The Block NZ host Mark Richardson speaks after show axed

The Block NZ’s star host only learned the hit TV show was being axed when he read it in this morning’s Herald.

Mark Richardson told Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis Allan it was a shame the show, which he alone had hosted since 2012, had been cancelled as “I think New Zealanders liked it”.

The company behind the show, Warner Bros Discovery, advised the show’s production company, Warner Bros International Television Production, that it would not be commissioning a new 11th series.

Richardson said: “[The show] was a large part of my life, for the better of 12 years. It was a shame [it has been cut] because it was a fun show. It was light television that captured a large demographic.

“It was just enjoyable to watch. It didn’t try and stitch anyone up, it didn’t rely on having out-there people, it had people we could all relate to doing something that is in our blood, in our DNA, renovating and doing up houses.”

Richardson said he believed the show was doing well financially, but he said he understood why programming content like The Block NZ could not continue being produced.

“Everything I heard was that [the finances] would stack up every year. I was told about a year or so ago that [the show] was on hold, and that was the last I heard. Then I read in the paper this morning that it had been canned.”

Mark Richardson, host of The Block NZ.

Warner Bros International Television Production NZ co-managing director Mike Molloy said the decision to cut the show was “devastating”.

“And devastating for a lot of local production workers. That is what we’re living with,” he said.

“I’m not going to comment around the show, or the decisions taken since we have the same ultimate parents. Suffice to say we’ve got to live by what’s happened.”

The Block NZ homes were just weeks away from completion.

He said hundreds of people would have worked on the show. “There are some very, very disappointed people out there, particularly some young people who are struggling day to day.”

Warner Bros International went through a lengthy process to buy a property at 850 Beach Rd where the next season’s renovations had been planned, including seeking and receiving Overseas Investment Office approval for the purchase.

Records show the property sold for $2.575m in March 2022.

A single, older wooden house stood on the 1042sq m property at the time - a OneRoof listing stated the property came with resource consent for four two-storey homes with sea views.

The property was later cleared and work started on preparing it for the TV series.