Very few people know what it’s like to compete on The Block, so having a close bond with your fellow contestants can make the experience feel less lonely.
That also means that if you make them mad, you’re going to feel more isolated than ever.
That was the reality for Courtney and Sev this week after the Brisbane best friends received help from the Cursio brothers following a waterproofing failure.
Production stepped in when it became clear they might not finish their bathroom, but the decision upset the other contestants, who believed Courtney and Sev had been given an unfair advantage.
The pair told WHO the other contestants stopped talking to them as the controversy unfolded.
“The contestants weren’t talking to us at the start of that week,” they said.
Why were the contestants angry with Courtney and Sev?
Courtney and Sev’s problems began when the waterproofing in their bathroom failed.
Their usual waterproofers were away, and the pair had enlisted the tiler who worked on their previous bathroom to complete the job instead.
When the work failed, the Cursio brothers were brought in to help repair the problem and give Courtney and Sev a chance of completing their room.
However, the other contestants believed the assistance gave them an advantage that was not available to everyone else.
Courtney and Sev also knew accepting the help could damage their relationship with Chantel and Wyatt.
“We were eaten up by the fact that we had to get the Cursios in to help us when we’d been given instructions from our friends Chantel and Wyatt not to have them,” they explained.
But with the room in jeopardy and time running out, the pair felt they had little choice but to accept.
“We were stressed that we weren’t going to finish on time,” they said.
“It was just one thing after another.”
Courtney and Sev were isolated from the other teams
While Courtney and Sev could distract themselves with work during the day, the breakdown in their friendships became much harder to ignore once they returned to their shared house.
“When we were on site, it was just like, ‘Head down, bum up, get to work,’” they said.
“When you came home, it was bloody awful not having your mates to talk to at the end of the day.”
The pair had already been dealing with the stress of the waterproofing failure and the possibility that their room wouldn’t be finished.
Losing the support of their friends made an already difficult week feel even more overwhelming.
“There was a lot going on that week,” they admitted. “I was going through a lot.”
On top of everything else, Courtney and Sev were worried about how the failed waterproofing would reflect on their tiler.
“The last thing we wanted to do was expose him on television for doing something wrong,” they explained.
“We were so eaten up over that situation.”
For the other contestants, the issue was whether Courtney and Sev had received help that gave them an unfair advantage.
For Courtney and Sev, however, the support came during one of their most stressful weeks in the competition and carried a considerable social cost.
The Block airs Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm on Channel Nine and 9Now.
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