Favourite home-renovation show The Block is no stranger to shocks, scandals and blow-ups, but there’s never been an incident as intense as this.
After Mitch and Mark accuse host Scott Cam of making a homophobic comment, things are set to unravel on set.
It all kicked off during Sunday night’s judging when the stylish grandads objected to feedback about their “party room” and the “noisy people” who would live in their house.
Things escalated when Mitch, 56, and Mark, 57, who’ve been together for 14 years, asked what Scott meant when he referred to “people like you”, leading to a blow-up backstage.
“I’m done with comments from people like him making comments about people like me,” Mitch fumed to fellow contestants Tess and Luke.
Mitch and Mark were offended by the remarks.
Now, Tess tells TV WEEK she believes Mitch and Mark have “every right” to be offended by Scott’s words.
“I think if they were offended by that, then it was offensive,” she says, adding that the two Blockheads were “very visibly upset”.
Tess, 28, explains she’s not sure what Scott was trying to say.
“It was put across the wrong way and taken the wrong way as well,” she says. “Making assumptions that gay men are partiers and will have wild parties in these houses – that’s not Mitch and Mark at all. “They’re grandparents – they’re family men.”
In fact, she says Mitch and Mark were the couple she turned to if she ever had an argument with her partner Luke.
“They’ve been together a long time and have a lot of respect for each other,” she says.
Mitch chats to Tess backstage.
Mitch tells TV WEEK he and Mark went into The Block with a strong relationship and came out with one just as strong.
“We didn’t get stronger, because we didn’t need to get stronger,” he says.
Unlike other couples, Mitch and Mark didn’t fight during filming.
“The idea of attacking each other never entered our heads,” Mitch says. “We would see each other having vulnerable moments and we would recognise that in each other as a couple should, and we would be there to pick each other up.”
The drama with Scott hasn’t reached an end, either, with Mark feeling he needs to explain why the comment upset him so much.
“If he’s making a judgement like that, when he doesn’t know who we are, then that’s a homophobic comment,” he says.
Scott’s comments unleashed fury on The Block.
Meanwhile, Scott believes he can clear the air by giving the couple his side of the story.
“When the judges say, and when I’ve said, that you guys are designing a home for ‘people like you’, we’re referring to cashed-up empty-nesters like me and my wife – like you guys,” he explains.
But it’s not over yet…
The Block airs Monday to Wednesday, 7.30pm, and Sunday, 7pm, Nine Network.
