Lego Masters, MasterChef Australia, House Rules: positive programs changing Australian TV

A new breed of television programs is eschewing nasty contestants and nasty judges for more positive viewing — and it’s gaining a foothold in the ultra-competitive Aussie free-to-air TV market.

It’s the shocking new TV trend shaking up screens across Australia: Positivity.

After a season of bitchiness and betrayal on Nine’s ratings slayer Married At First Sight, and a mild sex scandal on Seven’s My Kitchen Rules, pessimistic programming has been replaced by feel-good family-friendly fare led by newcomer Nine’s Lego Masters.

Lego Masters, hosted by Hamish Blake, and which features teams making marvels out of building blocks, has suddenly emerged as a runaway hit.

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The premiere episode was the No. 1 most-watched show, attracting 1.377 million viewers in metro cities, smashing MKR’s finale episode peak at 962,000.

Nine program director Hamish Turner said: “You’ve got to keep taking punts and surprising the audience. If you deliver a similar tone and treatment for 52 weeks of the year the audience is going to tire of that. We can’t be talking to the same audience all the time either. We need to offer up different things throughout the year.

“The phase we’re in at the moment is definitely that broad family audience. We’re going from Lego into The Voice into Ninja Warrior. There are real similarities between those three shows.”

Lego Masters has been a hit for Nine. Picture: Supplied/Nine

Lego Masters, produced by Endemol Shine, is based on a British format. “A broad cross section of audience is engaging with it at different levels. It has to have layers,” Mr Turner said. “It also has the Hamish factor. He, in particular, delivers those layers.”

Mr Turner said the show also showcases imagination and constructive teamwork. “Everybody is there for the right reason and they celebrate each other. That makes it fresh.”

The new season of Ten’s MasterChef Australia premiered last week, adding to the upbeat TV calendar alongside Seven’s House Rules.

MasterChef Australia’s George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan, Nigella Lawson and Matt Preston. Picture: News Corp Australia

Ten’s director of programming Beverley McGarvey said: “I feel it’s the time of year where, tonally, all the networks start to do shows that are different.

“There are lots of (reality) shows out there that are about drama. But MasterChef is about character and food. It’s time for us to pivot more into that family values content.”

House Rules judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen said positive programming reflects the audience’s desire for happy endings.

“We’ve just experienced this in the UK with that celebrity jungle show,” Llewelyn Bowen said. “They deliberately cast very nice contestants and it busted the ratings.

“I think people care less about drama and more about honesty and wanting to feel like they’re part of the experience.

“It doesn’t have to be a car crash. But we want to feel as if we’re being given everything, and that no-one is holding back on what we’re seeing.

“For a makeover show, it’s about Cinderella,” Llewelyn-Bowen said. “Ultimately, we want to see the girl in rags turned into a princess.”

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen of House Rules

Media analyst Steve Allen says the switch away from “confrontation, sensationalism, risqué behaviour and bitchiness” is deliberately timed. “I think television executives feel they need to change pace to give audiences a rest from that in-your-face drama,” he said.

However, the goodie-good times won’t last forever.

Seven’s Super Switch, where loveless couples swap partners, and Love Island, where shameless couples swap partners, are scheduled for later this year.

A new version of My Kitchen Rules, helmed by brooding chef Colin Fassnidge, is also rumoured to be on the back burner.