Reality TV, much like Disney films, loves a villain. But unlike Disney, reality TV stars rarely sing on TV, which is a shame. It’s become so common as a trope that it’s even been given a term: the so-called “villain edit”.
The important thing to note here is that the “edit” part of the term does a lot of heavy lifting, with the term implying that the show’s production and marketing have edited the footage to make someone seem more unlikeable, or confrontational, or just plain mean than they actually are.
This season on The Block, there was enough behind-the-scenes drama that a couple of contestants could probably claim a villain edit.
Jolene certainly had enough beef with other teams that she’d be a candidate, and Courtney and Sev’s many wins definitely left them with some villain-ish moments as the other contestants turned against them.
But by far this season’s biggest villain edit award has to go to Chantel and Wyatt, who from Week 1 ended up in confrontations not only with their fellow contestants, but with the judges and the producers of The Block itself.
“You know, our storyline was that we’re super grumpy – but we’re not grumpy people,” Chantel told Domain on auction day.
By the second week, after The Block erroneously accused them of overspending their budget, the couple threatened to walk off the show unless they got a sincere apology.
There was sharehouse drama over washing dishes , and they accused others of stealing their tools.
Chantel responded to a passive-aggressive note from Jolene with an invitation to “please eat her a**”.
There was also a more serious incident where Jolene returned home to find Wyatt (and a hidden Courtney) snooping through House 1, which led to a confrontation that Jolene described as “intimidating”, and Wyatt later apologised for.
There were no shortages of dramas to fuel a villain edit.
“I did love the plant-stealing incident because everyone believed it was Adam, and I thought that was hilarious,” Chantel volunteered at the auctions.
Wyatt agreed. She was referring to the now infamous incident in which Wyatt stole an olive tree from Rick and Tayla , and then, when forced to give it back, wrote a note apologising – and signed it as though it was from House 1’s Adam.
“That was good fun for me, that was a good week.” When asked if they thought the other teams found it as “fun”, they responded: “Oh, who cares”.
But they do also point out that a lot of the “fun stuff” where everyone got along simply wasn’t shown.
If all that wasn’t enough to give even the laziest editor plenty of fuel, they also raised the ire of the judges for refusing to take even a single piece of advice from them, and completely ignoring the criticisms that their house had leaned far too heavily into the “light, white and bright” minimalism brief.
As a result, they were the first Block house to go to auction without a single room reveal win.
But do Chantel and Wyatt think they were actually edited into villains?
“Yeah, we were the villains. What do you mean?” said Chantel, laughing in disbelief.
“We’re absolutely not like that in real life. No way. Sure, we’re the “villain edit”, but we’re never nasty to people. We’re always just like, boundaries – no. We’re never speaking badly about people.”
And ultimately, with all the houses selling, and Chantel and Wyatt taking home a tidy profit, the couple say that they “honestly” wouldn’t have done anything differently on the show – even to avoid a so-called villain edit.
“Because I’m huge on just staying true to who you are and respecting yourself, and you know, being able to go to bed and wake up happy with who you are as a person,” said Chantel. “I wouldn’t have done it any differently.”
Patrick Lenton Patrick Lenton is a journalist and author living in Melbourne. He is the Lifestyle Reporter at Domain.
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