As someone who hasn’t really watched the show before, what does the host do? From memory, I think the Property Brothers were the hosts of the US version?
If a host is needed, I would suggest Shelley Craft. She’s already contributing on The Block. She’d be a great host.
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What does the host do? Are they involved in the renovation at all - e.g. would they get someone like Scott Cam/Shelley Craft or could the host potentially be anyone like Hamish Blake/Sophie Monk?
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The host could be involved in commentary, introductions throughout the show and revealing the home?
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I notice HGTV on Fetch is airing the US version here now.
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Ahhh I see - as someone who’s never seen the show I didn’t know if the host needed to have knowledge in the area or not. I know The Property Brothers host the US version so was wondering if they would need someone who has experience in the industry or if they could get anyone to host the Aus version.
The US version has been showing on Nine for the last couple of weeks after The Block on Mondays.
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Please no to any of them. They’re either extremely annoying (Scott Cam) or are overexposed (all of them). Someone new or less exposed would be nice. Perhaps they could give this gig to Renee Bargh?
It’s difficult to imagine what ‘fresh talent’ they could find to host the show. TV networks are afraid of trying new presenters and seem to use the same hosts over and over again (Sophie for Love Island and now Beauty & the Geek, Darren for The Voice, Sonia for Big Brother, etc.).
I guess they’ll try to find someone who has some sort of background in renovations to host Celebrity IOU - anyone want to throw any names into the mix?
Scott Cam. 
Elyse Knowles? (She just announced last week that she is pregnant)
Because a renovation site is a great place for a pregnant woman?
I was thinking Jen Hawkins could be a possibility, but she’s already doing a show on 9Now called ‘Dream Homes Revealed’ (or something like that)
This may not go ahead now after bad ratings for the US version.
I reckon Nine might be worried about renovation fatigue especially with The Block not firing like before and the last thing this scenario needs is more renovation.
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Oh well, no major loss to Australian TV IMO.
Unless the ratings pick up substantially soon, surely even The Block 2022 would be in doubt?
I’m pretty sure that sponsors aren’t paying Nine big money to get only less than 600k metro viewers (as the case was last night) being exposed to their product integrations during The Block!
Just move it to 9Life 7.30 Fridays?
Against other Australian lifestyle shows?
Sad thing is that this concept is actually a slightly better concept than what The Block has become. At least it has some good incentives behind it with actual renovation happening instead of the drama-laden The Block.
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Fair point I suppose, but at the same time new formats are preferable over yet another variant of the same genre which has saturated our screens (not as much as dating/relationship/wedding shows mind you, but still…) for over a decade!