Never mind the critics, renovation has me hooked

SOME of us can't get enough of a good decorating thing.

I'VE been minding my own business, trying to skive off early to watch The Renovators, and now they tell me I'm not supposed to like it.

It's not just the culture vultures and style police getting sniffy about the Ten Network's reality show -- the great unwashed are reportedly beside themselves with how hard it is to watch ordinary Aussies going head to head with a skirting board every night.

The Renovators is said to have lost viewers and advertising clout faster than you can open a can of Dulux. A poor relation to The Block on Nine, and an expensive mistake for Ten and Shine Australia, the production company behind it, they say.

For someone who spent a decade sitting on the floor for fear I'd buy the wrong sofa, this is confronting. If I love The Renovators, what does it say about, well, my aesthetic? If the nation is turning its back on orange-and-black carpet squares, French chic and tables made from recycled doors, where does it leave me if I'm logging on to the website to find out more about the blue team?

It's true The Renovators is a bit daggy, and it is a shameless copy of MasterChef. The contestants spend more time in elimination rounds and stress tests and competitions to try to win extra money or labour than they actually spend on the six "houses from hell" they're supposed to be renovating. I'm worried the renos won't be anywhere near finished when they have to go to auction in another couple of months. Then again, even I would switch off if I had to watch the green team scrape all the paint off the weatherboard house out at Parramatta.

But like the best of reality TV the show is addictive because of its tight, predictable format -- a handful of contestants who leap from the pack to delight and touch you, and elimination nights when your heart is in your mouth because, as we know, not everyone can be a winner.

I concede a couple of points to the critics. The first week was messy and confusing as the judges sorted out the six teams of four. There were too many people, many of whom looked like each other even if wearing different-coloured clothing. You had to hang in on this one. I left Baz and Robyn and Peter to it and wandered off to ABC1 and Grand Designs on Sunday nights, but as the eliminations kicked in and the teams got smaller, I got my head around the houses and identified my favourite contestants. I agree there are problems with the format, with some teams losing members too quickly. And yes, OK, it might be pitched a little below the design literacy of people who have been watching home and garden shows for more than 20 years.

One night some of the teams had to work with orange, purple and green paint and, boy, did they make a mess of it. And don't forget MasterChef was not so hifalutin in season one.

But these are mere quibbles. Back on the (Terence Conran) sofa, I'm backing Michael, the tradie from South Australia with the short dreadlocks, or maybe the young blonde mum on the green team. What was her name again?