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Jason wins homeMADE

While media attention was focussed on Pay TV's reality finale last night, Free to Air television also chose winners too.

jason_darrenWhile media attention was focussed on Pay TV’s reality finale last night, Free to Air television also chose winners too, in the finale of Nine’s homeMADE.

37 year old Jason (pictured, right) from Sydney defeated 31 year old Darren, also from Sydney.

Jason, who has worked as an international model, has no formal interior design training. He wins $100,000 for his efforts.

Nine’s renovation series by The Block creators Julian Cress and David Barbour struggled on Nine. Viewers didn’t warm to the idea of home makeovers during a recession, and the network was forced to remove the show from its Sunday schedule after several weeks.

But Nine had made big promises to its advertisers and ended up screening two episodes on Tuesdays, seemingly resigned to the fact that it wasn’t going to win Tuesdays in a battle between Seven and TEN.

15 Responses

  1. I did enjoy the show and I support the judges verdict Jason was the better finalist. Darren did not come across as not a very nice person in many respects. I thought more empathisis should have been placed on the actual work and the detail needed to produce the end product. This would have been more informative for the general lay person. I found it hard to believe that these rooms cost so little yet when we have had quotes for renovations it has been alot more in comparison then those itemised on the show. Was this even realistic. I wish I had the chance to have my home renovated for nothing. It would be like winning the lotto.

  2. jason is a spunk and i’d like to take him out for a celebratory drink..!
    [jason, our paths crossed at furniture on consignment two weeks back…i was the tall, dark and handsome man checking out the wares]

  3. Wow, congratulations whoever you are for winning Nine’s money on whatever show that was, whenever it was shown… Well done mate 😉

  4. I actually loved this show, but I can understand why it may not have appealed to Nine Network viewers, or in this time of financial crisis.

    I hope they bring it back next year with a few format changes, or better yet, bring back The Block. I’m sure Jamie Durie is fed up with Seven, and so you can buy him back. Or just get Jason to host The Block. I think The Block worked better as they were ordinary people, and they were also couples.

    I didn’t mind Niel and Sibella as the judges, but I always hated their guest judges. The host was certainly a nice guy, but I can understand why people thought he was annoying.

    And yes, this would have worked better at 5 lots of 30 minute episodes a week. Two and a Half Men’s audience is fairly ‘young,’ and so they could have chucked it on at that time. (obviously after MasterChef had finished, if they knew that MC was going to be huge).

    Certainly hope Nine do this show again, instead of Random Acts, or even Blitz.

  5. I think a lot of the reason the show didn’t work was the cast was pretty unlikable – from the designers to the Judges they all came across as pretty arrogant or simply whinny over fairly trivial things. Overall I think the format could work but as in pointed out in the article in a recession who wants to watch someone complaining how hard the challenge is when they’ve spent $16,000 in an afternoon.

    I think with the right contestants, toning down some of the elitism and more of a focus on the design/build process and less on manufactured bitchyness the format could work.

  6. I enjoyed this show as well, but it felt very rushed. It would have been better as a 5 x 30 mins across the week (as was originally envisaged), so we could have a little more time to connect with each of the two houses each week, and what was going on.

    I agree with H1NG0 tho, particularly in a 5 x 30 format, HomeMADE would have been ideal for Ten.

  7. I liked this show. I’m disappointed it didn’t rate. I like Julian Cress and David Barbour’s work. Their productions always feel fresh, contemporary and use great music. It would be great if there was some way to determine the reason for the low ratings because the show on its own was a good product. So was it promotion, timing, scheduling, preconceived viewer bias against 9?….

  8. It was obvious a while back Jason was going to win. All the exposure he’s had, plus no formal design experience, and being the most photogenic adds up to being the best winner’s story. Manipulated reality TV yet again.

  9. Good result. Darren was a tosser but Jason was a nice bloke. I enjoyed watching this series. If it was on Channel 10, it woul have done a lot better because 10 has a younger audience. This show was too “young” for Channel 9 viewers.

  10. I admit to quite enjoying the series but Nine did misread the mood in how it was produced.

    As can be seen with MC, people now want “nice characters” in their reality series. Home Made’s contestants were all too beautiful and the judges too nasty to appeal in current times.

    Somehow, I suspect Nine worked this out as the series progressed with the judges becoming more supportive as the series went on but it was probably too little, too late.

  11. RIP and that stands for ‘really inappropriate program’ – families from the North Shore and Bondi who look like they were living fairly comfortable lives receiving free makeovers, whinging and crying because the colour schemes weren’t right and then the designers, in their designer clothes, almost inconsoleable at times because they couldn’t afford state of the art bathroom taps! Give me a break!

    If this show had to exist at all couldn’t these precious little designers have gone to some run down housing commission homes in western sydney and given maybe a few struggling tenants a bit of a lift – or maybe they could have gone to a run down school and added their re-design flair…no that wouldn’t have been sexy or stylish enough for the over the top judges in their designer black rimmed glasses the producers at Nine!.

    As for the award for worst show of the year…I nominate this as one of the prime contenders!

  12. I must say this was a good program. It was a shame it was not received all that well. Darren was the better designer, but Jason did have some better ideas. Fresh Ideas in fact!
    I guess this wont be on next year.

    Just another case of people that would rather shove food in thier gob than have a nice home.

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