House Rules (Australian TV series)

Format

Teams (mostly couples) from different states must complete rounds of renovations in homes and gardens in a competition to win the prize of a full mortgage payment. All homes that belong to the contestants are transformed through the show.

Phase 1: Interior Renovation

The six teams travel around the country to completely renovate each other's home. Every week, one team hands over their house to their opponents for a complete interior transformation. A set of rules from the owners are given to the teams known as the 'House rules' which need to be followed to gain high scores from the judges and the homeowner team. At the end of the interior renovations, one team is eliminated.

Phase 2: 24 Hour Fix-up

After the first six full house interior renovations, all teams head back to their own homes and must fix and redo one of the zones in 24 hours. Teams need to recreate the space/s to reflect their own style and also to impress the judges. All teams receive the same set of five rules for the challenge. Scores are added to the current totals, where the lowest scoring team overall is eliminated.

Phase 3: Gardens & Exteriors

The top 4 teams are challenged to transform the exteriors and gardens of each other's homes. Two teams are allocated to a home (that do not belong to them) and must renovate either the front or back yards, as well as improving the house exterior. They are held over two rounds, covering all houses of the current teams. After both rounds are complete, the lowest scoring team is eliminated.

Phase 4: Charity House

Starting season 2, the top 3 renovate an old charity house. Rules for this challenge are very similar to the first interior renovations, where each team must renovate an allocated zone. This was selected through a random card draw. The two highest scoring teams advance to the Grand Final as one team is eliminated.

Grand Final: Final Renovations & Australia's Vote

The final 2 teams complete one final challenge at their opponent's home, to renovate an extra room. The Australian public vote for their favourite team to win and the winner is decided by a combination of the judges score, for the final project and overall viewer votes. The team with the best result win a complete mortgage payment and is announced live.

Judges

At the end of each renovation, the judges review every zone in the house and score each team out of 10 for their efforts. From season 2, judges verdicts were delivered face to face in front of the contestants.

Experts

The role of the experts is to assist and guide the contestants throughout each renovation. They need to make sure the house construction and design flows and also settle any disputes between teams.

Season Synopses

Season 1

Season 1 aired on 14 April 2013 and ended on 6 May 2013. The season was won by South Australian couple Carly and Leighton and as a reward had their mortgage of $460,000 paid off.

Season 2

Season 2 was confirmed in 2013 and began airing on 30 April 2014. The season was won by Adam & Lisa and had their mortgage of $520,000 paid off.

Season 3

Season 3 was confirmed in 2014 and began airing on 5 May 2015.

The season was won by Steve & Tiana and had their mortgage of $250,000 paid off.

Season 4

Season 4 was confirmed in 2014 and was set to later in 2015, but Network Seven shelved the series until 2016 due to an overload of renovation shows that had aired in 2015 and the lower than expected ratings for the third series. The season titled "Crowded House rules", which involves couples with families (excluding one), began airing on 27 April 2016.

The season was won by Luke & Cody and had their mortgage of $120,000 paid off.

Season 5

Applications for the fifth season of House Rules were open between 1 June & 30 July 2016 on the House Rules official network seven website. Johanna Griggs announced the series is in pre-production and that she is returning as host for season 5. Season 5 was officially confirmed in October 2016. This season will introduce two new judges, international design stylist, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and award-winning Australian architect and builder, Drew Heath, who will be joining Wendy Moore, Joe Snell will not be returning.

Viewership

The first season debuted to 803,000 viewers. Over the season, viewership started to grow significantly The season ended on a high of 1.53 million watching the finale and 1.83 million watching the winner's announcement. Including regional areas, the finale was watched by 2.42 million and 2.86 million watching winner announced.

The second season premiered to 1,183,000 million viewers and was the highest rated entertainment show of the night. The season final held 1.73 million watching the finale and 1.98 million watching the winner's announcement, and when including regional areas, the finale was watched by 2.75 million and 3.12 million watching winner announced.

The third season premiered to 791,000 viewers. The season final ended on a low of 1.09 million watching the finale and 1.29 million watching the winner's announcement, and when including regional areas, the finale was watched by 1.75 million and 1.99 million watching winner announced.

Reno Rumble

Reno Rumble was a reality program which began airing on the Nine Network on 5 May 2015, that pit teams from House Rules against teams from Nine's TV series The Block. The program was not associated with the Seven Network or the House Rules format, other than for the fact Reno Rumble featured former House Rules contestants who are no longer contracted to Seven.

The series was renewed for a second season but did not involve any former contestants from either House Rules or The Block.

International

In Portugal the reality show is broadcast everyday at 11.00 p.m. on SIC Mulher (since May 2016).

And in Angola the reality show is broadcast everyday at 01.30 p.m and 10.30 p.m on SIC Mulher internacional ( since May 2016)

Also on Belgium television the show runs every weekday at 15u45 on Vitaya.

Irish version

An Irish version of House Rules will air on TV3.