Season 22 kicked off tonight at Mount Eliza, and The Block had already delivered its opening twist before a single wall went up: all five teams under one roof for the first time in the show’s history, water views nobody’s had in 22 seasons, and a host who spent the lead-up to launch night in a hospital bed. Blockheads had plenty to say about all of it before the theme song even finished.
What Blockheads Are Saying
“Trying to do what the sharks couldn’t.”
u/Character-Gene-3922, r/TheBlock
Over on r/TheBlock, the thread of the day was Scott Cam’s premiere-week hospital stint, after word got out that he’d had a knee replacement and was calling into radio interviews from his hospital bed. The post’s headline claims an over-enthusiastic hug from a contestant was the final straw, though that detail is unconfirmed Reddit colour rather than anything the man himself has said on the record. Reaction in the comments split neatly down the middle: genuine well-wishes (“hope the big fella is on the mend soon, never any fun having a knee replacement”) sitting right next to Blockheads reaching for the darkest available joke, with one commenter deciding Cam was simply trying to do what the sharks couldn’t, a reference to his real-life 2011 shark attack that landed exactly as intended for most of the thread.
What the Mastheads Ran Today
News.com.au had the confirmed version behind that Reddit thread: Cam revealed on Brisbane breakfast radio that he’d spent twelve days recovering from a knee replacement and was only released in time for tonight’s launch, still getting around on a walking stick. Yahoo Lifestyle Australia ran the same wire story under a near-identical headline, which tells you how fast this one moved through the entertainment press this morning.
Meanwhile the premiere-day primers were everywhere, mostly recapping the season’s format twist. TV Tonight led with the confirmed cast and the new share-house setup, all five teams living together instead of separate tents, split across a two-precinct build called Uptown and Downtown. Domain and Home Beautiful covered much the same ground, both leaning heavily on the near-$11 million Mount Eliza site and those long-promised water views.
That’s the buzz ahead of launch night. Go easy on the popcorn, Blockheads, the real test starts at 7pm.
