The Block’s first scandal of the season has finally aired, with influencer Elle Ferguson and her AFL star beau Joel Patfull bailing on the show without so much as a goodbye on Monday night’s episode.
It comes after weeks of headlines surrounding their shock exit, which host Scott Cam has slammed as “p*ss poor” and “unAustralian” in interviews ahead of the season.
Despite reports the couple left the competition to be with Patfull’s mother after a nasty fall, it appears the duo bowed out of the challenge because it wasn’t “on brand”, with Cam telling fellow competitors they’d complained that the toilet paper was “too scratchy”.
Ahead of the shock revelation, Patfull and Ferguson’s first room challenge copped some negative criticism from judges Shaynna Blaze, Neale Whitaker and Darren Palmer, who commented that it was “too Bondi” for the country setting.
“They have smashed the life out of this home… and that breaks my heart,” Blaze said of the room’s lack of character features.
Whitaker agreed: “If they stick with this look throughout the old part of the house and the modern part of the house, it’s going to get very stale and very samey, very quickly.”
He recommended the pair “amp up the heritage, and “have respect for the original bones” in the coming weeks.
But rather than take heed of the advice, the glamorous pair left without a word, leaving the house they’d been assigned in a state of disarray.
On hearing of their departure the next morning, Scotty was in disbelief.
“They just don’t feel like it’s … right for them to do The Block,” executive producer Julian Cress told him.
“Why would you leave after two days?” Cam marveled.
Breaking the news to the remaining contestants, he said: “Last night, if you might remember in the studio, I gave you guys an out … an opportunity, if you thought you couldn’t cut it on the show, you could leave if you wanted to, you could pull the pin.
“I obviously said that tongue in cheek because I didn’t think anyone would drop an opportunity like this, but I’ve just found out that Joel and Elle are on their way to the airport. They have left the show,” he explained to gasps from the cast.
“Why didn’t they even say goodbye?” asked Jenny from House 4.
“They didn’t say goodbye… They didn’t say thanks for having us… They just left,” Cam said, elaborating that they didn’t suggest they were leaving because of a family emergency.
“Well, everything’s fine, apparently, for some reason, The Block isn’t ‘on brand’ for them … And they also said that the toilet paper was too scratchy,” he told the shocked contestants who admitted they had all taken to “weeing in the backyard” amid the competition.
Meanwhile, Sarah-Jane, from winning House 1, declared she had predicted the couple weren’t Block material.
“I saw that coming… They didn’t make any effort to get to know us… They looked miserable the whole time… I heard that they were like ‘I can’t wear that, that doesn’t represent us’,” she told the others, adding that they seemed “sour” after coming fourth in the room reveal.
On hearing they were to be replaced imminently, she said: “I’m glad that someone’s getting the opportunity that’s going to appreciate it … Don’t bring them from Bondi.”
Parents-of-three Rachel and Ryan have now shacked up in House 2 instead of Ferguson and Patfull.
The Block Tree Change continues Tuesday night from 7.30pm on Channel 9
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