James Weir: The Block’s Scott Cam serves up harsh lesson for TV fail

A furious Scotty Cam has fanned the flames on The Block’s big cheating scandal. And there’s one person who should be taking notes.

OPINION

Who’d have thought a body corporate meeting would be more scandalous than The Bachelor.

Channel 10’s dating show fizzled out this week after hitting record lows in the ratings. Meanwhile, over on Channel 9’s The Block, it’s all happening.

There’s a cheating scandal. Top secret production intel is being stolen. Insults are flying. Shaynna Blaze is criticising everyone’s crappy decor. And host Scotty Cam is rolling up his KingGees and getting knee deep in the mess.

It’s no surprise. Middle-aged straight men are the biggest drama queens. They love gossip and getting involved with any argument.

Right now, Scotty’s in his element. And The Bachelor host Osher should be taking notes.

A quick recap of the dating show’s disappointing ratings this year: It premiered to an all-time low of just 482,000 metro viewers. Then it dipped to its lowest point ever of 360,000 metro viewers. And Thursday night’s big finale only managed to pull in 629,000 metro viewers, down from last year’s 879,000.

The Block’s ratings this year haven’t been the best the reno show has ever seen, but a big cheating scandal — where some contestants came into possession of a production schedule that would allow them to forward plan their room designs — saw Tuesday’s episode jump to 911,000 metro viewers.

(To be fair, it also benefited from regular timeslot competitor The Voice taking the night off. Channel 7’s rebooted singing show has been a surprise hit this year. We attribute this success exclusively to host Sonia Kruger and her incredible shoulder definition.)

Exhibit A.

Anyway, no one knows how to whip up reality TV drama like the guys over at Channel 9. They’re proud purveyors of filth (ahem, Married At First Sight). The very instant the cheating The Block scandal hit the air, the network’s publicity department wheeled out Scotty to fan the flames.

“I am scrambling to save this series, that’s what I’m doing,” he told Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa breakfast show. “Because people at home will be going, ‘This whole thing is not fair, this whole thing is a joke’. So I’m scrambling to save my show because of what they have done.”

See? Total drama queen. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ooh, he also started saying things like, “I love The Block and I don’t love anyone messing with it!” and, “To have someone cheat and get an advantage, to me, is un-Australian!”. Hand on heart, I thought the national anthem was about to start playing in the background.

The Block’s Scotty Cam lives for the drama.

He didn’t stop there either. After all, there was a scandal to promote and viewers to entice. He went on to tease how the cheating scandal was about to explode later in the week at — get this — an “out of control” body corporate meeting.

Well. Scotty Cam better be getting some kind of Employee Of The Week certificate because the guy is working overtime. Same with the producers. They managed to turn a boring old body corporate meeting into a must-see television event.

And while all this was going on, where was The Bachelor host Osher? His program was sinking before our eyes. If anyone should’ve been scrambling to save their show, it’s Osher.

It’s not like there weren’t opportunities. A few weeks ago, one chick went feral and called another girl the C-word. Osher should’ve been out at 6am the next morning, doing the brekky radio circuit all around the country. Where were his impassioned and slightly melodramatic monologues about doing whatever it takes to save the once-beloved franchise he has fronted for close to a decade?

Scotty’s marching around in his high-vis and hard hat, rousing on the cheaters and defending battlers — and not once have we ever seen Osher let rip at the clowns in his own circus.

Talk about un-Australian.

Twitter, Facebook: @hellojamesweir

Show some initiative, Osh.