Selling Houses’ Moore on the hunt for the next big shows

Viewers know what to expect from Selling Houses Australia, one of the longest-running programs on Australian TV. ‘It’s simple, it’s real estate, but it’s also a relatable story about what everybody’s experiencing in the same real estate market at the same time,’ says co-host Wendy Moore.

Dennis Scott, Andrew Winter and Wendy Moore for Selling Houses Australia.

Her day job is Foxtel Group’s executive director of entertainment content, but an army of Selling Houses Australia viewers know Wendy Moore as the budget-conscious designer on the long-running series.

With the exit of Alison Hurbert-Burns from Foxtel last month, Ms Moore moved from group GM (lifestyle) to her new role and is now in charge of all commissioning.

Elsewhere, Lana Greenhalgh is looking after Foxtel’s drama, with Howard Myers-Rifai in charge of lifestyle.

The work the team is doing now will shape how life under future Foxtel owner DAZN will look for the next two years.

Earlier this month, season 17 of the Selling Houses Australia launched for Foxtel and Binge viewers, and Ms Moore is in pre-planning for series 18, which is about to start filming.

First stop: Western Australia’s far north.

Filming in that remote location means repeat visits are out of the question, with Moore and the team flying in for eight days to complete the makeover and make the property more attractive to buyers.

“In a more remote location, you have to check how far it is to the nearest hardware store,” she told The Australian.

With one of the longest-running programs on Australian TV, viewers know what to expect.

“It’s simple, it’s real estate, but it’s also a relatable story about what everybody’s experiencing in the same real estate market at the same time,” she said.

Moore is joined on each episode by the program’s longtime host Andrew Winter and landscape gardener Dennis Scott. The simple premise of the show is that they visit a property that cannot find a buyer, do a four-day makeover and put it back on the market.

The small team includes four production people, two camera operators and a building lead, and they hire local trades people for each makeover.

Moore came to Selling Houses Australia from Seven’s House Rules, replacing original designer Shaynna Blaze.

“I feel like this is more me,” she says about the two property formats. “On House Rules, I didn’t really get to do anything. I just got to judge everybody. I prefer to be on the tools at Selling Houses. I like the budgets the homeowners are set and that all the houses are very attainable and relatable.”

Moore was already working on the Lifestyle brand at Foxtel when the company’s then-boss Brian Walsh asked her to join the series.

“I had a really good sense of who the Foxtel customers were and what they liked to watch,” she says. As part of her Foxtel management duties, Moore gets involved in choosing the properties for each series, and she will look at the initial edits and give feedback, in much the same way she would do for any local Foxtel Group commission.

Selling Houses Australia’s Wendy Moore.

She emphasises she is not the Selling Houses executive producer. “When I’m on site, I am talent. I quite like being able to just sit back and let somebody else run the show,” she said.

Prior to joining Foxtel, Moore had a background in magazines, running Home Beautiful for over a decade. She recalled the move from what was then Pacific Magazines to Foxtel.

“I was expecting it to be more different than it was. The first thing I realised is just how similar magazine and TV people were. We were all trying to make content that connected with an audience. Both had the same level of passion and I found that very reassuring,” Moore says.

“I did feel a little overwhelmed about what was at stake, as making TV was a lot more expensive than printing a magazine. However, the returns were a lot higher and after a while I was more comfortable with it.”

These days, Selling Houses Australia reaches a big audience on Foxtel and Binge. The streaming platform is a recent addition for the show that’s been on air since 2008.

“When Binge was first launched, the feeling was that it was going to have a very different audience. Maybe a little younger and more female-skewed. Now that Selling Houses is available on Binge, we are finding the audience is similar, and it works incredibly well there too,” she said.

In her role as entertainment content boss, she is sure about the power of Australian commissions. “They are now more critical than ever,” Moore says. “Look at our top 15 shows for the last calendar year – nine of them were Foxtel Australian originals.

“High quality Australian drama and lifestyle are the Foxtel Group’s cornerstones, and they continue to be the best performing programs.”

Selling Houses Australia has been the most-watched Australian original for Foxtel for most years it’s been on. It’s often the most-watched overall, too, save for the years that shows, like Game of Thrones took top spot.

In addition to her on- and off-screen roles for the Foxtel Group, Moore continues her link with magazines. She is a contributor to both The Australian Women’s Weekly and her old title Home Beautiful, something that is possible now as Are Media owns both the brands.