Nine‘s Lego Masters Australia will return Monday, April 19, for its third season as builders from around the country battle it out to be crowned the Lego Masters for 2021 and win $100,000.
Adrian Swift the head of content, production and development at Nine told Mediaweek that Lego Masters is in a state of constant improvement.
“You have to stay one step ahead of the audience, you got to keep evolving it a little bit every time and changing the schtick a little bit every time.”
Adrian Swift
Swift said that part of that is that host Hamish Blake is really on the money in season three.
“In the first season he was kind of feeling his way, and in the second season he figured out where he could go with it, and in the third season, he is now really into the competition, really into the builders, and really into his role in the show. He is taking more joy from the competition this year because he isn’t worried about hosting duties, he is just enjoying all the builds and the reveals.”
See More: Lego Masters: Everything you need to know about Hamish and Brickman
Bigger and Better
One of the aspects that Swift and his team wanted to continue to improve this year was making sure that the show had better builds.
“We have to have a time constraint, so you never get the ultimate builds, but we have tried to make the builders better. When the show first started your average Lego builder tends to go ‘bloody television it won’t be real’ but I think what happened is people have seen that it’s a genuine competition for people that can genuinely build. We have had a lot more people come out of the woodwork and a lot more applicants which I think leads to better quality.
“The builds this year are more fired by their imaginations, so it is less bridge building and more come up with a crazy idea that you can put in a snow globe. We have let them off the leash a little bit, and it is less mechanistic and more imagination.”
Selecting the builders
Swift said that when finding the right builders for the show, it is a combination of receiving applications and looking for applicants, who then have building challenges during the interview process.
“We know that there are some builders out there that people really like, and we are dialled into the community now.
“We also try to be a little diverse. You could very easily cast this show as lots of 45-year-old blokes who are kind of nerdy into Lego, so we try and cast wider than that. They tend to be very good technically, but we also want people with great imagination.
“This year has a good age mix, a good gender mix, and a good demographic mix with people from all sorts of different backgrounds. It is a good clever, imaginative, diverse cast.”
See More: Lego Masters season three: Meet the eight new teams
How Covid affected production
Swift said that production went well but just like every show in the world at the moment, production was affected by Covid.
“We would have done more stuff outside the studio if we hadn’t been in lockdown constantly. It caused a lot of extra expense just in terms of meeting protocols, and flying people in and flying people out, and quarantining them and all that sort of stuff. When you see the series, it doesn’t really make any difference to it on air.”
Lessons learnt heading into season 3
When asked what the biggest learning curve was in the first two seasons, Swift said that it was just letting the show be itself and to get out of its way.
“We tend to do these competition reality shows with a lot of big banging kettle drums and confected drama, with Lego Masters what we learnt is that if we sit back and just get into the imagination and the builds, that we don’t need to force drama, sometimes just clever people doing something amazing is enough. And then you add in the kind of charm and wit of Hamish and it just brings it all to life.”
Lego Masters spinoffs
When asked if Nine has considered Lego Master spinoffs such as Lego Masters Junior, Swift said that they don’t want to get too cute with their shows.
“We have considered specials and Lego Masters Junior is one of them, but we also have a view, and this applies to all our shows when you are constantly being asked about spin-offs of MAFS and spin-offs of The Block when you have a really good show that you really love, and you can keep evolving don’t try and get too cute.
“We are looking at other things that we can do in that space, Lego Junior or Lego Seniors and Juniors with potentially mother and daughter, father and son type of things, where you have the ideas from the kids and the technical ability from their parents or even celebrities and their kids or celebrities and builders.”
See More: Lego Masters season three: Everything you need to know
What else is coming from Nine in 2021?
When asked what else can be expected from Nine in 2021, Swift said better versions of the shows that people love and a couple of new ones that he hopes people like.
“I’ve got a little panel show coming that I can’t tell you too much about. I have got a show called Parental Guidance which was previously billed as Parent Jury, which is fascinating.
“I think that Beauty and the Geek is really interesting because the whole world has changed, the geeks are all in power because they think they are Jeff Bezos and the beauties because of social media are much more engaged in the wider world. It’s not just silly giggly dumb girls and blokes with poor personal hygiene it’s actually really interesting blokes and really interesting girls together.
“I am really happy with Celebrity Apprentice, I think Alan Sugar is really good and the cast is really good, and Launa Jane Clarkson and Janine Allis as the advisors are fantastic.