Cavalier Television makes what is arguably the most successful show on Australian television, The Block.
The partners running Cavalier – Julian Cress and David Barbour – have also been behind a number of successful programs – from Reno Rumble, and The Chopping Block, to homemade and more. But over the last decade or more they focused on one program.
That program is The Block and wraps its 2024 season this week with the auctions of the properties on Phillip Island. The location is the furthest the show has been from its spiritual home in Melbourne’s inner and south-eastern suburbs since its last season in Sydney over a decade ago.
The two partners share the load in very different ways. As co-executive producers, Cress looks after the production on site. Barbour is the post-production guru.
David Barbour (left) with Julian Cress and The Block host Scotty Cam.
A third executive producer on The Block is Nine’s Justin Sturzaker who has been working on the format since the reboot in 2010.
While the program now never leaves production in Victoria, the team is spread across the eastern seaboard. Post-production is headquartered in Sydney, and Barbour now calls the Gold Coast home.
Cress can be glimpsed onscreen at times during filming, maybe calling for calm at times of controversy. Barbour by contrast is the darkened edit room specialist. Mediaweek has spoken with him in the past. We do so again this week to learn about the making of TV’s #1 show.
When asked about how planning was going for the arrival of the auction footage to the post-production facility, Barbour told Mediaweek: “In 20 seasons, each time is such a different experience. The final is an episode that you just don’t know what you getting until you get it. There’s just only a limited amount of planning you can have.
“We’re in the 20th season and we’re very proud of that. We feel very blessed to be 20 seasons in. There’s a lot of expectation around the auction episodes. They outrate things like the Melbourne Cup!
“We try to plan how we’re going to fill two hours. But is an auction going to be two minutes or 20 minutes, it’s a real roll of the dice.”
Barbour said there was never any consideration that the post-production would relocate to Victoria like the series has. “Never,” he explained. The former Sydney-sider has moved north to the Gold Coast. “I grew up in Papua New Guinea. I’m a tropical boy. I run as far away from cold weather as fast as I can.”
Barbour mixes up his workplaces these days. Some weeks working remotely from home, visits to Sydney for screenings with Nine, and set visits during the season when necessary.
“I try and get down to the location on the Saturday right before Sunday reveals. I catch up with Julian and Justin and they bring me up to speed on any stories or ebbs and flows that have happened.
“I’m not down there every week. Where we are in the season will depend on how often I go down.”
A format that delivers 50 or more episodes per season runs a big team. Barbour explained the post-production team numbers about 70 specialists.
“That includes everyone from the assists to the transcribers, editors, assistant editors, producers, associate producers, and supervising producers.”
Barbour appoints a team to own the episode they are working on. Across the entire season each team will get to produce a handful of episodes.
“For The Block, that has been the way we’ve been able to get the most creative storytelling out of the teams.
“We turn around episodes probably faster than any other reality show of scale. The thought process behind that is, too much time can kill spontaneity and reaction to things. It’s about keeping up the energy, the creativity in an episode, making your decisions and moving on.”
David Barbour
Renos and relationships drive The Block
The format masters two things – the property builds and the relationships between the Blockheads.
Every year there is plenty of entertainment on both fronts. There has been a big focus this year on the recent blowup between Kylie and Brad.
We asked Barbour if there was more controversy this season, or just a repeat of patterns from previous years. He reckoned it was similar to what’s gone before.
“We think that every year [might be more controversial than the year before]. But each year Block contestants are a lot savvier than the previous year. They get to watch another 50 episodes of it. The contestants today versus season one are highly educated when it comes to the camera and social media.
“That gives them a very different energy and they’re much more open about the positives and negatives.”
The Block on auction day 2023
How David Barbour spends Block auction day
Auction day on The Block used to be one of the days Barbour was on location. Not anymore. He explained: “Since the end of Covid, I have been based out of Sydney. I sit in a room and watch the auctions live with the editors and producers.
“From that point we understand the direction. It might be a happy, successful auction or a not so successful auction. We then start work on the material from each auction as it comes in.”
Auction weekend used to be stressful…for the producers
Back when The Block first started, it was quite a stressful event. Not just for the contestants. The producers and the broadcaster also sweated a bit working on the auction shoot to be broadcast on the Sunday night.
Barbour remembered how close to the wire it was in Season 1 of The Block. That was in 2003. Back then they were working on videotape and David Gyngell was running the network during his first tour of duty.
“Julian and I had a copy of the final tape each – we each got in a car and we drove towards Channel Nine, um, at possibly illegal speeds.
“We had a plan that even if the police were chasing us, we wouldn’t stop until we got to the gates of Channel Nine. We got there and literally ran upstairs into the transmission room.
“There was a young guy there. He was completely white in the face and he said, ‘Are you guys from The Block? We handed him the tape, walked up one flight of stairs, opened a beer, sat down in the boardroom and it went to air.”
They had arrived at Nine just minutes before the episode was due to start.
The process is much more streamlined now. Barbour said these days the finished final episode could be ready a few hours before broadcast. “A few times we have delivered maybe 30 minutes before broadcast though,” he admitted.
Working with Barbour on that last day is Nine series producer Julia Holdstock. He credits her with making sure everything happens on time. “She’s not only a creative, but a great scheduler and quality control as well.”
In The Block’s situation room on auction day 2017 [L-R]: Julian Cress and Scott Cam with Wombat and Sticks
Will Cavalier Television make a series other than The Block?
Running Australia’s biggest television show keeps Barbour and Cress busy year-round. But would the two ever work on a show other than The Block again?
Barbour: “I think we will. We’re always throwing ideas around, that never stops. Both Julian and I have very creative brains and that process never stops.
“TV is getting tighter and it’s harder to get things up. We are continually coming up with things and pitching them because that’s what we love to do.”
How has the Cavalier partnership lasted so long?
The professional partnership between these two seems as strong as their show’s format. What is the secret that keeps them creating together?
“It’s been fantastic because we both recognise each other’s strengths and we just give each other complete freedom to act in our own lanes,” said Barbour.
Top image: Nine’s EP on The Block, Julian Sturzaker, with Cavalier Tlevision’s David Barbour and Julian Cress and The Block host Scotty Cam
See also:
• The Block All Stars return for final week of Australia’s biggest TV show
• The Block 2023: Winners Steph and Gian break the all-time sale record