The Block 2022 season finale recap: The six things we learned from The Block’s auction disaster

The Block’s auction day was an unmitigated disaster for the majority of teams. Here are six things we learned from the show’s Tree Change calamity.

Claire Sutherland

5 min read

November 7, 2022 - 9:49AM

News Corp Australia Network

There weren’t many happy faces on Block auction day among the contestants. Picture: Supplied

“If anyone can explain to me what happened here, I’d love to hear it.”

Well, Scott Cam, you asked for it.

The Block producers have never started a season without claiming this season is bigger than any other season. But this year that claim was also the show’s biggest problem.

Fed-up Scott Cam wants big Block change

Why The Block may have shot itself in the foot

The idea of focusing on country retreats after two years of Covid and working from home made sense, but creating five overblown multimillion-dollar compounds far, far from any recognised multi-millionaires’ row is where it all came unstuck.

Finding one super-rich family or investor willing to spend up big to live in Gisborne might have been doable.

Hard to find a happy face among the teams watching the auctions. Picture: Supplied

Finding five was always going to be a stretch. Finding five who would also be happy to be clustered close enough to their neighbours to watch them skinny dip made it a near impossibility, and so it proved at last night’s auctions.

No amount of vineyards, ice baths, pony enclosures or flying foxes were enough to draw people with Portsea and Mt Macedon money to a bare hillside in Gisborne. It was enough to make you wish for a tiny fake gazillionaire.

Omar and Oz are the only ones who can walk away smiling — winning a record sum for the show. Picture: Supplied

It all started promisingly enough. Omar and Oz kicked things off strongly thanks to their clever courting of a millionaire property investor who arrived in his Lamborghini and bid hard against serial Block pest Danny Wallis, who just keeps flogging his never-was-funny joke of bidding in random increments.

Im begging channel 9 to lose Danny in the future. Talk about all eggs in one basket. #theblock
— Jase W (@jayemmdubblu) November 6, 2022

The bidding gag was never funny. Picture: Supplied

The pair’s bidding war saw the western Sydney mates pocket a whopping profit of $1,586,666.66, plus $100,000 for being the overall winners. Wallis walked away with their house, but without anyone to bid more than halfheartedly against him for the remaining houses, viewers endured one of the biggest Block anticlimaxes in years.

Tom and Sarah-Jane’s house sold to Danny Wallis for a paltry $20,000 over reserve. Lucky for them they won that car.

Sarah-Jane actually took the auction disaster like a champ. Picture: Supplied

Sarah-Jane was visibly devastated, and no wonder. As plumber Tom said “I don’t expect to make a s***load of money, but I didn’t expect to make a massive loss.”

But irrepressible social worker Sarah-Jane had bounced back by the end of the show, confessing “I’m half cut”. She’ll have her pick of every reality show in Australia, such was her presence on The Block so don’t worry too much about her.

Ryan and Rachel fared better, taking home $169,000.95 in profit when Danny Wallis snapped up their house.

But Ankur and Sharon and Jenny and Dylan’s houses were passed in, despite Dylan and Jenny’s auctioneer seemingly embarking on a mission to get $1 over reserve against their very clear instructions to take it off the market if that looked the likely result.

”Get it off mate!” Picture: Supplied

Even Scott Cam seemed ready to blow a gasket when the auctioneer persisted.

“Get it off, mate!” He screamed as Jenny looked ready to storm out to grab his gavel.

Meanwhile, Danny Wallis must have sensed he wasn’t going to get enough screen time so turned his back on the auctioneer because one his low-ball bids hadn’t been entertained.

Early on it looked like the big drama of this finale was going to be the fact Ankur and Sharon weren’t penalised with a higher reserve for going over budget and not finishing their shed. In fact, all five houses had the exact same reserve of $4,080,000.

All teams ended up having the same reserve price Picture: Supplied

But while none of the other contestants looked particularly impressed at the fact the budget-challenged pair had seemingly got off scot-free, that soon paled into insignificance as the auctions unfolded.

Jenny and Dylan were devastated Tom and Sarah-Jane took their agent’s advice and chose to put them last in the auction order, but in the end it wouldn’t have made any difference.

There simply weren’t enough bidders.

What did we learn from this year’s season of The Block?

1. The show stopped being relatable when the first vineyard went in.

2. If you’re going to charge Portsea prices, you’d better be in Portsea (sorry, Gisborne)

3. This show is stuffed if Danny Wallis ever gets a hobby and stops showing up. Ironic, because there’s not a Block fan who’d like to never see him again.

4. It doesn’t matter how much the judges love tartan wallpaper — it doesn’t mean a thing on auction day.

5. Make sure your auctioneer understands the meaning of the phrase “pass it in”.

6. Elle Ferguson and Joel Patfull enjoyed a big warm mug of schadenfreude last night.

MISSED AN EPISODE OF THE BLOCK?

EP 50: Why The Block may have shot itself in the foot

EP 49: Omar and Oz hilariously skewer racists

EP 47 & 48: Blow up after Block tensions escalate

EP 46: Block foreman’s ‘insult’ has Ankur incensed

EP 45: Block twins step in to replace Shaynna, Neal

EP 43 & 44: Jenny mounts court battle against Omar and Oz

EP 42: Block teams go to war over budgets

EP 41: Block teams swarm serial auction pest