LifeStyle

Why is LifeStyle announcing Charlie’s quitting Selling Houses Australia now, given he has been filming Better Homes and Gardens for a couple of months?

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most likely to avoid confusion on why hes on both shows

Seven gets one back after seeing former House Rules judge Wendy Moore leave the show to become Lifestyle’s GM

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Foxtel launches search for new landscaper as

Charlie Albone steps down from Selling Houses Australia

Selling Houses Australia is bidding farewell to one of the show’s original line-up – Charlie Albone.

The 38-year-old landscaper has decided to step down from the award-winning Selling Houses Australia after the new series finishes following 13 years of working alongside interior designer Shaynna Blaze and property guru, Andrew Winter.

Charlie’s designs and stunning backyard makeovers of hundreds of Aussie homes on the show have impressed many homeowners – as have his witty comebacks to Andrew’s put-downs! Charlie will still be seen on Selling Houses Australia throughout season 13, which will premiere on the LifeStyle channel next month.

LifeStyle General Manager, Wendy Moore , said: “After thirteen amazing years on an iconic show like Selling Houses Australia , we are obviously really sad to say goodbye to Charlie, but he will always remain a part of the LifeStyle family, and we wish him nothing but happiness in his new venture.”

Charlie Albone said: “I have loved being part of Selling Houses Australia and am incredibly grateful for everything the show has done for me. However, I have an opportunity I cannot turn down and will allow me to spend more time with my family. So it’s with a heavy heart that I hand the gardening shears to someone new but wish them, and the show, all the best moving forward.”

The search is now on for a landscape designer to join the top-rating series alongside Andrew and Shaynna, with Foxtel launching a nationwide search for his replacement, ‘Are you Australia’s next landscape legend?’

“Charlie has been an integral part of the success of Selling Houses Australia and we wish him well,” said Brian Walsh , Foxtel Executive Director of Television.

“Television shows evolve or they end, so we will take this opportunity to revisit the Selling Houses format and reshape it for the new decade. There are literally hundreds of thousands of gardening enthusiasts throughout Australia, so we’re now on the lookout to find who will join the team on the show. It’s a great opportunity to create a new star of the screen,” he said.

To apply or to find out more, visit lifestyle.com.au/casting. The successful applicant will join the team for Season 14 of Selling Houses Australia and will also become News Corp Australia’s new gardening columnist, writing a weekly column across the major Sunday newspapers and appearing in other News Corp publications.

I would’ve thought a knockabout Aussie bloke with a cheeky sense of humour would be perfect for a show top heavy with ultra starched personality types in Winter and Blaze. Beggars belief that Foxtel hasn’t appointed the guy Seven nurtured over many years only to ditch for the Selling Houses Englishman with a personality drier than Australian drought. Should’ve done a straight swap and appointed Hodgie.

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News Corp reports “Barefoot Investor” Scott Pape will host a bushfire special Road to Recovery on LifeStyle on March 18. Pape, who lost his family’s home in the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, will share what he’d learnt in his own rebuilding efforts with others who lost their properties in the recent fires.

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A promo for it aired straight after Foxtel’s Fire Fight Australia coverage tonight - looks like it’ll be a interesting special to watch

ROAD TO RECOVERY WITH SCOTT PAPE

Wednesday 11 March at 8.30pm

SCOTT PAPE – BAREFOOT INVESTOR JOINS FOXTEL FOR LANDMARK TV SPECIAL

Production has started on ROAD TO RECOVERY WITH SCOTT PAPE, a one hour special following the Barefoot Investor as he joins the bushfire recovery effort to help people who have lost everything start to rebuild their lives from scratch.

Produced by Foxtel, this one-hour documentary – premiering on Wednesday, March 11 at 8.30pm – seeks to make sense of the most horrific of natural disasters and provide an insightful story of hope and resilience with a practical message.

A bushfire survivor himself, and this country’s best-selling ‘money guy’, Scott is uniquely placed to help Aussies on the ground, and has been deployed as a financial counsellor in the frontline of the recovery effort.

Scott said: “Financial counsellors help put people back in control of their money, which is an essential part of the road to recovery for bushfire survivors. Many are traumatised and grief-stricken and yet we expect them to make the most critical of decisions, which can affect the rest of their lives. What they need is a financial counsellor, who is independent of the banks and insurers, and works with the community to help get them back on their feet – and back in control.

“It’s been a challenging but rewarding journey to be on. It gives meaning and purpose to what I’ve been through to have the privilege of helping people through this bushfire crisis."

Travelling to the bushfire ravaged towns of Corryong and Cudgewa in Victoria, Scott meets with the extraordinary locals, leaders and mentors who are right in the thick of the recovery effort and keen to feel practical support from the wider community.

Throughout the special, viewers will also bear witness to Scott’s personal story of loss in Romsey, Victoria, where his family home was reduced to ash; hear from local heroes who have rallied to get their communities back on track; and go back in time to understand what it takes to travel the long hard road – from day one after the inferno, to weeks, months and years down the track of repair.

Lifestyle General Manager, Wendy Moore, said: ‘Knowing how to truly help people in the recovery process after a traumatic time like this only comes when you have an opportunity to take the time to listen to what they actually need. This is a powerful documentary that gives the communities and the people within them a voice, and allows them to tell their own story and at the same time regain some control over their future.’

ROAD TO RECOVERY WITH SCOTT PAPE premieres Wednesday, March 11 at 8.30pm, exclusive to LifeStyle. All proceeds from advertising and sponsorship packages during the broadcast of the special will be donated to Anglicare Victoria Financial Counselling, to assist with their specialist Bushfire Recovery Financial Counselling Program.

SELLING HOUSES AUSTRALIA - Season 13

From Wednesday 25 March at 8.30pm on LifeStyle AEDT

Foxtel’s smash-hit local production, Selling Houses Australia returns for its 13th season on Wednesday March 25 at 8.30pm AEDT on the LifeStyle Channel and streaming new episodes every week.

Award-winning host, Andrew Winter is back with his brutal honesty and real estate expertise as he teams up with interior designer Shaynna Blaze and landscape designer Charlie Albone to help homeowners with property dreams that have turned sour.

After scouring the length and breadth of Australia’s heartland the Selling Houses team has found 10 more properties in dire need of a facelift – and don’t they have their work cut out for them. A tiny stone cottage in Tassie, a classic Aussie pub in remote western Victoria, and a huge resort style home on Brisbane’s tropical outskirts are some of the properties struggling to secure a sale. But there is a reason Selling Houses Australia continues to be the most successful locally produced series in subscription television history – the renovations change the lives of everyday Australians and this season we celebrate a landmark 100th sale!

Recently voted Sydney’s most liveable suburb, it’s hard to imagine that a property in Crows Nest would struggle to find a buyer. But sitting on a large corner block is a historic terrace building with an identity crisis. John and Kitsa’s online business selling organic and fermented food was doing so well, that in 2017 they decided to buy the Crows Nest property and invest 700k attempting to convert it from a residence into a store with a commercial café. But things didn’t go to plan. The business took up so much of their time that the café never got off the ground. Reassessing their lives, they decided to throw in the towel and focus on their family, listing the property as a half renovated shell. Despite a realistic asking price the house/shop doesn’t appeal to buyers who need it to be more residence and less business. With no domestic kitchen, flooring, or furniture throughout, John and Kitsa are banking on the Selling Houses team to spend their money the right way in order to make enough to clear their debt. It’s time for Andrew, Shaynna and Charlie to turn this commercial dream into a dream home and secure their 100th sale!

Season 13 of Selling Houses Australia will be the final season featuring landscape designer Charlie Albone.

A nationwide search is currently underway for a new ‘landscape legend’ to join the top-rating Foxtel series alongside Andrew Winter and Shaynna Blaze.

Selling Houses Australia is produced by Beyond Productions exclusively for Foxtel’s LifeStyle Channel.

Bear – Koala Hero

A story of courage, hope and survival

A LifeStyle special event

Premieres Wednesday 18 March at 8.30pm AEDT

Premiering on Wednesday, March 18 at 8.30pm, Bear – Koala Hero is an exclusive one-hour special presented by wildlife activist Tyson Mayr and follows the journey of an extraordinary dog and his team, as they rescue and rehabilitate Australia’s iconic native animal, the koala.

This remarkable koala detection dog called Bear became the ultimate beacon of hope during Australia’s recent bushfire crisis, working tirelessly to find koalas injured and displaced as a result of the devastation surrounding them.

The damage from this season’s bushfires is incalculable – and with vast tracts of Australian bushland razed, experts estimate that one billion-plus animals have perished, with some populations of the eucalypt-dwelling, slow-moving koalas at risk of becoming endangered.

Travel presenter and wildlife campaigner Tyson Mayr was compelled to act after his own family’s farm withstood Queensland’s Darling Downs fire in November 2019. After hearing the cries of injured koalas and wildlife, Tyson contacted the International Fund for Animal Welfare and was introduced to the Detection Dogs for Conservation program at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland – and their charge, the blue-eyed koala detection dog Bear.

Tyson Mayr said: “Growing up in the country you develop a special affinity with wildlife, and when the fires were first approaching I remember feeling so helpless. The koalas in particular were so vulnerable, and from everything I had already seen it was hard to not worry about their overall survival as a species. I wanted to help, I wanted to do more, but I didn’t know where to start.

“Meeting Bear restored my hope for the future of koalas. Spending time with him at some of the worst-hit fire grounds, I quickly saw just how much of an impact he was having. Not just with the koalas he was saving, but also the smiles he was bringing to the already tired and exhausted wildlife carers, rescuers and vets from around the country. He was saving lives, but he was also restoring the faith of those who needed it the most.”

In Bear – Koala Hero , Tyson follows the boot-wearing Bear and his handlers as they scour burnt-out bushland in southern Queensland and New South Wales during the summer of 2020, searching for sick and injured koalas.

One of five dogs in the Detection Dogs for Conservation program and formerly a rescue dog, Bear is an Australian Koolie – a herding dog with an obsessive nature. Bear’s boundless energy and passion during the bushfire crisis made him a standout detection dog and a breakout star on social media, even garnering the admiration of Hollywood star Tom Hanks.

Also featured in the special are Bear’s handler, vet Dr Romane Cristescu , and USC’s Detection Dogs for Conservation colleague and koala authority Dr Celine Frere , as Tyson traces the koalas’ rescue, recovery and return to nature.

Bear – Koala Hero explores the work of this incredible team as well as the critical issues regarding the environmental crisis, the broader wildlife impact, and the heroic efforts of the firefighters, animal rescuers, and the animals themselves.

Produced by Butter Media for Foxtel, Bear – Koala Hero is a heart-warming, one-hour special event premiering on Wednesday, March 18 at 8.30pm, exclusive to LifeStyle.

TBI reports Foxtel has bought another 245 hours of UK property search series A Place in the Sun from distributor Orange Smarty. A Place in the Sun currently airs on LifeStyle.

GRAND DESIGNS AUSTRALIA

Returns Wednesdays at 8.30pm from March 31

In one of the most emotionally charged series to date, host and multi award-winning architect Peter Maddison is back with the long awaited ninth series of Grand Designs Australia. This season, Peter follows eight new homeowners from all around Australia, all of whom are driven visionaries with a dream to change their lives and Australia’s architectural landscape forever.

Grand Designs Australia follows the remarkable journeys of these ambitious and resilient architectural trailblazers who have pushed their finances and their families to the limit in their quest to create remarkable one-off homes.

With budgets ranging from $210,000 to over $2 million, a record breaking seven-year build and a heartbreaking build which went up in smoke weeks before the homeowners were due to move in.

The backdrops are as diverse as they are stunning, as Peter traverses the country, meeting and supporting the homeowners as they embark on what turns out to be rollercoaster rides of passion, creativity, and endurance.

“This series is about patience, tenacity and it’s about tragedy… Romeo and Juliet have nothing on this season. Ten years on and I continue to be amazed by these homeowner’s imagination, determination and bravery.

“Being an architect is in my DNA and I find that there will never be an end to invention. The most important thing we put in our lives is our home, and this series is another example of the importance of the home and the ingenuity, inner strength and the conviction in design which drives them,” Peter says.

From the design fanatic who spends seven years perfecting his radical extension to a heritage cottage on Sydney Harbour, to a hip young couple on a tight budget with plans to build an edgy house on Tasmania’s Tamar River, the common themes are innovation and determination, with some spectacular results.

Extreme design is a common theme, whether it’s a space-age Queenslander in Brisbane, a Mediterranean style concrete bunker in inner city Perth, a sandstone church with a radical copper box extension on the Hawkesbury River in NSW, or a tiny Hawthorn terrace transformed into an underground tardis. But it is the Melbourne architects who convert a derelict junk yard into an environmental passive house who face the ultimate challenge, suffering years of hardship to build their dream home only to see it ravaged by fire three weeks before completion.

Grand Designs Australia is produced by Fremantle Australia exclusively for FOXTEL on the LifeStyle channel premiering Wednesdays at 8.30pm from March 31 and available On Demand. All past seasons of Grand Designs Australia are available On Demand.

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FOXTEL announces biggest-ever local LifeStyle offering

GRAND DESIGNS AUSTRALIA and LOVE IT OR LIST IT AUSTRALIA coming soon

Highly anticipated SCOTT PAPE’S MONEY MOVEMENT to premiere

New Foxtel Originals commissioned: SELLING IN THE CITY / THE REPAIR SHOP

Top rating SELLING HOUSES AUSTRALIA going back into production

FOXTEL has announced its biggest slate of local LifeStyle content ever, with an impressive schedule of upcoming programs and a huge line-up of new and returning locally commissioned series going into production.

The coming months will see the return to air of many of LifeStyle’s most popular, locally produced series, including Grand Designs Australia , Love It or List It Australia and another season of Gogglebox Australia , as well as the premiere of the eagerly awaited documentary series from the Barefoot Investor, Scott Pape’s Money Movement.

LifeStyle’s local content offering will be further expanded with a number of additional local commissions commencing production this year, including new formats Selling In The City and The Repair Shop ; the next chapter in Foxtel’s Find Me … series, Find My Dream Home ; and the return of Foxtel’s highest rating local production, Selling Houses Australia .

Wendy Moore, Group General Manager, LifeStyle, said: “We know just how important our returning shows are to our audience, and understand they want more of what they already love, not less. So, over the next year, we will see the return of so many LifeStyle favourites.

“However, the time is right to increase our investment in the lifestyle space and I am excited to announce we are currently in pre-production on a number of new Foxtel Originals, including a brand new addition to the Selling Houses franchise, Selling In The City , as well as The Repair Shop , a heart-warming format that has been a runaway success in the UK,” she said.

LifeStyle’s upcoming programming slate will kick off on March 31 with a ninth season of Grand Designs Australia , hosted by multi award-winning architect Peter Maddison. Featuring a record breaking seven-year renovation, and a heartbreaking build which went up in smoke weeks before the homeowners were due to move in, this is one of the most emotionally charged series to date.

On April 28, the three-part special Scott Pape’s Money Movement premieres. He’s already set millions of people on the road to success and stability with his The Barefoot Investor book – which has just been announced as the highest-selling book ever in Australia’s history – and now Scott Pape is on a new mission: to teach kids financial literacy.

This timely series follows Scott as he launches his Money Movement program, pleads his case to the government and uncovers the unnerving business behind the current financial education our kids are getting.

Other LifeStyle favourites returning to screens in 2021 include a fourth season of Love It or List It Australia with Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, and a 14th season of the multiple TV Week Logie Award-winning Gogglebox Australia .

Heading into production this month is Find My Dream Home hosted by Deborah Hutton. Each episode takes viewers on a tour across Australia in search of three properties within a specific theme, each at a different price point. Ranging from Queenslanders to Off-Grid, Tiny Houses to Country Heritage, Deborah gets a personal viewing inside some of the most unique homes around Australia, and talks to the people creating, and living, their dreams.

Production will also commence shortly on a refreshed 14th season of the top rating Selling Houses Australia, with new production partner Warner Bros International Television Production (WBITVP) at the helm. Also from WBITVP, two new formats – Selling In The City and The Repair Shop .

A spin off from Selling Houses, Selling In The City is a younger, more millennial skewed brand, with a focus on getting into, and moving up, the property ladder. The series will feature amazing design, clever solutions for small spaces and the most fabulous ways to get the absolute most out of a small, urban property.

The Repair Shop is an antidote to throwaway culture, shining a light on the family treasures found in real Aussie homes across the country. Each episode follows a team of passionate and skilled craftspeople who rescue damaged objects – from heirlooms to prized antiques to a loved one’s treasured possession – and restore them to their former glory.

Further announcements regarding production on these series will be made in the coming months.

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Shaynna Blaze departs Selling Houses Australia

After a successful thirteen seasons, interior designer and presenter, Shaynna Blaze, has decided to step down from LifeStyle’s award-winning local production, Selling Houses Australia .

Shaynna has been part of the “Selling Houses” team since it first launched in 2008, working alongside real estate expert Andrew Winter and landscape designer Charlie Albone, to undertake stunning makeovers of unsellable properties across Australia.

Brian Walsh, Foxtel’s Executive Director of Television, said: “I would like to thank Shaynna for thirteen incredible seasons with Selling Houses Australia and the pivotal role she has played in the success of the series. Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has interrupted the regular production rhythm for all of our local productions, and we are shooting season 14 at a different time, meaning Shaynna’s existing commitments and new projects have made her unavailable for the upcoming season.

“Shaynna has enjoyed a long association with Foxtel and in particular the LifeStyle Group and we completely understand her decision and wish her well with her other business projects,” he said.

“The show, of course, will go on – it’s the flagship series of our LifeStyle Channel and we will now take the opportunity to re-fresh and re-invent the franchise with Andrew Winter at the helm and two new faces – specialists in design and landscape – joining the team.”

Shaynna Blaze said: “This is such a big decision for me, and one that has not come lightly. I had hoped to be able to continue with Selling Houses Australia while honouring my existing business commitments to clients and working on some exciting personal projects, but once the timing of the production schedule was confirmed, unfortunately trying to juggle everything was going to be too much of a stretch. Selling Houses has led me to where I am today, and I owe both the show and Foxtel a huge debt of gratitude.”

Selling Houses Australia is Foxtel’s highest-rating local production and continues to break viewing records each year. The new cast will be announced ahead of production commencing mid-year.

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Sad to see Shaynna Blaze go. But i understand her reasoning. I liked the trio working together - with Andrew, Charlie and Shaynna.

Did they ever end up replacing Charlie as he left a year ago? Or will they now announce an interior and exterior designers in time for the newest season?

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Shaynna tweeted this morning regarding her departure from Selling Houses Australia.

I wonder if she will still be a judge on The Block this year?

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She obviously will be, it’s SHA schedule that got in the way. It involves travelling too, The Block doesn’t as she lives in Melbourne