The Block's Shaynna Blaze 'shocked' as 'toxic' show drama rages on: 'They're in a bubble'

EXCLUSIVE: Shaynna Blaze has revealed the reason she 'can sleep at night' as The Block comes under fire.

The Block’s Shaynna Blaze has spoken out about this year’s controversial series of the show, after being unmasked on The Masked Singer Australia on Monday night.

Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, Shaynna said she’s ‘shocked’ at the behaviour of some of the contestants on the Channel 9 series this year but she can ‘sleep at night’ knowing that she’s there purely to judge the rooms based on what she sees.

Shaynna Blaze on The Masked Singer Australia
Shaynna Blaze was unmasked on The Masked Singer on Monday night. Photo: Channel 10

“We don't know any of this that goes on because we don't meet the contestants. We're not told about anything, just so we can purely judge the rooms and not the drama,” Shaynna said.

“I'm surprised to tell you the truth. I think they're in a bubble and there's so much drama that goes on with the build that it carries on into their personal lives and I just think that maybe, I don't know, maybe, the stress is too much and people just do all the wrong things. But I am quite shocked at what's been coming out.”

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The interior designer went on to say that her goal from day one on The Block has always been to judge the rooms only and not the contestants.

“That's why we don't get to know the contestants and don't get to meet them because, you know if we know this behaviour - and that's not just this year, we've seen a lot of stuff like this over the years in different ways - that sort of paints everything that you think and perceive,” Shaynna said.

“If somebody keeps winning rooms, people go ‘Oh, you're so biased’, it's like, well, you can't be biased because we don't know them.

“So that's why I can sleep at night knowing that the rooms I judge are purely on what we see because we do not know the people, we don't have the drama, we don't know the good and the bad that goes on behind the scenes. There some contestants doing some really great stuff, so I prefer to focus on that.”

Shaynna Blaze on The Block judging
The interior designer told Yahoo Lifestyle they know nothing about the contestants while they are judging the rooms. Photo: Instagram/Shaynna Blaze
Reads 'The Block 2023' with vector images of tools on a yellow background with headshots of Scott Cam and Shelley Craft.
Click here to see our full coverage of The Block 2023.
The Block 2023 contestants lined up
This year's season of The Block is one of the most controversial ones ever. Photo: Channel 9

It comes after a source told Yahoo Lifestyle last week that Shaynna " took Channel Nine to task" over the show this year.

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According to our insider, the feeling from the judges is that this year’s storylines are ‘simply not good enough."

It’s believed the interior designer’s feedback was heard ‘loud and clear’ by Channel Nine, who ‘takes the mental health of their contestants very seriously’.

"It is important to know, Nine has a welfare consultant on hand 24 hours a day for all of their reality TV contestants," the insider said.

Shaynna Blaze unmasked on The Masked Singer

It was a huge shock when The Block judge Shaynna Blaze was unveiled as Bluebottle on Channel 10's The Masked Singer 2023, with one of the main reasons being that she’s currently appearing on a rival network.

The Masked Singer judge, Dave Hughes, revealed that despite The Block and the singing show going head-to-head in the same time slot, Shaynna didn’t tell anyone at the Nine Network about her celebrity side gig.

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“She said she doesn’t have an exclusive clause in her [Nine] contract, so she thought, ‘I love to sing, I’ve been a cabaret singer in the past, people don’t really know about it now … I’m gonna go on Masked Singer, and The Block can find out on the night’,” Dave Hughes said on his radio show, 2Day FM’s Hughesy, Ed and Erin.

“So Scotty Cam would’ve found out while he was sitting down with his popcorn watching.”

Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, Shaynna said her colleagues at The Block were 'really shocked'.

"I mean, Darren and I talk all the time. So the fact that he didn't know he was just like 'Are you kidding me?'," she said.

The Block 2023 cast
Shaynna said she's 'shocked' at the drama this year. Photo: Channel Nine

"When I was in Sydney doing it we were meant to catch up for dinner but we just, you know, schedules didn't align so it was it was quite funny.

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"But yeah, I had a few people that had no idea. And it was great to keep it a secret and the fact that, you know, travel is such a big thing in my job, but it was nothing for me to be gone for three or four weeks at a time."

Shaynna said she's hoping to release some music very soon, which she's 'really excited about'.

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