusement like gladiators battling lions in the pits of ancient Rome.

Those early days of reality television feel like a golden-hued adolescence. And lately, that reminiscing has turned to Nine's home-reno juggernaut The Block, as viewers and critics alike accuse producers of "manufacturing" drama to keep ratings high. 

Watch: The Block teams inspect Kylie and Brad's winning living and dining area. Post continues after video.

We long for the days of a rough-around-the-edges tradie and his hard-working wife, busting their arses to finish a redesign in the hopes of paying their own mortgage. 

We're wistful for the time when we could crowd around the telly on auction night, hoping for a huge win for the suburban mum and dad whose good-natured marital bickering we'd come to love.

But, much like the property market on which the entire premise of the series rests, The Block has turned sour, with regular everyday people unable to see themselves in it at all.

While the past few seasons of the show have seen increasing drama levels between contestants that have nothing to do with fluted shower screens or too much grout, The Block's 20th season has brought an apocalyptic and much-hyped scandal that has people checking they're still watching Scotty Cam on a renovation show, and not the latest episode of Vanderpump Rules.

For those unacquainted with the series' latest headline-grabbing situation, one of the cast members, Kylie, made a dramatic exit from filming after overhearing her husband Brad 'flirt' with Mimi, another contestant, while she was 'napping' nearby. You can read more about it here.

"I remember when the show used to be about building and renovating," griped one fan on a Reddit forum dedicated to dissecting the latest drama.

"Those were the days! I've gradually stopped watching," agrees another, though their comment about an episode that aired just days ago tends to belie this statement.

"It will be about renovating if people stop talking about the drama," chimes in another. "Channel Nine gives you what sells."

And therein lies the rub. Because as much as we can lament the demise of the good old days of reality television, the numbers tell a different story.

Too much choice, too little viewer attention span and a reliance on support from tabloid headlines have meant that the only way for reality TV shows to cut through the noise is to lean into the drama. 

And while the lovable Scott Cam (whose blokey, cheerful demeanour has made him an increasing anomaly in the filler-crammed world of reality telly he now inhabits) denies that any producer interference is responsible for the uptick in drama, the fact that he is commenting at all tells a different story. 

Speaking to The Daily Mail at Nine's 2025 Upfronts, he said none of the action from this series has been manipulated by producers. 

"Our show is very organic, we leave them to their own devices," he told the publication. 

"We don't orchestrate any of that drama. It all organically happens through lack of sleep and time pressures."

Putting aside the fact that lack of sleep and time pressures (plus a hefty dose of network-supplied booze) is precisely how reality TV producers orchestrate drama, it's what the host said next that should be our biggest clue.

"We try to calm it down the best we can, but sometimes it's impossible, as you'll find out in the next two weeks," he promised, no doubt fulfilling his contractual obligation to slip a journo a headline-worthy teaser of things to come.

Everyone involved in The Block — or on any reality TV show whose marketing strategy relies on TikTok grabs and Daily Mail articles - knows full well that the algorithm rewards only the most extreme stories.

Listen to The Spill here. Post continues below. 

While it might make us sad, or angry, or resentful of the base level to which we've been reduced, it also makes us watch. Until it doesn't, expect new iterations of 'flirtgate' to keep popping up in even the most wholesome of family viewing experiences.

It's part and parcel of existing in the attention economy, and to a certain extent, perhaps we're all just as culpable as each other. 

And while that may be true, all I'm saying is that they'd better not come for Masterchef.

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Feature image: Nine.