EXCLUSIVE:
It took less than a week from concept to commissioning for The Block to become a reality, and a show that would still be a smash hit 20 seasons later.
But the show was very nearly called Blockbuster -except Nine’s lawyers were worried they would be sued by the video rental store.
Creators Julian Cress and David Barbour settled on The Block in 2002 with plans to film their show in the summer in Bondi and screen it in the winter of 2003.
Cress tells TV Tonight the idea for the show was dreamt on a Thursday, crafted into a pitch document over a weekend and pitched to Nine’s executive in charge of Reality TV genre on the Monday.
“We pitched it to (news exec) Peter Meakin, who, at the time was the head of Reality and Current Affairs. Reality was brand new. It had only been around for a year. When they were looking for an executive to put in charge of it they decided News and Current Affairs would be best, so they gave it to Peter Meakin and he saw merit in it immediately,” Cress recalls.
“He literally got up from his desk, left us in his office, and went straight up to (CEO) David Gyngell’s office and pitched it. Gyngell loved it and said, ‘We’re going to do this’ and it was commissioned, like 24 hours later.”
“I went up and saw David Gyngell and he was really enthused by it,” media veteran Peter Meakin confirms.
“Gynge gets a lot of the credit in my book for getting it commissioned because as I recall, Kerry Packer wasn’t terribly optimistic about the prospects for the show. Kerry couldn’t get his head around lifestyle programs. He didn’t understand them. But in any event, Gyngell backed his judgment and it turned out to be a triumph. I was out the door shortly after.”
The original pitch drew upon other hit TV shows for inspiration including Renovation Rescue, Sylvania Waters, Survivor and even Melrose Place.
Central to Cress and Barbour’s pitch was a document printed on A1 paper which, at 594 x 841 mm, is around 3 times the size of A4 paper.
“Peter Meakin said, ‘Why is it so big?’” Cress explains. “And we’re like, ‘Well, A, it’s a big show, and B, you can’t put it in your filing cabinet.’
“We were sick of pitching shows that just went into filing cabinets never to be seen again!”
“It was a fairly rapid approval process in those days. I recall the pitch document didn’t come in the usual format….. they came up with a document that was so big that it was impossible to file away anywhere. But I was enthused by it anyway,” says Meakin.
The initial pitch also suggested the winner of the auction would win the entire amount in cash. In the end 2003’s Adam & Fiona kept their profit of $156,000 plus the $100,000 prize, not the $751,000 sale price.
Language.
The first season in 2003 on Nine drew an average of 2.24 million with the auction finale at 3.11m -and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I’m really proud of my tiny role in getting it to air. But I give huge credit to Julian Cress, David Barbour and David Gyngell,” said Meakin.
“It’s nice to be associated in some small way with a show that is a triumph of Australian television.”
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